Nationally, many individuals involved in charitable activities are aware of the “Leave A Legacy” [www.leavealegacy.org] campaign in which charities and the Professional Advisor community in many cities across the USA are engaged in raising bequest and endowment awareness among donors. The United Jewish Communities has dubbed this effort among the Jewish Community as “Create A Jewish Legacy”.
In Dallas, the DJCF, as well as a number of congregations and agencies, have been promoting this message for several years. A number of congregations and organizations have had successful Bequest &/or Endowment Campaigns, and have secured a substantial level of commitments. Broadening the effort, raising the volume of the conversation across our Jewish Community, can only help all the organizations who choose to be involved in this effort.
The last major Dallas Jewish Community-wide effort, the Greater Dallas Jewish Community Capital Campaign for the Twenty First Century, had the result of transforming the physical face of “Jewish Dallas” by constructing new facilities for a significant number of organizations. The results of a community-wide Endowment & Bequest effort can be even more transformative, establishing a stronger financial base for our entire Jewish Community. It is envisioned that this community-wide effort will repeat the enthusiasm of the GDJCCC but will have a mechanistic difference. Every organization will own the commitments which they solicit or which are secured on their behalf. Donors will very likely choose to make bequest commitments to several organizations, and the campaign will encourage that propensity. “Donor choice” is the watchword, and a donor may be asked by more than one charity - just as occurs now with annual solicitations and appeals - and donors will undoubtedly make either multiple commitments or commitments to a multi-agency endowment fund.
All participating organizations will be asked to track commitments and report them for central record keeping. Donors may choose to remain anonymous. The goal of the record keeping is to enable reporting of community-wide momentum and success so as to encourage other donors to join in. Each participating organization “owns” whatever assets are gifted to them. DJCF will house assets in the separate names of each organization which entrusts those assets to DJCF. Currently, nearly every Jewish Organization in Dallas with endowment assets does entrust these assets to DJCF for investment administration and record keeping.
DJCF will organize community-wide generic marketing; will support each organization’s marketing and campaign efforts; will provide Planned Giving expertise to each organization and to any donors who request it, whether directly or via an organization. DJCF will assist each organization in organizing its own endowment leadership & solicitation committee. DJCF will coordinate the volunteer involvement and support of legions of our community’s Professional Advisors. DJCF and Dallas-Wide Organizational leadership will make themselves available to participate in any solicitations as requested. DJCF will organize central solicitation training programs for all the organizations who wish to participate; and will hold individualized training sessions for any organization that can organize a sufficient size group of committed solicitors. DJCF will organize a community-wide Bequest & Endowment Campaign Leadership Committee with participation from all the involved organizations, to coordinate, promote, and press forward with this endeavor.