What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

Create a Legacy Year 2 Donor Celebration

HJCF is dedicated to securing the future of Jewish Houston through the new Life & Legacy Initiative in partnership with The Harold Grinspoon Foundation. The two-year program provides participating Jewish organizations with training, mentorship, marketing and incentive grants to support legacy gift development. The program supplements the ongoing foundation services for individuals and family philanthropy, partner organizations, and the professional investment of philanthropic funds.

In January 2014, fifteen local Jewish organizations were selected to participate in the program. The evaluation was based upon readiness to undertake the program and achieve. Each organization forms a legacy team of a professional (rabbi, executive director or development director) and three volunteers. The teams participate as a group in the two-year program, with the opportunity to earn incentive grants of $6,000 per year each for reaching their goals for securing legacy gifts.

Training sessions focus on such topics as “Writing a Legacy Plan”, “Making the Ask”, “Marketing Your Legacy Program” and “Stewardship of Your Legacy Donors”, Legacy teams also have other opportunities to meet one-on-one with foundation leadership, Dena Kaufman, from the Life & Legacy program and other guest consultants.

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Create a Legacy News

Houston Jewish Community Foundation’s Create a Legacy Program Secures more than 600 gifts in only 2 years

 

(May 17, 2017) — A two-year-old legacy giving program in Houston has secured more than 600 after-lifetime gifts for the community. The gifts are a part of a collaboration between the Houston Jewish Community Foundation (HJCF) and the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) to preserve a vibrant Jewish life for future generations by ensuring the long-term financial health of Jewish community organizations in Houston. Nationally, HGF has helped its partners to secure more than 14,000 after-lifetime gifts, valued at more than a half-billion dollars.

 

HJCF partnered with HGF to help start a community-wide legacy giving program, creating a shared goal for the organizations to work toward. As a part of the collaboration, HJCF, in turn, partnered with local organizations as a part of the four-year program that provides coaching, training and incentive grants to ensure that legacy giving becomes a normal part of the philanthropic culture of the community.

 

The local community partners for Create a Legacy include: Robert M. Beren Academy, Beth Yeshurun Day School, Congregation Brith Shalom, Congregation Emanu El, The Emery/Weiner School, Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center, Holocaust Museum Houston, Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, Houston Jewish Geriatric Foundation (benefiting Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services), Jewish Family Service (through The Houston Jewish Family Foundation), Jewish Federation of Greater Houston, The Shlenker School, Temple Beth Torah, United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston, and Yeshiva Torat Emet.

 

“For two years, Create a Legacy and its community partners have worked to transform the culture of Jewish communal philanthropy in Greater Houston,” said Esther Polland, chair of the HJCF. “We congratulate and thank our partners on another outstanding year and all the individuals and families who have committed to give legacy gifts that will greatly enhance the sustainability of our community.” 

 

On May 8, HJCF honored the 400 individuals and families who have joined the Create a Legacy program. Each person committed to leaving a meaningful after-lifetime gift to one or more of the program’s 15 Houston community partner organizations.

 

Rabbi Steven Leder, senior rabbi at Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, and author of the acclaimed book “More Money Than God: Living a Rich Life Without Losing Your Soul,” was the keynote speaker at HJCF’s recent celebration, held at the ERJCC Merfish Teen Center. In his address titled “You Matter to the Jewish Story,” Leder covered the importance of American Jewry and what it means to be a great ancestor.

 

“You are powerful, you can write the Jewish story, and that story depends like never before on whether or not we, the luckiest Jews who ever lived, live like we matter,” Leder told attendees.

 

For more information on Create a Legacy, contact HJCF Development Coordinator Cindy Dauber Anapolsky at 713-729-7000 ext. 343 or canapolsky@hjcf.org.

• Beth Yeshurun Day School

• Congregation Brith Shalom

• Congregation Emanu El

• The Emery/Weiner School

• Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center

• Holocaust Museum Houston

• Houston Congregation of Reform Judaism

• Jewish Family Service

• Jewish Federation of Greater Houston

• Robert M. Beren Academy

• Seven Acres Jewish Senior Care Services / Houston Jewish Geriatric Foundation

• Shlenker School

• Temple Beth Torah

• United Orthodox Synagogues of Houston

• Yeshiva Torat Emet

Affiliate Organizations

• Camp Young Judaea

• Congregation Beth Israel

• Houston Hillel

• Texas Friends of Chabad Lubavitch / Torah Day School

• URJ Greene Family Camp