• Explore Grants to Fund New or Expanded Programming
• What "Plagues" Your Congregation?
• Your Temple Web Site
  

 EXPLORE GRANTS TO FUND NEW OR EXPANDED PROGRAMMING

In order to fulfill their congregational vision while maintaining minimal increases in annual member support, Boards often look at other funding options. Grants are among the opportunities available to fund programming. Boards might consider appointing a member or a committee or even hiring a consultant to explore this fertile source of revenue for their congregation.

Grants are available to congregations for the funding of programs in the religious school, holiday events, worship initiatives, and other functions. Grants can be obtained from both public and private foundations. They are offered in the form of seed money, matching grants, regular grants, or, in some cases, in-kind services. The United Jewish Communities (UJC) formed by the merger of the United Jewish Appeal, the United Israel Appeal, and the Council of Jewish Federations is one of the major fundraising arms of American Jewry and typically gives to specific needs and causes in the following areas: continuity, outreach, education, senior services, camperships, scholarships, and occasionally cultural arts.

Grants can be obtained when a foundation solicits a temple (by circulating a Request for Proposal or RFP) or when a temple applies to a foundation (and submits an unsolicited proposal). RFPs are circulated by foundations when the grantor has a specific program in mind and seeks organizations that are willing to address it. The grantor solicits proposals from organizations, screening out those that are unsuitable. Developing long-term relationships with the organizations in your community that fund grants is a useful way to be put on their list for RFPs. The likelihood of receiving grant money is substantially higher if a temple responds to an RFP rather than if it sends out unsolicited “cold” proposals.

At Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, NY, Rabbi Jeffrey Sirkman teamed up with the congregation's executive director, Ze'ev Aviezer, to respond to a UJA Jewish Continuity Commission RFP. The RFP sought a program aimed at creating an integrated approach to Jewish family learning and living centered on the redefinition of becoming bar/bat mitzvah as the pathway to ongoing Jewish communal involvement and lifelong enrichment.

The Journey of Becoming grant provided the crucial added support staff that the synagogue needed to do what many mid-sized, very busy congregations are unable to do, namely, to focus on process rather than on product. As Rabbi Sirkman explained, “If bar/bat mitzvah becomes a journey along the continuum of lifetime connection, then it begins in grade four with family learning and a walk-through bar/bat mitzvah and culminates not the moment that the haftarah concludes but with the bar/bat mitzvah's continuing temple connection—in post-bar/bat mitzvah confirmation classes, temple youth groups, and mitzvah activities within and beyond the congregation. Our grant has enabled us to share follow-up feedback with parent-talk meetings, helping us continue to build a more outreaching process.”

Audrie Berman, the educator at Congregation Sinai in Milwaukee, WI, was the religious school director at Congregation B'nai Jeshurun in Lincoln, NE, when she received an RFP from The Jewish Outreach Institute(JOI)–Jewish Connection Partnership, a coalition of national and local community foundations dedicated to outreach to unaffiliated and intermarried Jews. JOI was looking for projects that provided a Jewish experience and educational opportunities to unaffiliated and interfaith Jews.

The three-year grant funded the Greater Nebraska Jewish Outreach Project and enabled Audrie to become its director. The project held one-day and residential retreats for Jewish families living in rural Nebraska. It developed programs for unaffiliated and interfaith families, and for Outreach families considering conversion. It also provided educational assistance to help rural families who did not live near any synagogues provide Jewish education for their children.

If you choose to write a “cold” proposal, consider using Audrie's suggestions, listed below, which she has amassed during her years as a professional grant writer and Jewish educator.

• Begin your search locally within your city, state, and region, including perusing state and local directories. (In most cases, local foundations are more likely to fund your project. National or regional foundations will want to know whether you have already approached local sources and whether they were interested in your ideas.)
• Look at the regional and subject matter indexes in The Foundation Directory (published by The Foundation Center, New York, 2000). Jewish family foundations abound, but they are not easy to find.
• Do on-line searches employing the key word “Jewish” to obtain lists of foundations that use “Jewish” as part of their mission statement.
• Pay close attention to, and start a file of clippings about, any Jewish programs or events that you attend and/or that exist in your community at which contributors are acknowledged.
• Obtain and retain the names of such sponsors, who may be potential funders for your project.
• Remember, people give money to people. The more personal contacts you have with a private foundation, the better. Ask Board members and other temple leaders about the people they know who are on the boards of foundations.

When you begin writing, if the foundation to which you are applying has a format, use that structure. If not, write a mission statement of your synagogue's goals and a very concise (three-to-five-sentence) description of your project and intended audience. The foundation will want a precise statement of your plan in language that includes the significance and projected impact of the program.

