This year, the Jewish Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona combined multiple grant programs into one, the 2014 Community Impact Grants.
Through the new, aligned grants program, the JCF and the JFSA awarded more than $410,000, which includes $268,472 to Jewish organizations in greater Tucson and $100,000 for projects in Tucson’s sister cities in Israel.
JCF also awarded $42,500 to three nonprofit organizations in the general Tucson community.
“We were able to simplify two complicated grant cycles into one streamlined effort” that benefits both the Jewish and general communities, says JCF CEO Tracy Salkowitz. Grants committee volunteers and staff worked on the process. The new program makes the grant application process simpler and gives funders greater insight into the Tucson Jewish community’s priorities.
“This Federation and Foundation grants alignment is a wise use of resources,” says JFSA President and CEO Stuart Mellan. “We are better serving our community and the result is much more strategic funding.”
The Community Impact Grants program unites JCF’s annual competitive grants program and JFSA’s Compelling Needs and Senior & Disabled Task Force funding programs.
The following organizations received grants through the Community Impact Grants program this year:
Jewish organizations in Tucson
• Coalition for Jewish Education, for the PJ Library program
• Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging, to begin implementing electronic medical records
• Interfaith Community Services, for financial sustainability and emergency financial assistance programs
• Jewish Community Relations Council, for the Jewish Latino Teen Coalition
• Jewish Family & Children’s Services, for the JEA Wraparound Project, which provides services to ensure safe, secure and sanitary home environments for low-income Jewish seniors; counseling and workshops on-site at synagogues and other Jewish organizations; and the Holocaust survivors volunteer program
• Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona, for a community-wide concierge program; a technology project; and a planning associate to help centralize planning for the entire Jewish community
• Temple Emanu-El, for senior transportation services
• Tucson Hebrew Academy, for counseling services
• Tucson Jewish Community Center, for a Southern Arizona Jewish community special-needs assessment
• UA Hillel Foundation, for training and programming support for Jewish student leaders
• UA Hillel Foundation, Jewish Arizonans on Campus and UA Chabad, for shared programming
Israel and global Jewry
• Acharai, for a pre-army program for underprivileged youth
• Matnas Youth Scholarships, for camp/activity scholarships for children from low-income families
• Senior Day Center in Kiryat Malachi, for ongoing programs
• Summit Institute, for host families and placement specialists for children at risk
• Welfare Department of Kiryat Malachi, for a therapist in the Ethiopian family violence prevention program
• YEDID, for a citizen rights center in Kiryat Malachi
• Yehelot Association and Kiryat Malachi Department of Education, for dropout prevention programs
Tucson general community
• Literacy Connects, to add a school in the Sunnyside District
• National Youth Law Center, for a program to improve educational outcomes of foster children
• YWCA, for career counseling and training to help women become economically self-sufficient
