Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Mercer Board of Trustees Meeting Highlights

undefined
 
Jewish Community
Foundation of
Greater Mercer
 
BOARD OF TRUSTEES  MEETING VIA ZOOM
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,2020
 
JCFGM Mission
Statement
 
To provide a sustainable legacy for our Jewish
community locally and globally through
endowments and resources that maximize the
charitable objectives of our donors.
The Foundation is a donor-driven organization.
We represent the entire Jewish community. The
Foundation works in cooperation with United
Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks,
local agencies, synagogues, and other
charitable organizations. We are the
endowment arm that supports all 501(c) (3)
organizations in the interest of our donors.
 
Agenda
 
 Call to order
1.
Welcome and introduction of new board
members
2.
Approval of Minutes from June 15, 2020
Annual meeting
3.
President’s Report
4.
JFedShaw
Action item: Board ratification of
agreement
JFedShaw Task Force
5.
Princeton Area Community Foundation
6.
JCFGM Business Plan – committee
formation
7.
Funds Committee
8.
Administrative Matters
Vanguard
Renaissance
Banking
Action Item:  Positive Pay Approval
9.
Treasurer’s Report for FY 2020
10.
Investment Committee
11.
Audit Committee
12.
Book Awards Committee report
13.
Staff
14.
Good & Welfare
15.
Adjourn
 
President’s report
 
1.
Apples and honey
2.
Punia Fund
3.
Insurance
4.
COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund of Greater Mercer
 
President’s report continued
 
 
Dear Jerry and Mark
 
Shana Tovah!  The JCFGM decided to do something a little different during a year
when so many things are different.  The Foundation has issued a grant of $540 to
the Jewish Community COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund of Greater Mercer
fund in honor of our donor advised fundholders.  We felt that this would be an
appropriate way to recognize the critical role this fund has performed for the
community, and to simultaneously honor the commitment of our fundholders, and
the Foundation itself, to philanthropy at a time when the need may be the greatest
in decades.
 
Please convey the thanks of the entire Foundation board and all of our donor
advised fundholders to the board of the Federation for their efforts to soften the
burden of this crisis.
 
Best wishes for a happy, sweet and healthy 5781.
 
 
Chip Loeb
 
Linda Meisel
 
President’s report continued
 
 
Dear Chip:
 
Thank you for informing us of this very generous gift to the local COVID-19
Emergency Fund, which will be extremely helpful to the agencies and synagogues
working tirelessly day in and day out on the frontlines of the fight against this
pandemic.
 
Shanah Tova to you and your family, and
 
Best regards, Jerry
 
 
President’s report continued
 
 
Two new committees
 
Ad Hoc committee – Trenton Property
 
Howard Cohen
 
Jim Schragger
 
Scott Schaefer
 
Chip Loeb
 
Marketing committee
 
Susan Falcon
 
Michael Feldstein
 
President’s report continued
 
JFedShaw agreement
 
 
1.
 
A copy of the JFedShaw agreement was sent to the board.
 
2.
 
The agreement was approved by the JFedShaw board on August
 
5, 2020
 
3.
 
The JCFGM Executive committee reviewed and approved the
 
agreement at it’s August 10, 2020 meeting, subject to board
 
ratification.
 
3. 
 
Board action:  Ratification of the JFedShaw agreement.
 
4. 
 
Next steps
Board discussion
Formation of JFedShaw Integration Task Force
 
Princeton Area Community Foundation
 
 
The PACF suspended its strategic business planning as it moved to create multiple
funds for COVID-19 relief both for individuals and organizations in the greater
Princeton area.
 
On June 24, 2020, Linda and Chip had a zoom meeting with Jeff Vega (president) and
Laura Longman (CFO). The update was that at that time, PACF was then able to
allocate staff resources to planning process.  The timeline was to present a plan to
the PACF board in August 2020. The plan would include:
 
1. 
 
A gradual increase in fees, to take place over a three-year period.
 
2. 
 
