In these difficult times, when your personal resources seem stretched to their limits, allocating your charitable dollars to worthy causes is a serious responsibility: doing research, gauging accountability, determining merit, ensuring that your dollars make an impact. There is a simpler way.

The Jewish Federation Annual Campaign is America's most trusted name in charitable giving. 

A smarter way to manage your philanthropy

One gift is at the heart of our Jewish community -- pumping much-needed dollars into Jewish Family Services, into the Jewish Home for the Aged, the JCC and Jewish summer camps; into Hillel, Jewish day schools, synagogue programs; and increased security for our entire community.

One gift stands in solidarity with the people of Israel. Working in partnership to build and secure the Jewish homeland.

One gift supports one of the world's largest and most effective networks of social service providers. A network renowned for its innovation; envied for its commitment to social justice, loving kindness, and respect for human life.

One gift represents millions of dollars raised and millions more leveraged to bring dignity, integrity and improved quality of life to the elderly and other vulnerable members of our community.

One gift enables the federation to convene the best and brightest -- locally, nationally and internationally -- to build creative community-based responses to crises and ongoing issues, such as hunger and anti-Semitism.

One gift empowers you to make an impact.

The Jewish Federation Annual Campaign is a grassroots enterprise designed to strengthen and support our Jewish community from the ground up. Allocation decisions are made by men and women like you. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, financial advisors, homemakers and other members of our community who every year accept the responsibility to ensure that each of us is cared for -- from childhood to old age.

Putting your philanthropic dollars to work

A sluggish economy and accompanying state and federal cutbacks are having a devastating impact on our community's human service needs. Within weeks of the first budget cuts, requests at food programs and domestic abuse hotlines were two and three times higher than the year before. In one recent three-month period, 880,000 Americans lost their jobs. Federation vocational services have seen a 20% increase in their caseload.

Even though, in advance of this economic downtown, federation had been working to build strong, effective partnerships that would help sustain the thousands of Jews and non-Jews who rely on federation counseling, vocational and human services during the most difficult times of their lives, the need for more dollars continues to grow.

Federation and its partners are now and will continue to be at the forefront of the local and national movement to establish a complete continuum of care for the elderly. That includes using Jewish Federation Annual Campaign dollars to leverage millions more in private and government grants to build services that allow seniors to stay in their own homes, receive adult day care and Meals-on-Wheels, respite care, assisted living and skilled nursing care to acute medical and end-of-life care. That also includes continuing to work day in, day out to enable our elderly to live out their lives with dignity.

The Jewish community is aging faster than the general population. The median age for Jews is 41, compared to 35 for the general population. 19% of Jews are 65 or older, compared to 12% of the general population. Overall, American Jews spend more time caring for the elderly members of their family than they do caring for their children.

To make it possible for our seniors to age in place, federation-supported agencies have secured millions of dollars in federal funds to provide services for Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs). Jewish federation and its affiliated agencies are setting the standard for service delivery to this population.