Create a Jewish Legacy
 

ELI-GLI SESSION: VALUING DONORS, STAFF & LAY LEADERS

October 22, 2009

 

ELI Welcome and Introductions   Murray Galinson, JCF Chair
     
Objectives and Framework   Marjory Kaplan, JCF CEO
     
D’var Torah   Rabbi Marty Lawson
     
Valuing Donors  

Steve Klappholz

     
Break Out Sessions:    
     
  MG Kristian
  Paul Van Dolah & Gail Littman
  Steve Klappholz & Marjory Kaplan
Closing   Gail Littman

 

 


 

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Welcome and Introductions

 

Murray Galinson: Welcome to this morning’s endowment and governance program.   I’m Murray Galinson, Chair of the Jewish Community Foundation. It’s great to see everyone here this morning. 

 

I’m very impressed and grateful that all our Jewish organizations are working together so well.  Thank you very much for taking the time today.

 

As I travel around the country, I can’t tell you how many people ask my about San Diego.  They ask me about how we have achieved such success and cooperation.  I say that it’s because we have a great community with great people.

 

Our ability to share best practices in endowments and governance certainly was critical as we faced a very difficult time last year.  We all learned a lot and now it’s time to go to the next level.

 

Today the Foundation has planned a quality program for you.  We appreciate your time and want to use it wisely.

 

To introduce the program, I’ll call on the President and CEO of the Jewish Community Foundation.  For those of you who may not yet know, she now holds the first endowed chair in the Jewish community. 

 

We all hope that it is the first of many and a fitting tribute to the woman who started the Endowment Leadership Institute.

 

So here’s the holder of the Miriam and Jerome Katzin Presidential Chair:  Marjory Kaplan

 

 


 

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Objectives & Framework: 

 

Marjory Kaplan: Thanks, Murray.  I want to add my warm welcome and tell you what a privilege it is for all of us at the Foundation to work with such a stellar group of people like yourselves. 

 

Many in this room have been coming to these sessions since 2004!  If any of you want to see the agendas and information from past sessions that you weren’t around for, Gail Littman, our Director of Endowments, would be happy to share them with you.

 

Today we have more than 20 Jewish organizations in this room!

 

Before I tell you about today’s objectives, I have two announcements.  First, please note the full packet of information at your places.  We’ve included this postcard: an important reminder that the Foundation is still matching $1,000 grants from new donor advised funds to Jewish organizations.  For this special deal, the minimum donor advised fund is $10,000.  Of course we welcome all new funds where the minimum in only $1800.  These donor advised funds are mutually beneficial for you and our Jewish organizations.  Please see Charlene for more information.  I also sincerely want to thank the many people in the room who are among the 600 people who have a donor advised fund with our Foundation.

 

For my second point, I couldn’t be more pleased and honored to welcome our new Federation chief to our community.  Steven Morris joined the United Jewish Federation as the CEO in August and brings a wealth of management experience and a deep commitment to the Jewish world. 

 

It’s been great getting to know Steve and working with him these first few months.  He’s intelligent, strategic and caring and I hope all of you will introduce yourself to Steve before you leave today.

 

(ask Steve for one minute comment.)

 

Now for our key objective of today: 

 

Understanding how to deepen donor relations:  that’s our keynote presentation and one that I personally am looking forward to. Jane will introduce Steve Klappholz from the USC Shoah Foundation.  But I have to put in my two cents:  Steve is one of the most effective and professional development people I have ever worked with.  We are so lucky to have him here today!

 

We’ll also have time for three breakout sessions to cover this and other topics you’ve expressed an interest in.

 

For this morning’s d’var torah, I’m delighted to introduce the well-loved and wonderful Rabbi from Temple Emanu-El, Rabbi Marty Lawson.

 

 


 

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D’var Torah, Rabbi Martin S. Lawson, Temple Emanu-El

 

This week we are studying the familiar story of Noah in our parashat hashavua. My wife and I just returned from an all too brief vacation in Maui. Perhaps it was no accident then, that on the first day there, we saw a magnificent full rainbow shining against the lush green hills. Jewish tradition tells us to recite a b’racha upon seeing a rainbow. The standard blessing concludes with the phrase: “zocheir habrit v’ne’eman biv’rito v’kayam b’ma’amaro – We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the universe: true to Your word, You remember Your covenant with creation.” Thus, the rainbow serves as a reminder for God and for us of the need to preserve everything and everyone in the created world.

 

Now this is not always easily done. I think that we may find a clue as to how to do this righteous work of preserving creation earlier in this week’s portion. When God despairs of the mess that humankind has made of the first creation, God chooses Noah to rescue humankind and the other living creatures from total annihilation. God commands Noah: "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.” (Gen. 6:14) Now this word teyvah appears only one other time in the Hebrew Bible in the story of the mother of Moses creating a teyvah in which to carry the baby Moses safely down the Nile. In both stories this teyvah will serve as a means to shelter and convey life onward, defeating the powers of destruction. One of the rabbinic commentaries even indicates that we each need to strive to make of ourselves a teyvah, so that we can create a safer, more decent world.

 

In our frantic, often chaotic life in our business environment, our synagogues and, yes, even in our families, it is hard to “be that teyvah” that will serve as an agent to preserve all that is best around us and within us. So the conclusion of the story, the rainbow serves as an important image as to how to accomplish that lofty goal.

 

I know that we all love the beauty of the colorful rainbow. But our Hebrew text uses the words “keshet be’anan – a bow in the clouds.” In the legends of many ancient societies, the bow was not a symbol of peace, rather an image of the power of destruction via a bow and arrow. One of the great medieval rabbinic commentators, Ramban – Nachmanides teaches that the base of bow in Noach is not turned upward as if it were aimed down at the earth, sending forth arrows. On the contrary, it faces the opposite way, indicating that God is not aiming to destroy humankind. Especially, the bow without the string reminds us of our power to bring about a time of love and peace in our homes, our jobs and in the world. This then is the link with the teyvah - the ark. We each need to strive to make of ourselves a vehicle for care, for compassion, for preservation in order to avert destruction. We need to act as God’s messengers in that process of bringing peace and hope and rainbows to God’s world.

 


 

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Valuing Donors Presentation by Steve Klappholz (PowerPoint Slideshow, 4 MB)

 

 

 


 

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Break Out Sessions:

 

Valuing Staff from a HR Perspective: Rewarding employees other than monetary compensation. Looking at best practices in supervising staff.

 

Manager Orientation Toolkit
Building Effective Teams (PPT, 400 K)
Building Leadership Effectiveness Tooklit (PPT, 154 K)


 

 

Keys to Effective Fundraising: Donor centered fundraising

 

Notes from this session
Donors Are Not Extremely Happy With You, article from NPT Instant Fundraising, a publication of The NonProfit Times
Top 10 Tips for World-Class Donor Relations, by Joanne Fritz, About.com
Donor Relations- Turning Past Givers into Future Givers, by Gretchen Horn, Horn Research Services

 


 

Closing

 

Closing Remarks

 

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