Shalom Chaverim,

After many months of strategic planning and preparation, I am very excited to share new happenings at Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City, including a new campaign year and key staff announcements.

New Campaign Year
First, I would like to share the change to our campaign year timeline: our 2017 Annual Campaign year timeline was shortened from a full 12-month cycle to a 9-month cycle. Our new annual campaign timeline – from April 1-December 31, 2017 – is very much in line with our vision to make the campaign more accessible to donors, while re-envisioning our organization for the optimal use of resources.

The hard work of Jewish Federation staff and volunteers began last night with a very successful ambassador training led by JFNA National Campaign Chair, Harold Gernsbacher. Thanks to Harold’s training session, we have 50 ambassadors who are well prepared and ready to raise 2017 campaign contributions.

Our campaign kickoff continues with Note-a-thon this Sunday, April 2 (open to men and women for the first time), and Vegas Night on April 8, a young adult campaign event that offers our younger constituents a wonderful way to connect with each other while doing good for our community. We invite you to register now for these events.

A special thank you to Jewish Federation staff and volunteers for your dedicated work in making these changes a reality.

Read more about Jewish Federation’s Campaign Year changes in The Kansas City Jewish Chronicle.

New Staff Roles
I am also thrilled to announce three key staff changes and additions. Beginning April 1, in line with the new campaign year:

• Lisa Schifman will become our Director of Financial Resource Development, leading our development team to success in fundraising. Lisa will continue to build upon her proven accomplishments as Women’s Philanthropy Director, and I look forward to exceptional results under her expanded leadership.
• Derek Gale will transition to a re-imagined Community Building and Allocations Director position. In his role as Director of Financial Resource Development, Derek has shown great commitment to our community and to working with our many partner agencies. I look forward to watching this position flourish under Derek’s guidance.
• Jane Blumenthal Martin recently re-joined the Federation team as Director of Marketing and Communications. She has hit the ground running in her first few weeks, and is already working diligently to share our story and the good work we do, thanks to our generous donors.

Once again, Jewish Federation’s annual campaign raises approximately $5 million, which touches the lives of hundreds of thousands of Jewish people. Our fundraising efforts have increased in the last year, and we are setting even higher goals for ourselves this year.

Please join us as we continue the important work of sustaining and enhancing Jewish life…everywhere, everyday.

B’Shalom,
Helene