MAKE THE WORLD BETTER! - Greater Miami Jewish Federation

8
You’ve Gotta Have Hearts
The Heart to Heart mission to Israel kicks off a new
focus on outreach – designed to go beyond the pool
of Lions and engage women at all stages of life and all
giving levels.
By Andrea Glick
WOMEN’S PHILANTHROPY, the essence of our lives as
Lions, is in some ways the Jewish world’s best kept secret.
How else can we explain the fact that so many women in
our communities have yet to discover the joys of giving
generously and working for the benefit of the Jewish people?
It’s time to reach out to and share the Federation
message with a larger and more diverse group of women.
National Women’s Philanthropy (NWP) Chair Linda
A. Hurwitz, has made outreach to new populations a
major focus for this year. “We are about building caring
communities, places where all people can feel welcome
and needed, and can be a part of the ongoing story of the
Jewish people,” she said. “We are not about counting
people—we are about making people count.”
A dynamic group of Lions—veterans of the NWP
Board who now serve on the Advisory Board—have
joined Hurwitz in this effort, using their considerable
experience to broaden the base of women engaged in the
work our Federations do.
The first order of business: Heart to Heart, a January
mission to Israel sponsored by NWP, a division of The
Jewish Federations of North America. Though any
woman could join the mission, it was designed especially
to bring in those not already in the fold. Younger
women were a prime target, as were those with loose
Federation ties or whose connections had frayed. To
attract a broad range of people, the duration of the trip
was kept to five days and its cost was relatively low—
$2,900 including airfare, plus a minimum $500 gift to the
Annual Campaign.
“To bring more women to Federation, it’s crucial to
engage people at all giving levels and all stages of life—
and to shatter the myth that women’s philanthropy is
only for big donors,” says Lori Klinghoffer, the former
NWP Board chair and current president who, along with
the Advisory Board, is spearheading the new outreach initiative.
“Times have changed,” Klinghoffer says. “There is
a mass of women out there who have no connection
either to their Federation or our national system.”
Since it was designed to reach these “disconnected”
women, the mission purposely softened its fundraising
component. While participants may one day become
committed donors, the aim right now was to simply get
them involved or, as Klinghoffer says, “to inspire them to
learn more about what Federation is doing in their own
hometowns, join with their local volunteers and be part
of the amazing work we do.”
The mission’s whirlwind schedule includes classic
destinations, of course, but also the kind of inside
glimpse of Israel that only Federation can provide.
Visiting a program for at-risk teens, for instance, women
can come face to face with direct beneficiaries of
Federation work. There are also visits to Israeli homes,
talks with idealistic young people giving their time to
social programs, and discussions with some of Israel’s
most distinguished female politicians, entrepreneurs and
academics.
A further dose of inspiration comes from what
Klinghoffer jokingly calls the mission’s “camp counselors”—herself
and several other NWP leaders who
joined the trip to “energize participants with the sense of
ruach we share as women philanthropists.”
Veterans of women’s missions say the most powerful
results of these trips are the long-term bonds that form
among the women. Betsy Pottruck, an NWP Advisory
Board member from California’s Greater East Bay, says