Addressing complex community needs by Caring for the Vulnerable, Educating and Engaging and Promoting Israel and Jewish Peoplehood around the World.

Fall 2007 marked the formal launch of the Federation’s Strategic Funding Initiative (SFI), a new, more robust and comprehensive approach to addressing complex community needs by strategically directing our collective and individual assets, measuring results and creating sustainable solutions with the dollars you so generously give. This new initiative brings together a vibrant group of lay leader volunteers, professional staff, community agencies, specialized researchers and other resources for a process that makes crystal-clear how—and why—your Jewish Community Federation contributions are invested.

The landscape of Jewish philanthropy has shifted dramatically over the past decade.

Our society as a whole, and our donors in particular, expect accountability and effective management. Philanthropic effectiveness is all about creating value for society by systematically evaluating community priorities and developing strategic, high-impact solutions for the most pressing needs.

Effective philanthropy

• is informed by good data, best practices, and communal priorities
• is grounded in partnerships with community agencies and grantees
• and involves the measurement of outcomes achieved with allocated funds

21st century philanthropy at the JCF

Through our new Strategic Funding Initiative, we have been working to harness the intellect, energy, and resources of our local community to create the Federation’s model for effective, 21st-century philanthropy. This fall, we’re bringing this new model of philanthropy to the Bay Area with a goal of sustaining our diverse network of critical and valued Jewish organizations today, while simultaneously pursuing long-term strategic initiatives to address complex community-wide concerns.

Central to the new model are three commissions and five regional councils. Each commission is focused on a key community priority:

• Caring for the Vulnerable
• Educating and Engaging
• Promoting Israel and Jewish Peoplehood around the World

Each commission collaborates with a set of regional councils, being established in each of the JCF’s five regions: South Peninsula, North Peninsula, San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma. These councils assess local needs, identify regional priorities, fundraise and allocate small local grants in addition to providing a critical, on-the-ground, regional perspective to inform the work of the commissions.

The councils and commissions are made up of a broad spectrum of JCF donors with specific and relevant professional and volunteer expertise—hundreds of people in the first year alone. The commissions’ work is informed by advisory groups composed of agency and congregation leadership, as well as JCF staff and other resources such as academic researchers and professional planners.

What we will achieve together

Our new model for community planning and program development expands the Federation's ability to convene our community and facilitate a professional process that leads to an objective set of desired outcomes and strengthens our collaborative process and our collective impact.

• Listening to the voices of our community: We have an even greater opportunity to engage members of the community in a communal decision-making model that seeks to bring a variety of voices into the fold, including voices of specific regions and social-issues experts.
• Partnering with Jewish community organizations: The new model makes the JCF a stronger advocate for community organizations by working with them to develop creative, far-reaching solutions to the needs and priorities identified through the commissions’ assessment process, and then raising the dollars to fund these solutions.
• Measurement of results: A central component of each commission’s work is to develop and implement metrics for measuring the effectiveness of our joint charitable investments. Commissions are specifically designed to have continuity in membership in order to create an infrastructure of long-term engagement with the programs and agencies we support.

This initiative takes tremendous commitment from our community and we are continually inspired by the volunteers, Jewish community professionals, JCF staff and donors who are coming together to make your Jewish Community Federation a model for strategic, high-impact philanthropy and sustainable community development.