The Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona recently announced $179,517 in 21 grants to nonprofit organizations in Tucson and Israel.
JCF manages 460 individual donor-advised funds, endowments, supporting foundations and agency custodial funds that enable donors to fulfill their own philanthropic visions, but the 2013 competitive grants are the result of the organization’s 13th annual open request for proposals from communities at large. Twenty-four community members on the grants deliberation committee reviewed 66 proposals.
“While the $179,517 is only 4 percent of the $4.6 million that is granted out from our Foundation every year, it is a wonderful sampling of the commitment our funders have for our community,” says Tracy Salkowitz, CEO of the JCF.
Of the grants funded, six went to local Jewish organizations, seven to local secular organizations, three to organizations that operate throughout Israel and five that operate in Tucson’s sister city of Kiryat Malachi and the Hof Ashkelon region in Israel.
The 2013 grant recipients are:
• Community Food Bank for its Caridad Community Kitchen culinary training for unemployed men and women;
• GaitWay for its summer program for children with motor disabilities;
• Hand in Hand: Center for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel for its integrated schools and shared communities program;
• Hillel Foundation at the University of Arizona for engaging and retaining first-year students;
• Interfaith Community Services for its Tools for Financial Sustainability & Emergency Assistance program;
• Iskashitaa Refugee Network for its harvesting program;
• Jewish Community Relations Council at the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona for its Jewish-Latino Teen Coalition;
• Jewish Family & Children’s Services of Southern Arizona for Let’s End Abusive Households;
• Jewish History Museum to hire a grant writer who will help raise the $350,000 that is needed to complete the Holocaust History Center.;
• JFSA to support programs in Hof Ashkelon and Kiryat Malachi including the Acharai pre-army program for underprivileged youth, Ethiopian family violence prevention, supportive community for senior citizens living at home and Tafnit dropout prevention;
• Kids Animals Life and Dreams for its Dreams in Motion program to place foster teens in volunteer opportunities;
• Keren Malki for its Therapies at Home program to subsidize the cost of essential therapies for severely disabled children;
• Pitchon Lev for Touching the Horizon, a seven-year educational and empowerment program for youth at-risk;
• Greater Tucson Fire Foundation for its Firefighters to Israel program to send local first responders to learn from their counterparts in Israel;
• Tucson Hebrew Academy for counseling services;
• Tucson Jewish Community Center for its Taglit Summer Program 2013, which provides special needs young adults with vocational, communication and leadership skills;
• YEDID for its Citizens Rights Center in Kiryat Malachi;
• Youth On Their Own for student living expenses.
Funding for these grants comes from nine endowment funds, including the Ida and J. Patricia Brodsky Memorial Endowment, Marilyn Haas Community Youth Fund, Sidney and Tauba Kaderlan Endowment Fund, Kahn Family Legacy Fund, Burt and Brenda Lazar Endowment Fund, William and Doris Rubin Endowment Fund, Marc and Meryl Tischler Endowment Fund, Dr. Samuel and Sylvia Zaidenberg Endowment Fund, Zuckerman Family Fund and Brilliant Family Fund.
For more information, contact Steven Baker, grants manager, at grants@jcftucson.org.
