Building Endowments

KALEIDOSCOPE: THE PRIZMAH MONTHLY

In This Issue

Thought Leadership on Building Endowments
Additional Resources on Endowments
Development Pulse Survey NOW OPEN
Upcoming Programming
Prizmah Announces Successful Leadership Searches
Jewish Day School Perspectives and News
Mazel Tov Moments

Thought Leadership on Building Endowments

Community Endowments: Helping Parents and Helping Schools

by Amy Adler and Dan Perla

Day school communities across North America are increasingly looking to endowments as one way to mitigate the high

cost of tuition and to help ensure their financial sustainability. The existence of an endowment has been especially valuable to schools that made the decision to roll back planned tuition increases during Covid. Endowments also enabled some schools to provide even higher levels of tuition assistance without the need to reduce staff or sell hard assets. Read more.

The Community’s Role in Fostering Day School
Endowments

by Daniel Held

Recognizing the profound impact that day schools have on the vibrancy and vitality of a Jewish community, we aim towards creating a day school system that is affordable and sustainable and offers an

excellent education. Our work in building endowments is of a piece with our larger efforts to establish a culture of giving to day schools across the community. Read more.

Maintaining Endowment Success Despite a Global Pandemic

by Brandon Cohen and Rebecca Spain

When faced with running a school during a pandemic, most of our school’s actions, like every school’s, were focused on the next pivot

to adjust to the changing demands of the situation. When it came to our development strategy, we took a different approach: staying the course on our strategy for growing our endowment even as so much was changing around us. Read more.

Inspiring Transformation Endowment Giving

by Stephanie Bash-Soudry

Teachers truly provide some of the most formative influences in our lives. As both a school administrator and the proud parent of three alumni of Golda Och Academy (GOA), I have experienced firsthand the incredible dedication of Jewish day school teachers. These

committed and inspiring educators really see and know our children and work tirelessly to help them develop and realize their own unique potential as they go on to university and beyond. At GOA, we have sought opportunities to increase our investment in our faculty—in their development, their compensation, and their satisfaction. That is why, in early 2021, we were thrilled to secure a $10 million endowment challenge gift to invest in faculty excellence. Read more.

Using After-Lifetime Giving to Build Your Endowment

by Arlene Schiff

Endowments are no longer a luxury, but rather a critical component of every school’s financial stability plan. Building an endowment, to provide a consistent source of annual funding for your operations, takes planning and commitment. School boards must make it as much

of a priority as annual fundraising and donors must be given the opportunity to contribute to the school’s long-term sustainability in a way that makes sense for them. While there are donors who have the financial capacity to contribute to endowment campaigns with current cash assets, many school parents, teachers, alumni and supporters are unable to or comfortable doing so now. Read more.

Making the Cases for Endowment Giving

by Dirk Bird

As Jewish communal leaders, we have a shared, sacred obligation to ensure that future generations have the resources to shape the future of our Jewish world and ensure our Jewish communities flourish. Each one of us is the beneficiary of those who came before us, who shaped the community that we inherited and steward today, and it is now our turn to give to others what we have all been given. When it comes to legacy giving and endowment development, lay leadership in general and board leadership in particular must play a central role in pushing our organizations to elevate legacy giving. Read more.

Additional Resources on Endowments

Development Pulse Survey NOW OPEN

Prizmah values data collection to support you and your school as you make data-informed decisions. Collecting development data and analyzing trends is vital to the work of our schools and deepening understanding of your school community and day school philanthropy. This survey focuses on annual campaign and endowment fundraising. Click here to begin the survey.

Upcoming Programming

Prizmah Podcasts Live: An Innovative Model for Teacher Training: The School as a Teaching Hospital

Join us to learn about the creation and implementation of the Shefa Teacher Residency program and how it recruits, trains, and retains excellent new teachers. Register Now.

12:00 PM - 1:00 PM ET // 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM PT

NEW! Taste of Endowment: A Deep Dive

Join us for this three-part series as expert Lori Kranczer walks you through the basics of endowment and how you can seamlessly incorporate this gift option into your existing development program with the tools you already have. Register Now.

Wednesday, March 2, Wednesday, March 9, and Tuesday, March 15
12:00 PM - 1:30 PM ET // 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM PT

Mental Health Summit

Engage in high level learning, collaboration and growth in the area of mental health in Jewish day schools. With teammates from your school and colleagues from across North America, explore best practices in mental health, practice what these theories look like when applied in schools, and develop methods and approaches for bringing these systems and supports back to your school. Learn more.

The Mental Health Summit is sponsored by the Ruderman Family Foundation.

Prizmah Meetups

Connect with day school peers on a regular basis to share ideas and brainstorm solutions with colleagues from across the field.

Save the Date

Prizmah Announces Successful Leadership Searches

Prizmah works with school lay and professional leaders to think creatively about their vision, to reflect on what’s working, and to identify opportunities for deeper engagement within the community that position schools for future growth. Let us help your school find and recruit top talent. Learn more about Prizmah Leadership Searches.

Prizmah proudly supported and assisted in the national search and hire of Tamar Appel, a Prizmah YOU Lead mentor, who will start as the incoming director of education at Hidden Sparks.

The Maimonidies school hires Rabbi Yaakov Green as the new head of school. Prizmah was proud to partner in this search process and will continue to support the school community and leadership through this transitional time.

The Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School appoints Raquel Sharf-Anderson as the next head of school. Prizmah was proud to partner with the search committee and the Mirowitz board during this process, and will continue to support the school through this transition.

Jewish Day School Perspectives and News

Share your day school news with us at [email protected] for a chance to be featured in our next newsletter!

Mazel Tov Moments

Mazel Tov to the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership on announcing the first cohort of the Educational Leadership program. Thank you for growing leadership capacities in Jewish day school and yeshivas. Learn more.

Mazel Tov to Aviva Walls, head of school at Gesher Jewish Day School, on being selected to participate in the 2022 Wexner Field Fellowship cohort.

Mazel Tov to Community Day School in Pittsburgh, PA on celebrating their golden jubilee year. Read more.

Mazel Tov to Ramaz senior Jordan Mittler, who was honored as a “Young Wonder” at the CNN HEROES All-Star Tribute for his exceptional work in teaching seniors to embrace technology and effectively use their smartphones, connect with loved ones through Zoom, go online shopping, and more.

Mazel Tov to Ramaz senior, Jordan Mittler

Share your “mazel tov moments” with us at [email protected] for a chance to be featured in our next newsletter!

Explore resources, templates, and videos curated and created for Jewish day school professional and lay leaders in Prizmah’s Knowledge Center.

Our mailing address is:

Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools
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Phone: 646-975-2800

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