AJFCA Newsletter
In This Issue
AGENCY PROGRAMMING/OPERATIONS
BOARD RESOURCES
COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
VOLUNTEERS/YOUNG ADULTS
PARTNERS/SPONSORS
AJFCA Links
Agency Highlights

JFCS Suncoast Receives $85,000 Grant to Add Trauma Counseling & Seniors Concierge Services 

  

Jewish Family & Children's Service of the Suncoast, Inc. received an $85,000 grant from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation for its Counseling Services to provide specialized and evidence-based trauma care services to all clients and senior concierge services for the community's seniors, supporting aging in place.

The grant will allow JFCS to expand its service offerings to include trauma counseling and related services using a sliding fee scale. Additionally, the grant supports training eligible JFCS staff using evidence-based and specialized practices for treating children, adults, seniors, and victims of trauma. JFCS' senior services are also growing to include concierge services for a fee to help our community's senior's age comfortably in place.  The personalized concierge services will provide supportive services and case management, helping to manage the everyday and ongoing responsibilities that can be challenging for seniors and their families.

"We identified a need for trauma and senior concierge services within the community and Gulf Coast Community Foundation responded," said Rose Chapman, LCSW, president and CEO of JFCS. "Thanks to the Gulf Coast grant, JFCS is able to provide additional services to our existing clients and serve more clients in need."

"This project will enable JFCS to reach more people who need help while also making the organization and its good work more sustainable," said Teri A Hansen, president and CEO of Gulf Coast Community Foundation.  "It's a smart approach to ensuring a healthier community and providing greater opportunity for some of our most disadvantaged residents."

Learn more here.
JFS Colorado Participates in Summer Food Service Program with Lunchbox Express 

JFS Colorado
 
Lunchbox Express, a program of Jewish Family Service of Colorado, will begin providing free summer lunches through the USDA's Summer Food Service Program  on May 27th.



Lunchbox Express is a simple mobile food delivery system that brings lunches to children via mini school buses to areas of underserved children who typically receive free or reduced lunches during the school year.

 Breakfast will be provided at two locations. Meals will be provided to all children under 18 regardless of race, color, national origin, sex, age, or disability, and there will be no discrimination in the course of the meal service. Click her for more information.
JFS Greater Hartford Receives Family Champion Award 

jfs hartford
 
Jewish Family Service of Greater Hartford's Executive Director Anne Danaher celebrates the Family Champion Award given to volunteer Judy Rosenthal by the CT Council of Family Service Agencies.

Sharing the honors with Judy this year was her JETS colleague, Ellen Cartledge.
JFS Seattle Receives Spirit of Community Award 

jfs seattle 
 
Congratulations to Jane Deer-Hileman, Director of Volunteer Services at Jewish Family Service Seattle for receiving Seattle University's Center for Service and Community Engagement Spirit of Community Award on May 15th.
 
This award recognizes a community partner (individual or agency) that exemplifies the CSCE goal of creating strong reciprocal partnerships in order to foster social change and contributes positively to the development of reflective, creative, compassionate, and just student leaders. 
Calls & Webinars
 
Visit  AJFCA's Calendar
to learn more about free calls and webinars. For more information login to the Members section of the AJFCA website, followed by Webinars. Contact Megan at 410-843-7327 with questions.

The Right to Vote, the Power to Decide
May 28th, 2pm ET
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May 23, 2014 
About AJFCA | News
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D'Var Torah
Lee I. Sherman
President & CEO

This week, I have had the privilege of accompanying Aviva Sufian, U.S. Special Envoy for Holocaust Survivor Services, on visits to several of our member agencies to meet with professional staff and Holocaust survivors to hear their stories, concerns, and about their need for additional services. The personal history of each survivor is unique, but they all share the tenacity and strength which has allowed them to overcome such immense odds to survive and thrive. One woman we met this week spoke about how she has dealt with people she has encountered who have never met a Holocaust survivor and who do not believe the Holocaust happened.  She told us of a recent incident when a plumber came to do work in her apartment, noticed the numbers tattooed on her inner arm and asked her what they were. She told him she was a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp and he told her that he has been told that those events never occurred. So, she sat him down and told him her story and by the time he left, he had no doubt that she was a real person who had managed to live through these unimaginable, but true horrors.  

