Once synonymous with decline, the City of Detroit has lately starred in a number of stories about renewal. Artists and entrepreneurs are reclaiming decrepit buildings, and the city is clawing its way back from bankruptcy, boosted in part by foundation largesse.
After a long slide in support, a century-old federation in the Motor City, the United Jewish Foundation and Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, has its own turnaround story to tell.
Among Jewish federations on the latest Philanthropy 400 — The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of charities that raise the most in private support — the Detroit federation (No. 235) saw the biggest increase. Its donations rose nearly 60 percent in 2014 over 2013, to $112.9 million. The group is optimistic about 2015’s fundraising prospects as well.
It’s only the latest success story for a group that has enjoyed increasing support and donor participation for each of the past five years.
Some key strategic moves helped drive the change, says Scott Kaufman, the group’s chief executive since 2009, but they boil down to a single principle: putting donors first.
The organization doubled down on donor stewardship, not by adding lots of extra fundraisers — that staff has expanded only slightly since the recession — but by shifting other employees who were skilled at working with donors into those roles, says Lisa Cutler, the group’s campaign director.
“It’s about putting people in the right seat on the bus,” Mr. Kaufman says.
Strategic Shift
The organization has built a team aimed at catering to donors’ desires to support specific projects in addition to annual campaigns. These “boots on the ground,” as Mr. Kaufman calls them, research charities for donors and match them with other philanthropists to amplify the impact of their giving.
The result has been strong growth for “projects with individual major philanthropists, where we’re acting as their partner,” Mr. Kaufman says. “It’s become a bigger and bigger part of the business.”
Ideas for the strategic shift have come about in part from years of shrinking participation rates in its annual campaign and the urgency brought on by the economy’s meltdown, which hit Detroit especially hard — and watching how other industries are changing.
“Think about how we get music today, for example. There used to be someone who decided what songs would go on the album or the CD, and that’s what you would buy,” he says. “In a sense, the middleman’s been eliminated: The consumer picks what they want exactly. You’re seeing that more and more, in all kinds of areas of the world.”
“If you’re thought of as the middleman, that’s the kiss of death,” he says. “We had to get away from that, and quickly.”
Young Donors and Legacies
Another strategic move, which the federation chief acknowledges may seem counterintuitive: de-emphasizing the number of dollars raised in favor of the number of donors engaged.
“If you’re just measuring dollars — the old thermometer in the lobby, showing the hundred-dollar donor and the million-dollar donor — the hundred-dollar donor is going to think, ‘Well, what do they need me for? I can’t even see the needle move.’ " Instead, the organization posts a “donometer” on each floor of its building to track the number of donors.
The federation, through its NEXTGen Detroit program, built personal and professional networks, with startling results. It tripled the number of donors under 40 from 1,000 in 2010 to 3,100 last year.
The arrival in 2011 of Miryam Rosenzweig to lead the NEXTGen program proved a turning point. She began to study what people in their 20s and 30s wanted (to connect with the city’s key business leaders, for instance) and what terminology and communication methods they preferred.
Millennials didn’t respond well to solicitations for the federation’s Ben Gurion Society, because many did not recognize the name of the first prime minister of Israel. But the digital natives loved it when the federation sent them handwritten birthday cards to thank them for their support.
“Millennials don’t get mail,” notes Ms. Rosenzweig.
A major tool for getting the younger generations engaged was creating high-quality programs, such as parenting classes and parties, that people were eager to attend. One ingredient for success: Among the organizers of an event aimed at a specific group, like single parents, had to be someone who represented that demographic.
“We recognize that our competition is not other nonprofits. Our competition is Netflix,” says Ms. Rosenzweig, now the federation’s senior director of community development. “We looked to create Facebook-able moments.”
The emphasis has been on expanding the community rather than soliciting gifts. “There’s no bait and switch,” she says. “If you’re coming to a NEXTGen event, we’re not going to ask you to make a donation.”
The Detroit group’s success at getting millennials on board has attracted the attention of other charities, says Ms. Rosenzweig. Not only have other Jewish federations sought her advice on the subject but so have two regional United Ways and a group of people in Detroit who are seeking to organize a volunteer group for Chinese-Americans.
She says the community-engagement lessons of NEXTGen Detroit can translate to other nonprofits: “The strategy would be the same, even if the tactics are different.”
Focus on Planned Giving
Getting more young people to join in the federation’s work has paid some unexpected dividends, says Mr. Kaufman.
“On the major-gift level, that affects their parents and grandparents,” he says. “The idea that their kids are engaged, that’s very positive. But that isn’t the reason why we did it.”
The federation has also put more effort recently into planned-giving efforts, especially among its own members. “People weren’t thinking about it,” says Mr. Kaufman. “Somebody would get some sort of illness, and maybe they would leave a lot of money to the hospital or the organization that deals with that illness or a university or a hospice — all good things — even though they spent most of their volunteer life at the federation and gave every year for decades.”
A campaign tied to the Detroit federation’s centennial celebration asked donors, “What will your Jewish legacy be?” The result: about 80 new planned gifts over three years equaling $165 million. The group started marketing the campaign to its highest-level donors and plans to expand it, sending the message that anyone can leave a legacy.
Placing the emphasis on people over dollars, says Mr. Kaufman, has helped the Detroit federation cut through what he calls the “clutter” of charity appeals and tactics. He urges other organizations to remember the supreme importance of building lasting ties with supporters.
“You can get a decent gift once for a lot of reasons: because you’re annoying them and they want to not talk to you anymore,” he says. “But if it’s going to be sustainable, it’s got to be a relationship built on trust. You almost become their friend. It’s fundamental, and we sometimes forget.”
Send an email to Heather Joslyn.