A fee-for-service approach, which would permit them to cover operating
expenses without fundraising, thereby allowing them to direct their fundraising
efforts towards programming, donor advised and special purpose funds.
The JCFGM ad hoc committee on the PCACF met by Zoom on July 1, 2020
Chip ands Linda will meet with Jeff Vega and Laura Longman again on September
30,2020
 
 
JCFGM Business Plan
 
 
Goal:  To create a 3-5 year business plan for
the Jewish Community Foundation of
Greater Mercer
 
The business plan will serve as a roadmap
for JCFGM
 
Funds Committee
 
 
The  Ad Hoc Funds committee was established to review all documents and policies
related to the JCFGM fund holdings. The committee recommends that the bylaws be
amended to make the Funds Committee a standing committee, and asks that the
following amendment be adopted by the board:
 
Amend Article IX, Section 1 of the bylaws to add subsection F, to read as follows:
 
The Funds Administration Committee shall consist of no fewer than four Trustees, one
of whom shall be the Treasurer, one of whom shall serve as its chairman, as well as
members of the community who are not Trustees as appointed by the chairman. The
president shall designate the chairman at the Annual meeting. The committee shall i)
establish procedures and guidelines for management and distribution of funds, ii)
review and interpret documents establishing and governing funds, iii) from time to
time update forms used by the staff to open donor advised and custodial funds, iv) in
cooperation with the Investment Committee make recommendations to the  Board as
to the gift acceptance policy as provided for in Article X Section 2 of these bylaws, and
v) undertake other tasks as requested by the President or the Board, or as it deems
necessary, from time to time.
 
Administrative Matters
 
 
Vanguard
 
Renaissance
 
Banking
 
At the Board’s instruction, Linda sought the advice of the Foundation’s
outside auditors as to the appropriateness of using positive pay.  The
auditors endorsed enrollment in this system.
 
Positive Pay – a refresher
 
 
Positive pay is a bank system under which checks issued by an
accountholder (other than those issued by the payroll provider) are not
valid until approved by an authorized user online, which is typically
done the same day the checks are issued.  QuickBooks uploads to the
bank a list of checks issued, then a representative of the accountholder
logs into a secure bank website, is presented with the list of checks
(date, payee, amount) and approves or rejects each of them for
payment.  When a check is presented to the bank for payment, the bank
compares the information on the check with the list of approved
checks.  Any unauthorized checks or deviations trigger a notice to the
accountholder, which can permit payment of the check or decline to do
so.
 
Positive pay has become a common tool in the reduction of risk of fraud
and error.
 
 
Positive Pay Authorization
 
 
The chair proposes the following motion:
 
1.  The Foundation shall enroll in positive pay at its bank and the Executive
Director shall be the primary individual responsible for approval.  In the
event the Executive Director is unavailable, the VP for Development shall be
responsible for the approval. These two individuals shall not be granted
authority to sign checks or otherwise distribute cash with respect to any
account for which positive pay is in place.
 
2.  Checks issued by the Foundation shall be signed by any one of the
President, Secretary, Treasurer, or the VP at Large.
 
3.  In the event the Executive Director position is vacant and the VP for
Development is unavailable, a member of the Executive Committee, other
than the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and the VP at Large, is authorized
to enroll in positive pay for the duration of such vacancy.
 
 
Treasurer’s report
 
 
 
 
FYE 2020 June 30, 2020
 
July 31, 2020
 
Personnel change
 
Investment committee report
 
1.
On July 1,2020, JCFGM moved to a managed portfolio platform at
Vanguard
2.
Portfolio manager: Daniel Voss, CFA, Senior Investment Consultant
3.
Portfolio is 60% equities 40% fixed income
Marty and Harvey met via zoom with Dan on August 27
th
, 2020, to
review portfolio status in depth.
Investment committee meeting – September 8, 2020
Presentation by Dan Voss regarding status of portfolio
The portfolio outperformed the benchmarks by about 68 basis points
during July – a difference of about $70,000 over market
 
Audit committee report
 
 
Audit committee: Brenda Zlatin, chair, Dan Brent, Marc Wisotsky
 
The Foundation has been working with the current audit firm, Bedard
Kurowicki and Company (BKC) for more than 5 years.  In conformance
with best  practices, the audit committee sent out requests for
proposals to BKC and four other firms.  Four firms sent proposals.
 
On September 10, 2020, the audit committee reviewed the proposals
and selected BKC again to conduct the JCFGM audit with the caveat that
there be a new audit team.
 
