90 is the new 18! (Part 2—What Lies Ahead)
WHAT LIES AHEAD
by James Cohen, Minneapolis Jewish Federation CEO
Good Evening.
Annual meetings are often a celebration of the year in review. And while the past twelve months have certainly provided us with more than our fair share of challenges and pain, there have been so many examples of strength, determination and accomplishment.
The works of our award winners are shining examples of what community leaders, both lay and professionals, can do and how fortunate we are to live in such a vibrant, engaged and intelligent community. Congrats to all of them again.
Todd outlined many of Federation’s recent accomplishments, achieved because of and in spite of COVID-19. I want to share a little more information about what lies ahead for the coming year and how we plan to continue to rise to all of the challenges we face.
COMMUNITY CAMPAIGN
First, I think it is important to express our commitment to keep the annual Community Campaign as strong as possible. Despite the other important work we are doing, without a successful campaign, Federation and its partners won’t be able to continue their vital work.
Having only launched campaign at the end of June, I am incredibly pleased to report that thus far, annual campaign is up. Running 1% over last year may not seem like a lot, but remember the situation with which are we currently faced. Some might call it a miracle, but given the philanthropic nature of so many of you on this Zoom, and the professional development practice we have built, I am not that surprised.
Rest assured, we intend to keep it that way and to do everything within our power to keep allocations flat, or even slightly higher next year.
BARRY FAMILY CAMPUS UPDATE
Second, at my first Minneapolis Federation annual meeting three years ago, having been a part of this community for only three months, I pledged we would solve the Barry Family Campus’ financial stress and create a more sustainable model. Much work has happened since then to achieve this goal. Despite the fact that we have significantly scaled back our plans to re-imagine the physical plant of the Barry Family Campus, there are improvements that need to be made and modifications to its operations which will ensure its future success.
Working very closely with all of the campus tenants, we have modified our plans to fit the COVID economic realities and will execute a plan that will
provide the Sabes JCC with the tools and floor plan its needs to continue its mission and continue its path towards integration with St. Paul,
create more early childhood classrooms to meet the demand clearly spelled out in the population study, and
reconfigure the space so that Federation can make its permanent home on campus and hopefully welcome other community institutions as well.
SHARED SERVICES FOR A MORE EFFICIENT COMMUNITY
We heard earlier about how the crisis climate (not necessarily the climate crisis) accelerated our plans to offer meaningful, effective and cost-saving shared services for our community organizations. The activity around COVID response, which I will get to in more detail in just a minute, has allowed us all to look at how we do business and how we can do it better. Over the next twelve months, Federation will begin to roll-out shared services in the areas of back-office operations, philanthropic assistance and program coordination that will be to the entire community’s benefit. One potential area for a shared service being explored seriously is a community research function so that the population study I referenced a minute ago will be used and leveraged and not placed in a dusty filing cabinet. But this goes way beyond just what we can offer by way of shared services. We intend to be an engine that continually propels us to be a more collaborative community. And we will look for additional ways to support collaboration across organizations and disciplines in the year to come.
JEWISH INCLUSION & ENGAGEMENT
Another key area the aforementioned strategic plan focused on was Jewish engagement. Todd mentioned many of the exciting things we started, but we need to do more, and we will. We have launched a diversity and inclusion task force to make sure that our communications, participation rosters and programming better reflect the Jewish community as a whole, and that we live up to the values we at Federation hold dear. I have said on many occasions that we have said all, or most of the right things.
But words are not enough—as recent history has told we and we intend to back those words up with actions. Additionally, we will increase our Young Adult Leadership Action micro grant program—not only because it is an excellent way to engage the next generation of Jews, but because those up and coming thinkers may just be in possession of the next great Jewish idea, and we want to help them =turn that idea into reality.
KADIMA: BUILDING OUR FUTURE
Last, and by no means least, there is Kadima: Building Our Future, a campaign for community COVID relief and recovery and community security. To say that working with the 21 organizations who now make up this unprecedented campaign has been a labor of love is truly and understatement.
I want to take a moment to thank the Kadima planning chair Robin Neidorf and thank all 21 of our partners.
What we have accomplished, together, with Federation leading and managing a process where every organization’s view count and every organization’s needs are taken into consideration is nothing short of extraordinary. As many of you know, representatives of all 21 participating organizations voted into effect a distribution committee, fondly referred to as the G-7, who will begin meeting shortly and who will make funding decisions beginning at the end of September. It is important to emphasize that this committee is completely independent of the federation allocations committee and of our allocations process. These folks have been chosen because of their expertise in fund distribution, grantmaking, crisis management, and disaster relief.
We already have raised several million dollars. Thank you to our campaign chairs Kris and John MacDonald and to Vice-Chairs Cindi and Harold Goldfine for your leadership, vision, and grit. You will be getting an update on fundraising in the weeks to come. For more information on the Kadima campaign, go to the website and sign up to attend our next zoom Kadima Town Hall.
THANK YOU
Before I close I want to give a special thank you. Volunteering with an organization such as ours is always something of a time commitment. In these times, it has been multiplied by 1,000. To the members of our board, to the executive committee, to the COVID 19 Emergency allocations committee, to those of you who are helping with Kadima, who sit on CISC and every other committee and task force, there are no words that can truly and adequately express the level of gratitude the entire staff and I feel. So, I will say it simply. Thank you.
I vaguely remember ending my remarks at last year’s annual meeting with the quip “you ain’t seen nothing yet.” I think that the last twelve months have proven me right. What we have seen is a community organization, made up of incredibly dedicated staff and volunteers rise to meet every challenge thrown at them–with professionalism, enthusiasm, and a truly Yiddish neshama. What I promise you for the next twelve months is more of the same.
Thank you. Thanks for joining us this evening. Stay safe and healthy.