Step Forward

In December while most people are thinking about wrapping and opening gifts, the halls of the Jewish Federation become a flurry of activity, reflecting the staff hard at work wrapping up the Annual Campaign and closing the gifts pledged over the past year.
In a season where we celebrate the Miracle of Lights and the miracle of Jewish survival, Federation’s work celebrates the spirit of a caring community striving to keep strong, healthy, vibrant and growing.

And the work pays off.  Our numbers are growing.

Jewish Detroit Steps Forward
Federation Staffers On Call

With the goal for a record-breaking year, on December 31st, Federation hit the mark once again, closing its 2012 Campaign with a total of 11,201 donors (and still counting). The achievement  represents the largest one-year increase in total donors to the Annual Campaign since 1963 and the greatest percentage increase to the donor base since 1948.

In a time where Jewish Federations across the nation are struggling to maintain donors and dollars, Jewish Detroit is steadily and surely gaining in strength and numbers. “Young people are returning to the city in droves, for a growing number of unique jobs and opportunities,” observed Marty Maddin, President of Federation’s NEXTGen.

“Our mission is to strengthen the community, and our numbers are starting to prove we are doing just that, reversing a multiple decade trend,” says Chief Executive Officer Scott Kaufman.  “Our job is to engage more people, so when they say they care about the needs of Jewish community, they manifest that sentiment with a gift to Federation’s Annual Campaign.”

The Annual Campaign is the fundraising engine that drives our community support for the services, the facilities and programs that touch thousands of lives every day here at home, in Israel and in Jewish communities the world over.

Whether you are a donor or not, you are a beneficiary of Federation funding, as it flows in myriad ways through our  Jewish Community Centers, our Jewish Family Service and Jewish Senior Life, our  synagogue schools and Hebrew Day Schools, our Hillel Foundations  and BBYO chapters, our JVS and Hebrew Free Loan services and scholarships, our Tamarack Camps, our community events and family events, our  outreach and voice in the media via Jewish Community Relations Council, our Missions to Israel and our families in our Partnership Region of the Central Galilee.

“Our success reflects the strength of our Jewish community and the thousands of people who stepped forward this past year,” says Federation President Douglas Bloom. “Federation works for all of us, thanks to those who reach out to connect and engage, to those who pick up the phone – or answer the call, to those who so generously give of their time and talents, to those who open their hearts and their checkbooks year after year.”