Jewish Community Foundation
Today, with more than $220 million in assets, the Jewish Community Foundation (JCF) helps donors make a long-term impact on the vibrancy and financial stability of our community. Through a variety of planned giving options, we help our donors fulfill both their financial needs and charitable desires while supporting the health of a thriving Jewish community.
About
Creating A Lasting Impact
In 1973, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation worked with a group of generous and forward thinking leaders to establish the Jewish Community Foundation to encourage the development of planned gifts and endowments. They understood that collectively we can do more than any of us can do alone, and they foresaw the benefits of a growing foundation with resources that could support the community forever.
Why Choose The Jewish Community Foundation?
We will be your partner, working hand-in-hand with you and your financial and legal advisors. As a valued donor, you’ll receive personalized customer service. And, by choosing the Jewish Community Foundation, you are expressing your Jewish values and providing support to the Jewish community with every gift you make.
Making Advantageous Financial Decisons
Planned Giving
Together, with your financial and legal advisors, we can help you make an impact on the charitable organizations you care about while making the most advantageous financial decisions for you and your family.
Donor Advised Funds
More accessible than you think
Donor Advised Funds (DAF) streamline charitable giving and may help maximize your tax deductions. Established with as little as $2,500.
How It Works
Create a Donor Advised Fund with a gift to the Foundation in the form of cash, stock, mutual funds or other property that is then invested in a fund bearing your name. You recommend gifts to charitable organizations at your own convenience, and the Foundation takes care of the rest.
Endowments
Support a charitable organization or cause in perpetuity
How It Works
Establish an endowment by making a donation of cash, securities, life insurance, or other property. These gifts can be made now, or later with a gift through your will, trust or retirement account. The Foundation carefully invests the fund, and each year a percentage of the fund balance is distributed to the charity of your choice.
Annual Campaign Endowment
Consider endowing your gift to the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Annual Campaign, ensuring that your annual investment in our community will continue forever. Many women choose to endow their annual Lion of Judah gift of $5,000 or more. A Lion of Judah Endowment (LOJE) begins with a gift of $108,000.
Charitable Trusts
Maintain your financial goals while also addressing your philanthropic goals of supporting organizations you care about.
Remainder Trust
Typically established with a significantly appreciated asset, a Charitable Remainder Trust can provide you or another beneficiary with income during your lifetime. When the trust ends, the remaining value will be distributed to the charities you choose.
Benefits:
- Avoid capital gains taxes for highly appreciated assets
- Receive an immediate charitable tax deduction
- Receive payments during your lifetime
- Make a significant gift that benefits you now and the Jewish community later
Lead Trust
A Charitable Lead Trust provides income to charitable organizations during your lifetime or for a set period of years. When the trust term ends, the property held in trust will return to you or your beneficiary.
You receive an immediate federal income tax deduction equal to the present value of the future income stream. You are taxed each year, however, on the trust income.
Benefits:
- Make a significant gift that benefits charity now and your heirs later
- Support an organization during your lifetime and pass your asset on to your heirs
- May reduce gift and estate taxes on assets you pass on to heirs
Bequests
Make a charitable gift to the Jewish Community Foundation through your will or trust.
How It Works
Bequests are especially flexible, making them a popular choice for planned giving. Options for giving include cash, securities, real estate or marketable collectibles. Your financial or legal advisor can draft a bequest so that the gift can support a specific purpose or general operations.
Benefits:
- Support a specific purpose or general operations
- Gift costs nothing during your lifetime
- Keep control of and benefit from your asset while you need it, then make a substantial after-lifetime gift
- Modify or revoke your gift if circumstances change
- Donation is exempt from federal estate taxes
- May avoid capital gains taxes if donating long-term appreciated assets
Find the right fit for you and your family
We can assist in making philanthropic giving more convenient and potentially tax advantageous, while also forever supporting the organizations and programs that are most meaningful to you.
Endowment Program
Create a Jewish Legacy
Create a Jewish Legacy is an endowment program that helps you establish permanent legacy gifts, reflecting your commitment to the continuity of Jewish life for generations to come.
In partnership with Jewish agencies, schools and synagogues, this program helps individuals and families create ongoing support for the Jewish causes they care about. All of us, regardless of age, wealth or affiliation, have the ability to help sustain a vibrant Jewish community now and in the future.
Gift Formalization
To formalize your commitment, start by determining the type of planned gift that best suits your goals. JCF can work with you and your professional advisors to explore the gifting options that will be most beneficial to you.
We also ask that you submit a Legacy Gift Confirmation form to the Foundation. The form is confidential and used solely for our records. Once your gift is formalized, you can share your personal story in the Book of Life.
Book Of Life
Book of Life is a collection of essays recording the personal histories, values, and dreams of individuals and families who have invested in our community’s future, honoring their lasting legacy.
To honor their stories, each essay includes a donor photo, and the Book of Life is permanently on public display at the Foundation’s office.
Endowment Opportunities
Endowment giving through Jewish Community Foundation provides meaningful ways to sustain your annual gift, express your values, and strengthen Jewish life for generations. Explore the opportunities below.
Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment
A Perpetual Annual Campaign Endowment (PACE) is a permanent fund endowing your Annual Campaign gift—a lasting legacy that will continue to make an annual gift to Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Annual Campaign.
Lion of Judah Endowment
Ensure that an annual gift of $5,000 or more will be made in your name to Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Annual Campaign in perpetuity by establishing a permanent LOJE fund within the Jewish Community Foundation.
A LOJE can be funded with $108,000 or more through cash, securities, property, life insurance, or an estate plan. This investment in the future of Jewish Milwaukee honors your lifelong values and serves as a model for future generations.
Jewish Women’s Endowment Fund
Join a community of Jewish women making a lasting impact by contributing to the Jewish Women’s Endowment Fund. Established to support programs that directly benefit women and children in Milwaukee, JWEF uses the interest generated each year to award grants that respond to critical needs and strengthen our community.
You can become a JWEF member with a one-time gift of $1,800 (or $500 for women 35 and under), payable over two years. Additional gifts may be made at any time to grow the Fund’s impact.
Scholarships
Supporting The Next Generation
MJF provides over $700,000 in scholarships each year—supporting college, study in Israel, and Jewish day school for Milwaukee families.
Connect
Mitch serves as the Executive Director of the Jewish Community Foundation, where he helps donors, fundholders and community members to make their philanthropic dreams come to life through planned giving and endowments. He can assist community members to make their philanthropic giving more convenient and potentially tax advantageous through Donor Advised Funds, and works with them to create permanent endowment funds that can forever support the organizations and programs that are most meaningful to them, including permanent support for MJF’s annual campaign. Mitch also works with community organizations to aid them in establishing and growing endowment funds that both showcase and form the foundation for the organizations’ permanence and strength.
As a former voracious community volunteer for nearly 30 years before joining the Foundation, Mitch uses his extensive community knowledge, his legal background, and his Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy (CAP®) training to help guide community members in reaching their philanthropic goals.
Jen Milkman is the Director of Grants and Philanthropic Services for the Jewish Community Foundation, a department of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation. She oversees the processing of grants from the Foundation’s over 900 philanthropic funds, and assists donors and fundholders with their philanthropy. She oversees the Foundation’s college scholarship program, and its Book of Life program. She enjoys travel, cycling, and knitting.
For general Jewish Community Foundation inquiries, please use the following:
Email: JCF@MilwaukeeJewish.org
Phone: 414-390-5704
Fax: 414-390-5782
Support MJF
We Shape the Future for the Next Generation
Caring for the needs of the Jewish people and building a vibrant Jewish future in Milwaukee, Israel, and around the world.