This week we begin reading B'midbar, the Book of Numbers, the fourth book of the Torah. The parashah starts with a census of the Israelites, when the men are counted for military purposes. But, more than numbers, we learn of the importance of the names of those being counted. Each belongs to a particular family (tribe) and each is recognized as an individual who is part of a larger community.

The numbers imprinted on a Holocaust survivor's arm do not tell her story.  Each of them has a personal account to tell, they are the names behind the numbers. It is an honor to hear those stories and for our network of agencies to provide those survivors with the services they need to continue to have a voice.   

Shabbat Shalom.
AGENCY PROGRAMMING/OPERATIONS
It's Time to Reinvent The Nonprofit Leader
Leading a nonprofit is an incredibly challenging, if not impossible, job. Nonprofit leaders have been given a seemingly endless list of tasks: develop and execute effective programs, manage a diverse and underpaid staff, chart a bold strategic direction, create a sustainable financial model, wrangle a group of board members with often competing interests, and recruit and appease a disparate funder base. Learn what the reinvented nonprofit leader must do here.
New JCF-Slingshot Guide Provides "Crash-Course in Funding Jewish Innovation"
The Jewish Communal Fund (JCF) and Slingshot released "Funding Jewish Innovation: A Resource Guide," which can be downloaded here.
 
The guide offers a crash-course in funding Jewish innovation. It answers common questions around funding innovation in Jewish life, offers reflections from funders in the field, and provides practical next steps for individual donors to select innovative projects and organizations to fund.
The guide also features Innovation Snapshots - brief examples of how Jewish organizations both young and old (including Our Jewish Community, the Pearlstone Center, Hillel's Ask Big Questions and G-dcast) are using innovative approaches to remain relevant in today's 21st century world. Continue reading here. 
Stop Reacting and Start Planning Ahead: Why Your Nonprofit Needs a Chief Strategy Officer bridgespan
Do nonprofits need a chief strategy officer? Increasingly, the answer is yes. "It's a role that has been less common in the nonprofit arena, but over the past decade the private sector has demonstrated the value of a CSO to deploy strategy in the short term and keep a focus on the mid- and long-term horizon and vision," says Michael Mortell, director of the Strategy Counts1 initiative at the Alliance for Children and Families. Read more here.
AJFCA MEMBER BENEFITS
2014 Annual Conference Video, Survey & CEUs
Check out the 2014 AJFCA Annual Conference Host Community Event video at the Musée des Beaux Arts Montréal (Montreal Museum of Fine Arts).
2014 AJFCA Annual Conference Host Community Event
Musée des Beaux Arts Montréal Host Community Event

If you have not already done so, please share your conference feedback with us. Your opinion matters and is vital to our future conference planning.

Conference presentations and continuing education credit (CEU) evaluation forms can be found here. If you'd like your presentation posted to the AJFCA website please email a copy to Megan. Please return completed evaluation forms to Megan via:
  • email: mmanelli@ajfca.org 
  • fax:    410-664-0551
  • mail:   AJFCA, 5750 Park Heights Ave., Baltimore, MD 21215 
2014 AJFCA Older Adult Services Scan Resultsajfca logo-resized
The results of the 2014 AJFCA Older Adult Services Scan are now available. To view the report and learn about older adult programming  in the AJFCA network please click here. If your agency has not yey responded to the survey, it's not too late. Tell us about your programs here.
AJFCA Marketing Bank 

AJFCA is pleased to announce the Marketing Bank, a new and complimentary member benefit. The Marketing Bank, located in the Member Resources section of the AJFCA website, was designed to house shareable assets. Uploaded assets include: images (jpg, .jpeg, .gif), files (pdf, .doc, .docx), and video urls. Submissions will require the accompaniment of a full name, email address, category, title and brief description. Join Megan for a brief call on Tuesday, June 3rd at 2pm ET to discuss the Marketing Bank in more detail. Email Zahava for call in information.

