“MATCH” PROGRAM RAISES OVER $15 MILLION FOR
JEWISH DAY SCHOOLS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA

JFN and PEJE’s MATCH program attracts 76 first-time Jewish day school donors; An additional 123 donors quintupled their largest previous gift

BOSTON and NYC, Feb. 19, 2008 – The Jewish Funders Network (JFN) and Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE) today announced they have awarded 199 grants – totaling over $15 million –  to Jewish day schools across North America through its 2007-2008 MATCH donor incentive program. The  program offers a 1:2 match (50 cents to the dollar) to offer donors an incentive to give new or increased gifts 5gifts to day schools and offer schools a tool to attract new donors. This year’s program attracted 76 first-time donors and 123 previous donors. MATCH funds support Jewish day schools across all denominations, including Conservative, Reform, Orthodox, as well as non-denominational community schools.

“Supporting Jewish day schools that provide an outstanding general and religious education has proven to be a good return on investment for philanthropists,” said Rabbi Josh Elkin, executive director of PEJE. “The MATCH program offers a unique way to identify and motivate new donors, whose contributions assure that a quality Jewish day school education is available to more students in more locations across North America.”

On the first day of the program, $6 million was pledged for Jewish day schools. The total for the first 24 hours was a record-setting $9 million.

“As our previous initiatives in the fields of Jewish education, Israel, and the Jewish elderly poor have shown, matching grants are a powerful incentive to encourage donors to support new institutions in areas of importance to the Jewish community,” said Mark Charendoff, President of JFN. “Today’s donor wants to get more value from his or her philanthropic dollar and the MATCH program allows them to maximize their impact.”

The concept of providing matching gifts for Jewish day schools was established in 2004 by The AVI CHAI Foundation and JFN in order to offer donors an incentive to give new gifts to day schools and offer schools a tool to attract new donors. This year’s MATCH was carefully structured by JFN and PEJE to provide a fixed funding pool that when awarded at a rate of 1:2, would generate $15 million in total grants.

MATCH funding partners include The Gottesman Fund; Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert; The Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; The AVI CHAI Foundation, and an anonymous donor.

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About JFN

The Jewish Funders Network (www.jfunders.org) is an international organization of family foundations, public philanthropies, and individual funders dedicated to advancing the quality and growth of philanthropy rooted in Jewish values. JFN’s annual International Conference brings together philanthropic leaders from across the globe to address pressing issues of concern in the Jewish and philanthropic community, discover new funding opportunities, develop and improve grant making practices, and form strategic funding collaboratives.

About PEJE

The Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education (PEJE www.peje.org), founded in 1997 by Michael Steinhardt and Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, is a national organization of visionary Jewish philanthropists seeking to establish a vibrant and sustainable Jewish future through strengthening the Jewish day school movement in North America. In its first ten years, PEJE’s model of making grants, providing expertise, and advocating for the day school movement reached over 150 elementary, middle, and high schools and invested a total of over $20 million in the field.  PEJE has contributed to the opening of over 60 new Jewish day schools.