Book Awards
 
 
Book award committee : Michael Manning, Jeff Miller, Linda Meisel as staff
 
1. Nine applications were received.  Seven were from returning students, two were new applicants.
 
2. Each application was reviewed individually with the following criteria
a.
Financial need
b.
Initiative in working and academics
c.
Short Essay
 
Committee decided not to set a precedent by funding a 5
th
 year award to a returning student.
 
Awards were given to 8 applicants in the range of $800 to $1,300 and a total of $10,000 was awarded.
 
The JCFGM receives $50 per application to cover the staff time to  process the applications for awards.
 
The monies for the scholarships came from two JCFGM scholarship funds, the Kahn Fund and the Garb
Fund.
 
Benjamin Garb Scholarship Fund $37,883.54
 
Albert B. Kahn Scholarship Fund $144,770.61
 
Staff updates
 
1.   Two Princeton University Students, Hannah Bein and Marley Jacobson,
will be working on special projects for JCFGM.
2.  October 23, 2020, JCFGM will host a workshop entitled ”Building a Culture
of Philanthropy.”  The workshop will be led by Elizabeth Wagner of Bryn
Mawr Trust and former director of philanthropy at Princeton Area
Community Foundation.
3. October 29,2020, JCFGM will host the Life & Legacy Kick off event for
JFedShaw.
4. November 15, 2020 and December 6, 2020 a two-part program on Ethical
Wills will be presented, co-sponsored by The Jewish Community
Foundation of Greater Mercer and  The Jewish Center.
 
         The JCFGM  Staff is looking to partner with community organizations to
present workshops on philanthropy, resource development and related
topics for both lay leaders and professional staff.
 
 
 
 
Good and Welfare
 
 
Mazel Tov to Marty and Judy Schwartz on the engagement of their grandson
Ben to Allison
 
Mazel Tov to Steve and Florence Kahn on the Bar Mitzvah of their grandson
Ellis
 
Mazel Tov to Amy and Eran Zacks on the Bat Mitzvah of their Daughter Noa
 
Mazel Tov to Scott and Jeri Schaefer on the engagement of their daughter
Lyndsay to Ted
 
Mazel Tov to Don Leibowitz and Karen Brodsky on the birth of their
granddaughter Emery
 
Mazel Tov to Chip Loeb on the graduation of his daughter Tamar from
Drexel University
 
Mazel Tov to Josh Waldorf on the occasion of his daughter Lily making aliyah
to Israel
 
Upcoming EC and
Board  Meetings
 
 
 
Executive committee Meeting
 
Monday, November 16, 2020
 
Board of Trustees Meeting
 
Monday, December 14, 2020
Slide Note
Embed
Share

The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Mercer held a board of trustees meeting discussing key topics such as financial reports, new board members, and charitable initiatives. The president's report highlighted contributions to the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund and expressed gratitude for the community's support. The meeting agenda included various committee reports and actions to support the organization's mission of providing sustainable legacies for the Jewish community.

  • Jewish Community Foundation
  • Mercer
  • Board of Trustees
  • Meeting
  • Presidents Report

Uploaded on Sep 10, 2024 | 1 Views


Download Presentation

Please find below an Image/Link to download the presentation.

The content on the website is provided AS IS for your information and personal use only. It may not be sold, licensed, or shared on other websites without obtaining consent from the author. Download presentation by click this link. If you encounter any issues during the download, it is possible that the publisher has removed the file from their server.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Mercer BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING VIA ZOOM MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14,2020

  2. JCFGM Mission Statement To provide a sustainable legacy for our Jewish community locally and globally through endowments and resources that maximize the charitable objectives of our donors. The Foundation is a donor-driven organization. We represent the entire Jewish community. The Foundation works in cooperation with United Jewish Federation of Princeton Mercer Bucks, local agencies, synagogues, and other charitable organizations. We are the endowment arm that supports all 501(c) (3) organizations in the interest of our donors.

