With the Jewish Foundation, you can establish a named Restricted/Designated Fund for your synagogue, for Jewish education, for the needy, for Israel, for the arts, or for any charitable program or organization that is important to you.

These funds can be established in honor of a family member, or in memory of loved ones, and will provide annual distributions, in perpetuity, to the designated organization(s). The Jewish Foundation will make annual distributions to the designated charitable organization and, in the fund agreement,  you can provide for a contingent beneficiary organization should the designated organization cease to exist, lose its tax-exempt status or substantially alter its mission.  Restricted/Designated Funds can be established with a minimum gift of $10,000.

ENDOWING YOUR JEWISH FEDERATION ANNUAL CAMPAIGN GIFT Designated/Restricted Funds for the benefit of the Jewish Federation’s Annual Campaign are called “PACE” (Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment) or “LOJE” (Lion of Judah Endowment).

A PACE fund is a designated/restricted fund which endows a donor’s UJA-Federation annual campaign gift. A LOJE fund is a type of PACE fund which provides a permanent endowment to perpetuate a woman’s annual Lion of Judah campaign gift.

PACE and LOJE funds allow our community, through permanent endowment funds dedicated to the Jewish Federation Annual Campaign, to insure that we have funds available that will continue to provide for vital programs and services both in Greater New Haven, in Israel and overseas… for present and future generations.

A named PACE fund can be established with a minimum commitment of $10,000 or a LOJE fund with a minimum commitment of $100,000. Commitments of under $10,000 are pooled together in the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven’s Community PACE Fund.

DONOR ADVISED/PHILANTHROPIC FUNDS For individuals and families seeking active involvement in philanthropy, a Philanthropic Fund (also called a donor-advised fund) allows the donor to create a named fund that provides flexibility in charitable giving. A Philanthropic Fund allows the donor to recommend distributions to any qualified tax-exempt organization-think of it as a charitable checking account. The Foundation administers the fund, invests the assets, and the donor receives quarterly statements describing their fund’s activity. These funds are a wonderful way to involve the family in giving---the donor and his/her family can sit around the dinner table and decide to which charitable organizations they want their fund to distribute. These funds can be established with a minimum gift of $10,000.

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The Foundation administers and promotes the Build a Tzedakah program which enables young adults to establish their own Foundation endowment fund and also, in conjunction with the Center for Jewish Life and Learning, includes local programs, classes and projects on philanthropy.

The Build-a-Tzedakah program allows young adults to engage in charitable giving by contributing $600 from their Bar or Bat Mitzvah gifts, with a match of $400 from a community donor. With this, the young adult now has a $1000 named charitable fund at the Jewish Foundation—they, or others, can add to the fund at anytime and in honor of special occasions- and, every December (Hannukah time), they will be given the opportunity to choose to which charity(ies) they want to make a distribution (distributions are based on the Jewish Foundation’s spending policy and must follow IRS regulations which include that they must be charitable and can only be made to US based public charities).

OVER THE PAST TEN YEARS, BUILD A TZEDAKAH FUNDS HAVE DISTRIBUTED OVER $40,000 TO MORE THAN 60 ORGANIZATIONS!

As part of its Build a Tzedakah program, the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven held a Pop-up Jewish teen giving circle. The teens, part of JTE (Jewish Teen Education) program, invited local organizations to present concerning funding needs. The program included discussion of philanthropic values, why people give, and how to give. The Jewish Foundation provided monies to the teens for their allocation process. The teens awarded the following grants: IRIS (Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services) for a teen civil rights travel program this summer; Jewish Family Service of Greater New Haven for their Stars of David program providing post-adoption social support to adopted Jewish teens; JCC of Greater New Haven for their Makerspace.

Individuals or families can establish a named Unrestricted Fund at the Jewish Foundation with a minimum donation of $1,000. Unrestricted Funds allow the Foundation to meet the changing needs of the Jewish community through our grants process and community initiatives. Many community members have established such funds in honor of a special anniversary or birthday, or in memory of a loved one.

The Foundation’s professional staff and its centrality to the Jewish Federation insure continuous, permanent, and secure fund management and enhance donor confidence and prestige. In addition, placing endowment assets with the Jewish Foundation can serve to insulate financial management of an organization’s endowment from the vicissitudes that can occur through the organization’s own corporate governance. Many local Jewish organizations have entrusted endowments to the Jewish Foundation for administration and management--these include: The Jewish Cemetery Association of Greater New Haven, Congregation Beth Israel (Wallingford), Beth Israel (Orchard Street Shul)Cemetery Assocation, Congregation Mishkan Israel, Congregation Beth El-Keser Israel, Temple Beth David, Ezra Academy, the JCC, Jewish Family Service, Congregation Beth Shalom Rodfe Zedek, Congregation Or Shalom, Congregation B’nai Jacob and Temple Beth Tikvah.