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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38323/full/38323/s.f.-based-federation-commits-7-million-for-critical-needs-innovative-new-p/ <br /><br /> <b>S.F.-based federation commits $7 million for critical needs</b> <br /> Thursday, June 11, 2009 | by dan pine <br /><br /><p>It looks like the rainy day has come.</p> <p>The S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation and Jewish Community Endowment Fund announced the withdrawal of $7 million from unrestricted “rainy day” assets to aid local Jewish social service agencies and to develop what they call a “new model for sustainable philanthropic outreach.”</p> <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 126px;"><img alt="BAsokatch, daniel" class="left" height="191" src="/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/za06_12_09/BAsokatch, daniel.jpg" title="Daniel Sokatch" width="126" /> <div class="caption">Daniel Sokatch</div> </div> Federation CEO Daniel Sokatch announced the Jewish Community Federation–Catalyst Initiative at the federation’s annual meeting June 11 at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco. <p>Of that $7 million, $1 million in emergency grants has been disbursed to Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Jewish Vocational Service, Hebrew Free Loan Association and federation-run programs aiding synagogues and Jewish day school tuition scholarships.</p> <p>“We know there’s great and growing need,” Sokatch told j. on June 9. “In frontline agencies, the need is up 100 percent. Nationally, American Jewish federations are down 20 percent in their fundraising efforts. I was talking to the head of the Detroit federation and he said there are bread lines.”</p> <p>Sokatch said the recession’s impact on the Bay Area Jewish community must be addressed first, but that the goals of the Catalyst Initiative also reach beyond the current economic crisis.</p> <p>“Under that is a deeper tectonic crisis,” Sokatch said. “That is the increasing disinclination of Jews, especially young ones, to have anything to do with institutional Jewish life. What if in responding to the crisis, you could also respond to that demographic crisis? We have to be audacious and innovative in projects and programs.”</p> <p>To that end, in addition to providing grants to agencies helping the needy, the Catalyst Initiative will grant seed money to meet other objectives: to expand the federation’s partnerships with the broader philanthropic community, and to develop new models of organized Jewish life.</p> <p>For the latter, one program Sokatch hopes to develop is JCF Service Works, an ambitious project that resembles a kind of Peace Corps for Jewish youth in the region.</p> <p>He says the Service Works program “will ultimately be the vehicle to connect young Jews to terms of service. My goal is in 10 years every kid will do a term of service, but this coming year we will do research and development.”</p> <p>Sokatch said the JCEF endowment committee, which oversees and protects endowment assets, grasped the urgency of the economic crisis and gladly dipped into the cookie jar.</p> <p>“What is the job of the federation in times of crisis?” Sokatch asked. “Circle the wagons and hunker down, or leap into response and connect with the community? We recognize our responsibility not only to respond to crisis, but also to be good stewards of the endowment. So we will make enormous effort to replenish the funds in order to assure coming generations we will have the same ability to respond to [future] crises.”</p> <p>So far, the Catalyst Initiative has granted $300,000 in emergency funds to JFCS for direct financial assistance to individuals and families in crisis, and another $100,000 for the agency’s Single Parent Center, which provides financial and vocational assistance.</p> <p>In addition, $100,000 went to Jewish Vocational Service’s Jewish Employment Network and $300,000 was directed to the Hebrew Free Loan Association for interest-free loans to Jews in need. Another $100,000 was earmarked for the federation’s Community-wide Jewish Day School Scholarship Fund, which provides tuition assistance to parents of day school students. Finally, $150,000 went to the federation’s Synagogue Partnership, which helps congregations build long-term sustainability.</p> <p>The Catalyst Initiative’s remaining</p> <p>$6 million has been set aside for grants to be made over the next two years. For now, federation leaders intend to strategize with partnering agencies to map out the best way to meet the initiative’s objectives.</p> <p>Said Sokatch, “There is powerful symbolism in the federation going into its corpus and saying, this will hurt us, but we’re taking it out, because there is a far greater hurt.”</p>

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