Recently we were honored to hold our 2017-2018 annual meeting. On behalf of the Dallas Jewish Community Foundation’s Leadership, Board of Trustees, and staff, for those of you who attended, THANK YOU for joining us. With a crowd of over 200, we were honored to share our passions and highlights.

We take pride in serving our community by providing our expertise, hard work, and resources to support organizations, and the community at large, to thrive now, and into the future. As we mentioned during the program, our success would not have been possible without the vision and generosity of our Fundholders. 

• We publicly announced for the first time, the nine grant recipients that received partial or full funding from the Sylvan T. Baer Foundation. The total grants awarded amounted to $200,000. 
• Our Chairman, Rusty Cooper, presented two Chairman’s Awards for outstanding service to honor two very special community members, and Friends of the Foundation, Stuart Prescott and Rabbi Stefan Weinberg. 
• We officially launched the Southwest Community Foundation and the Southwest Jewish Community Foundation, two DBAs created under the DJCF to better serve our ever-expanding pool of professional advisors and non-profit organizations.
• For the first time in our 40 plus year history we surpassed the 200-million-dollar mark on assets under management, granted almost $17 million dollars in 2017, and exceeded $270 million dollars in legacy gifts (gifts left in wills, estates, insurance policies, etc.)
• 38 non-profit organizations now call our foundation their financial home.
• Over 240 children whose families could not afford overnight summer camp were able to attend camp, 12 babies were born to couples with fertility problems, three guide dogs in north Texas and two in Israel were teamed up and trained with visually impaired individuals, over 60 Ethiopian students received college assistance in Israel, thousands of people cared for in Houston after Harvey, scores of seniors received membership assistance at the J, over 50 preschool children from families facing financial hardship were able to attend a quality preschool, hundreds of first responders received trays of food on Christmas, and the list continues. These are just a few of the stories shared.
• And, all of this work is accomplished with a very small staff of 10, and an incredibly low administrative overhead of 7-8% to the amount granted. It is amongst the lowest in the industry!

These are great statistics, but like all numbers they only tell part of the story. The real story exists behind the numbers, the people and the organizations we aid and support. And we are so pleased that many of those organizations joined us to celebrate in the great work accomplished through the Foundation. 

It used to be a joke that the DJCF was the community’s best-kept secret; well no more. The secret is out! The DJCF is one of the fastest growing independent Jewish Foundations in the United States, and we hope you will continue to stand by our side as we continue on this journey of growth because none of our work would be possible without the partnership, love, and generosity that exists in our community.

Looking forward,

Meyer L. Bodoff