Repair the World Jewish Community Delegation 
You're invited to join AJFCA at Repair the World's 2nd annual Jewish  Community Delegation at the National Conference on Volunteering and Service (NCVS), June 16th-18th, in Atlanta. Within this cohort of Jewish service leaders, you'll have the opportunity to learn with and from the nation's top service leaders over four days, while at the same time illuminating and celebrating our Jewish community's contributions to a repaired world. Additionally you'll have the chance to attend sessions, dine with and even share a room with peers to keep costs down.

Jewish Community Delegation participants will receive:
  • Discounted conference registration rate of $350 (regular rate is $750)
  • Eligibility toward a travel stipend of up to $400, courtesy of Repair the World
  • Admission to an exclusive Jewish Community Delegation evening program on Monday, June 16th
  • Invitation to help us test a conference "gathering" app, just for use by the Delegation members

For more information please contact Jennie Gates Beckman.

BOARD RESOURCES
My Next Board Meeting huffington post
The distinction between board and management is not about who knows more about running the business. Governing and managing are two different functions. But they necessarily intersect and appropriately blur boundaries when it comes to strategic and generative work. And this is where a good board adds value beyond its fiduciary role. Continue reading here.
COMMUNICATIONS & DEVELOPMENT
2014 M+R/NTEN Benchmark Study: Trend Findings for Fundraising and Advocacy
M+R and NTEN have again partnered together to bring us their 2014 Benchmark Study. According to the exhibited results, the trends in online giving in 2013 tended toward interesting, if somewhat predictable. The data in the study, addressing email list sizes, fundraising, online advocacy, websites, social media, and mobile activity, came from 53 U.S.-based nonprofits.
 
The results were not surprising; the infographic shows nonprofits reaching more of their client bases through websites, emailing, and social media.
The Visual Foundation of Your Nonprofit Brand
A fundraising icon is an image that captures the essence of your cause in the minds of your donors. It instantly reminds them what you do and why they care. It bypasses the chattering, rational left hemisphere of the brain and connects with the side that makes all the decisions -- the right hemisphere.
 
Finding and using a fundraising icon is the most important visual component of an effective nonprofit brand. Color palettes, font choices, and other design techniques are the window dressing of a visual brand. A fundraising icon is the heart. Learn more here.
VOLUNTEERS/YOUNG ADULTS
Repair the World Fellowship
Spots are filling up for the second cohort of the Repair the World Fellowship. If you know any passionate go-getters between 21 and 26 who might be interested in devoting 10 months to Jewish learning, volunteer engagement, and social justice work in Baltimore, Detroit, Philly, or Pittsburgh, please share more detailed information with them. Don't hesitate to connect any prospective applicants with Repair the World staff.
More Than 'Generation Me' ejewish philanthropy
Our current leadership structures, foundational basis in Jewish texts and values, raison d'être, and inability to relate to complex personal identity are all indicators of a community rapidly losing touch with its younger population. Continue reading here.
PARTNERS/SPONSORS
An Introduction to SafeLink 
Have you heard about SafeLink, but aren't sure how to go about providing your low-income clients access to it? Good news, information about SafeLink and how to enroll clients is now available on the AJFCA Partner Programs page of the AJFCA website. In this section you will find a link that will direct you and/or your clients to the SafeLink enrollment site. 

SafeLink Wireless provides your eligible clients the opportunity to apply for a free cell phone with free monthly minutes through the Federal Lifeline program.
safelink
An Introduction to SafeLink
Tuesday, June 17th, 1pm
Phone: 888-453-4395
Passcode: 2022632930
REGISTER HERE
ClientTrack - Counselor
ClientTrack, AJFCA's partner and a sponsor of the 2014 Annual Conference, is a software solution for health, human and social service organizations seeking to advance their missions. Organizations can easily improve workflow efficiency, ensure compliance, collaborate with multiple agencies, and measure outcomes through their cloud-based software.
 
ClientTrack Counselor is coming soon and will allow organizations to manage appointments in one solution accessible anytime, anywhere and on any device with an Internet connection. Learn more here.
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