Life & Legacy Plus: 3 Thrilling Results for Year 3 in SNJ

The four-year-long Life & Legacy initiative of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation (HGF) arrived in Southern New Jersey in 2014 and was a gamechanger in growing a culture of legacy giving in this strong Jewish community. The Jewish Community Foundation, Inc. (JCF) proudly serves as the coordinating agency of Life & Legacy for SNJ, and our community is one of more than 70 that have been enrolled in the program across North America.

As a brief background on Life & Legacy, HGF provides resources including generous funding, training opportunities, and an annual conference featuring expert speakers and networking. HGF's aim with Life & Legacy is to promote "permanent endowment giving in order to sustain valued organizations and vibrant Jewish communities."

Fast forward to 2023 when HGF generously launched Life & Legacy Plus as an extension of the first four years of the program, to enable Jewish communities to continue with four additional years of support for legacy outreach.

The JCF launched Life & Legacy Plus in 2023, and recently, on June 30, we wrapped up Year 3 of four-year the program.

Enjoy three thrilling results from Year 3:

• A total of seven new Letters of Intent (which indicate an individual's or couple's intent to leave a legacy gift) and seven Legacy Gift Confirmations (which indicate that the individual or couple put a legacy gift into place) were received. These numbers are on par with the prior two years of Life & Legacy Plus. We welcome and thank our new legacy participants!

  
  

• In all, during Year 3, generous donors gave just over $1 million in current contributions to JCF endowment funds that benefit local Jewish organizations each year with vital income. Extrapolating this out, this means that each year, an estimated $50,000 will be available to benefit the Jewish Federation and its family of agencies, day schools, and/or synagogues in South Jersey. Thank you endowment donors for strengthening our community's future!

  
  

• As part of HGF's funding model to support Life & Legacy (and Life & Legacy Plus), dollars can be allotted for incentive grants to organizations that receive new Letters of Intent, Legacy Gift Confirmations, and/or current endowment contributions. Each organization can earn up to $1,800 per year, and each organization can use these rewards as they see fit such as to grow their endowment fund, host legacy programming, or support their operations. We are pleased to share that eleven organizations received incentives this year, which totaled over $14,000! Mazel tov to the following organizations that earned an incentive:

  
  

  • Adath Emanu-El

  • Congregation Beth El

  • Congregation B'nai Harim (Poconos)

  • Congregation B'nai Tikvah Beth Israel

  • Congregation Kol Ami

  • Jewish Community Relations Council

  • Jewish Family & Children's Service

  • Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey

  • Katz JCC

  • Temple Beth Sholom

  • Temple Sinai

As we roll ahead with Year 4, which ends on June 30, 2027, we hope you will consider creating your Jewish legacy, if you have not done so already, by leaving a gift in your will, IRA, or other asset in any amount, which can cost nothing to setup during your lifetime. If you have already established a legacy gift, THANK YOU for your generosity.

Save the Date: Details are still in the works, but we encourage local legacy donors to join us for a complimentary Legacy Thank You Event on Monday, November 2 in the evening as we partner with the Katz JCC's Festival of Arts, Books & Culture.

For any Life & Legacy questions, please contact any SNJ Jewish organization directly or reach out to JCF Assistant Director Mike Staff at 856-673-2528.

Lastly, we thank sponsor SEI for supporting the Life & Legacy initiative in South Jersey.