  3. Agenda Call to order 8. Administrative Matters Vanguard Renaissance Banking Action Item: Positive Pay Approval 1. Welcome and introduction of new board members 2. Approval of Minutes from June 15, 2020 Annual meeting 9. Treasurer s Report for FY 2020 3. President s Report 10. Investment Committee 4. JFedShaw Action item: Board ratification of agreement JFedShaw Task Force 11. Audit Committee 12. Book Awards Committee report 13. Staff 5. Princeton Area Community Foundation 14. Good & Welfare 6. JCFGM Business Plan committee formation 15. Adjourn 7. Funds Committee

  4. Presidents report 1. Apples and honey 2. Punia Fund 3. Insurance 4. COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund of Greater Mercer

  5. Presidents report continued Dear Jerry and Mark Shana Tovah! The JCFGM decided to do something a little different during a year when so many things are different. The Foundation has issued a grant of $540 to the Jewish Community COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund of Greater Mercer fund in honor of our donor advised fundholders. We felt that this would be an appropriate way to recognize the critical role this fund has performed for the community, and to simultaneously honor the commitment of our fundholders, and the Foundation itself, to philanthropy at a time when the need may be the greatest in decades. Please convey the thanks of the entire Foundation board and all of our donor advised fundholders to the board of the Federation for their efforts to soften the burden of this crisis. Best wishes for a happy, sweet and healthy 5781. Chip Loeb Linda Meisel

  6. Presidents report continued Dear Chip: Thank you for informing us of this very generous gift to the local COVID-19 Emergency Fund, which will be extremely helpful to the agencies and synagogues working tirelessly day in and day out on the frontlines of the fight against this pandemic. Shanah Tova to you and your family, and Best regards, Jerry

  7. Presidents report continued Two new committees Ad Hoc committee Trenton Property Howard Cohen Jim Schragger Scott Schaefer Chip Loeb Marketing committee Susan Falcon Michael Feldstein

  8. Presidents report continued

  9. JFedShaw agreement 1. A copy of the JFedShaw agreement was sent to the board. 2. The agreement was approved by the JFedShaw board on August 5, 2020 3. The JCFGM Executive committee reviewed and approved the agreement at it s August 10, 2020 meeting, subject to board ratification. 3. Board action: Ratification of the JFedShaw agreement. 4. Next steps Board discussion Formation of JFedShaw Integration Task Force

  10. Princeton Area Community Foundation The PACF suspended its strategic business planning as it moved to create multiple funds for COVID-19 relief both for individuals and organizations in the greater Princeton area. On June 24, 2020, Linda and Chip had a zoom meeting with Jeff Vega (president) and Laura Longman (CFO). The update was that at that time, PACF was then able to allocate staff resources to planning process. The timeline was to present a plan to the PACF board in August 2020. The plan would include: 1. A gradual increase in fees, to take place over a three-year period. 2. expenses without fundraising, thereby allowing them to direct their fundraising efforts towards programming, donor advised and special purpose funds. A fee-for-service approach, which would permit them to cover operating The JCFGM ad hoc committee on the PCACF met by Zoom on July 1, 2020 Chip ands Linda will meet with Jeff Vega and Laura Longman again on September 30,2020

  11. JCFGM Business Plan Goal: To create a 3-5 year business plan for the Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Mercer The business plan will serve as a roadmap for JCFGM

  12. Funds Committee The Ad Hoc Funds committee was established to review all documents and policies related to the JCFGM fund holdings. The committee recommends that the bylaws be amended to make the Funds Committee a standing committee, and asks that the following amendment be adopted by the board: Amend Article IX, Section 1 of the bylaws to add subsection F, to read as follows: The Funds Administration Committee shall consist of no fewer than four Trustees, one of whom shall be the Treasurer, one of whom shall serve as its chairman, as well as members of the community who are not Trustees as appointed by the chairman. The president shall designate the chairman at the Annual meeting. The committee shall i) establish procedures and guidelines for management and distribution of funds, ii) review and interpret documents establishing and governing funds, iii) from time to time update forms used by the staff to open donor advised and custodial funds, iv) in cooperation with the Investment Committee make recommendations to the Board as to the gift acceptance policy as provided for in Article X Section 2 of these bylaws, and v) undertake other tasks as requested by the President or the Board, or as it deems necessary, from time to time.

  13. Administrative Matters Vanguard Renaissance Banking At the Board s instruction, Linda sought the advice of the Foundation s outside auditors as to the appropriateness of using positive pay. The auditors endorsed enrollment in this system.

