From July 28th-31st, I was fortunate enough to attend the final sessions of Fundraising University, a program of The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) that provides comprehensive training in leadership, setting goals, fundraising strategies and strategic management. Over the course of this year-long program, representatives from 18 Federations convened in New York for training sessions and journeyed to the Holy Land for an incredible Israel Immersion Experience.
Together with my cohorts, we gathered at the UJA Federation of New York for the culmination of our educational journey. Though it wasn’t on our original itinerary, we attended a powerful rally at the beginning of the weekend at the United Nations Visitor Centre, along with over 10,000 others, to show our collective support for Israel. It was deeply moving to be surrounded by so many individuals and to feel the love we share for our Jewish homeland.
Though our hearts remained with Israel, our minds were eager to dive into a weekend full of empowering seminars on leadership and fundraising that will help us sustain our Jewish community and build a stronger, more vibrant Jewish future. We heard from such celebrated speakers as Lisa Kay Solomon, co-author of Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations that Accelerate Change; consultant Vicki Agron, who spoke to us on both leadership empowerment and how to maximize and build upon our Annual Campaign; and Rae Ringel, President of The Ringel Group, who helped us all develop skills to combat self-sabotage so we can not only make space for our own wisdom and creativity, but motivate our colleagues to do so as well.
I was also honored to present our Federation’s Tour de Summer Camps community-wide cycling fundraiser as an innovative new way to not only grow our Annual Campaign, but to get more people involved with and invested in the Jewish community.
I am deeply appreciative of our Federation for affording me this life-changing opportunity. The rest of the participants and I all agree that Fundraising University was a tremendous success. It has transformed our careers and given us new methods to engage our colleagues and communities.
The incredible bond I made with my cohorts was truly unbelievable and something I’ll never forget. I hope we’ll all keep in touch as we put our newfound skills into action in our local Federations and use our collective energy to make the biggest possible impact on our Jewish community.
I had walked into this program with a blueprint for how I wanted to manage my team and approach our Federation’s campaign. But now I am motivated to take my plans even further. So many roads are open to us at The Jewish Federation—and it’s time for us to start taking some test drives.
John Magoulas is our Federation’s Senior Vice President, Campaign. For more information on this experience, please contact JMagoulas@JewishLA.org.
Fundraising University, a project of the JFNA Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence in partnership with JFNA’s Philanthropic Resources department, was created to inspire, motivate and empower a select community of Jewish Federation professionals. In addition to a year of high-level programming facilitated by JFNA, the program has established a senior fundraising cohort from across the Federation system who regularly collaborate and share strategies to make each other more successful.