To boost your chances of success in obtaining a grant, consider these tips from Non-Profit Nuts & Bolts,* a monthly publication that offers practical tips for building better nonprofit organizations:

• Ask for a specific amount of money
• Make your budget reasonable but sufficient to fund your project.
• Remember that funders are interested in the needs you meet, not the needs you have, so focus on what the grant will do for your synagogue as a community.
• Develop a core proposal, but personalize it for each application.
• Don't forget the passion. Convince the funder that your temple has identified a vital need and is qualified to meet it.

Next month, find out how you can use The Foundation Center, an organization whose mission is to foster public understanding of the foundation field, to help you begin your grant research.

* “Top Tips for Writing a Grant Proposal,” Non-Profit Nuts and Bolts, Oveido, FL: Nuts & Bolts Publishing, January 2000.
For more information, please contact the UAHC Development Department by phone at 212.650.4140 or by e-mail at development@uahc.org.

 WHAT "PLAGUES" YOUR CONGREGATION?

As Passover approaches, we prepare for the ritual “telling” of the story about slavery and freedom in our homes. Consider asking your Board to conduct its own mini-seder using the following exercise, which was presented by Dale Glasser, director of the UAHC Ida and Howard Wilkoff Department of Synagogue Management, at the UAHC Presidents of Large Congregations Workshop, held on January 25–28, 2001, in Orlando, FL.

One can read the list of the plagues like a tragic history of the troubles of life. Starting with general unpleasantness, like the lack of good water and the stink of dead fish; followed by unpleasant company, hopping and croaking around everywhere; then stinging flocks of minor irritations, lice and flies; till in full earnest comes real sickness of man and beast, boils and blains and murrain; followed by storm, lightning and hail; and real enemies in battalions, locusts, the first inventors of the scorched-earth policy; then terror in darkness, and death.

Interpreter’s Bible, New York and Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952, Vol. I, pp. 899–900, as cited in The Torah: A Modern Commentary, W. Gunther Plaut, p. 434

Consider dividing your Board into small groups and asking each group to discuss one or two of the following modern-day “plagues” that are experienced by many of our congregants and synagogues today.

apathy hypocrisy ignorance impatience insincerity

lack of trust lack of vision loneliness meaningless ritual self-centeredness

Then ask the Board members to consider the following questions:

1. How do you prevent or respond to these “plagues”?
2. What effect do these “plagues” have on the life of your congregation?
3. How can you work together to lessen the impact of these concerns?

YOUR TEMPLE WEB SITE

SHOWCASE YOUR BOARD*

A Web site offers your temple a wonderful opportunity to share all sorts of information––its mission statement, worship schedule, monthly meeting schedules, fund- raising events, tzedakah projects, Torah study, and biographical and historical material, just to name a few. Don’t neglect this chance to also introduce your Board to your viewing public.

There are a variety of ways to showcase your Board on the Web. Consider the following options currently in use. Some Web sites list the officers and directors right on the home page. More often, one of the links is titled Board of Trustees, Leadership, People, Personnel, Volunteer Leaders, or Staff and Officers and on that connection, the name, position, and portfolio of each Board member with an e-mail link is listed (but see Privacy Issues, next column). Some sites incorporate biographical material and either individual or group photographs of Board members. Written material describes the Board’s purpose and includes highlights of the monthly Board meeting.

One “President’s Column” discusses general information about the temple, while another highlights on a regular basis particular areas of interest or concern. One recent “President’s Message” column addressed the shortage of Reform professionals, while another thanked members of the congregation and the community for their support. Such a column can be written specifically for the Web or culled from the monthly bulletin, but if the latter is the case, keep timeliness of the Web page in mind.

USE THE SITE WITH CARE

Privacy Issues Because a Web site (unlike a temple bulletin) can be accessed by anyone, discretion is required. Don’t import the bulletin onto the site, and never use names and personal information, including e-mail addresses and photographs, without permission.

Up-to-Date? Realistically assess how often your Web site will be updated. If that does not occur on a regular basis (at least once a month), don’t put calendars, upcoming events, or even lists of officers and directors and other time-sensitive material on it. The site will be much more relevant if it features general information about the congregation rather than last year’s High Holy Days schedule!

Sponsor Ads Consider carefully whether or not including sponsor ads in general or the specific advertisers used by the server you selected is appropriate for your congregation.

*See last year's March–April 2000 Inside Leadership, for general guidance on starting your own Web page.
Please also check the UAHC Creating Web sites page for more detailed information on how to create a Web site.
To check out what congregational Web sites can look like, see the UAHC Congegational Web site page.

Share Your Ideas and Input. Do You Have... Programs that have worked well in your congregation? Topics about which you would like more information? Suggestions for articles for Inside Leadership?