FUNDRAISING
What is JCC Benchmarking? JCC Excellence: Benchmarking is an initiative from JCC Association’s Mandel Center for Excellence in Leadership & Management that helps JCCs improve their services and operations by tracking measurable indicators of excellence in financial sustainability, Jewish impact, member/user engagement, staff engagement and program performance. Our Benchmarking services will provide your JCC with three types of information: • the JCC field at large • your individual JCC compared to other JCCs of a similar budget size • your JCC compared to your own JCC year-over-year To date 73 JCCs throughout North America have participated in the Benchmarking process.
to having face-to-face meetings with donors or making personal introductions. On average, organizations with active fundraising boards used between six and seven of the different methods studied. Some of the methods were associated, with statistical significance, with a greater probability of meeting fundraising goals.1 Benchmarking has also identified a number of JCC activities or metrics that, year after year, are associated with greater past and future JCC contributions. Some of these measures are programmatic, including the breadth of JCC participation (number of programs used) and the level of user–staff interaction as measured by the frequency of informal conversations. Other factors are more mission-driven, including perceptions of the JCC as an important community institution, the breadth of reported Jewish impact, and effectiveness fostering a greater understanding of Israel. Our research shows an association between dedicated FRD professionals and an increase in fundraising, and we will continue to explore and expand these insights into improving fundraising effectiveness through Benchmarking and our ongoing work with JCCs.
For more information please contact Andy Paller, director, JCC Excellence: Benchmarking at apaller@jcca.org or (212) 710-6432.
1. “Engaging Board Members in Fundraising,” Nonprofit Research Collaborative, September, 2012.
27