  14. Positive Pay a refresher Positive pay is a bank system under which checks issued by an accountholder (other than those issued by the payroll provider) are not valid until approved by an authorized user online, which is typically done the same day the checks are issued. QuickBooks uploads to the bank a list of checks issued, then a representative of the accountholder logs into a secure bank website, is presented with the list of checks (date, payee, amount) and approves or rejects each of them for payment. When a check is presented to the bank for payment, the bank compares the information on the check with the list of approved checks. Any unauthorized checks or deviations trigger a notice to the accountholder, which can permit payment of the check or decline to do so. Positive pay has become a common tool in the reduction of risk of fraud and error.

  15. Positive Pay Authorization The chair proposes the following motion: 1. The Foundation shall enroll in positive pay at its bank and the Executive Director shall be the primary individual responsible for approval. In the event the Executive Director is unavailable, the VP for Development shall be responsible for the approval. These two individuals shall not be granted authority to sign checks or otherwise distribute cash with respect to any account for which positive pay is in place. 2. Checks issued by the Foundation shall be signed by any one of the President, Secretary, Treasurer, or the VP at Large. 3. In the event the Executive Director position is vacant and the VP for Development is unavailable, a member of the Executive Committee, other than the President, Secretary, Treasurer, and the VP at Large, is authorized to enroll in positive pay for the duration of such vacancy.

  16. Treasurers report FYE 2020 June 30, 2020 July 31, 2020 Personnel change

  17. Investment committee report 1. On July 1,2020, JCFGM moved to a managed portfolio platform at Vanguard 2. Portfolio manager: Daniel Voss, CFA, Senior Investment Consultant 3. Portfolio is 60% equities 40% fixed income Marty and Harvey met via zoom with Dan on August 27th, 2020, to review portfolio status in depth. Investment committee meeting September 8, 2020 Presentation by Dan Voss regarding status of portfolio The portfolio outperformed the benchmarks by about 68 basis points during July a difference of about $70,000 over market

  18. Audit committee report Audit committee: Brenda Zlatin, chair, Dan Brent, Marc Wisotsky The Foundation has been working with the current audit firm, Bedard Kurowicki and Company (BKC) for more than 5 years. In conformance with best practices, the audit committee sent out requests for proposals to BKC and four other firms. Four firms sent proposals. On September 10, 2020, the audit committee reviewed the proposals and selected BKC again to conduct the JCFGM audit with the caveat that there be a new audit team.

  19. Book Awards Book award committee : Michael Manning, Jeff Miller, Linda Meisel as staff 1. Nine applications were received. Seven were from returning students, two were new applicants. 2. Each application was reviewed individually with the following criteria a. Financial need b. Initiative in working and academics c. Short Essay Committee decided not to set a precedent by funding a 5thyear award to a returning student. Awards were given to 8 applicants in the range of $800 to $1,300 and a total of $10,000 was awarded. The JCFGM receives $50 per application to cover the staff time to process the applications for awards. The monies for the scholarships came from two JCFGM scholarship funds, the Kahn Fund and the Garb Fund. Benjamin Garb Scholarship Fund $37,883.54 Albert B. Kahn Scholarship Fund $144,770.61

  20. Staff updates 1. Two Princeton University Students, Hannah Bein and Marley Jacobson, will be working on special projects for JCFGM. 2. October 23, 2020, JCFGM will host a workshop entitled Building a Culture of Philanthropy. The workshop will be led by Elizabeth Wagner of Bryn Mawr Trust and former director of philanthropy at Princeton Area Community Foundation. 3. October 29,2020, JCFGM will host the Life & Legacy Kick off event for JFedShaw. 4. November 15, 2020 and December 6, 2020 a two-part program on Ethical Wills will be presented, co-sponsored by The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Mercer and The Jewish Center. The JCFGM Staff is looking to partner with community organizations to present workshops on philanthropy, resource development and related topics for both lay leaders and professional staff.

  21. Good and Welfare Mazel Tov to Marty and Judy Schwartz on the engagement of their grandson Ben to Allison Mazel Tov to Steve and Florence Kahn on the Bar Mitzvah of their grandson Ellis Mazel Tov to Amy and Eran Zacks on the Bat Mitzvah of their Daughter Noa Mazel Tov to Scott and Jeri Schaefer on the engagement of their daughter Lyndsay to Ted Mazel Tov to Don Leibowitz and Karen Brodsky on the birth of their granddaughter Emery Mazel Tov to Chip Loeb on the graduation of his daughter Tamar from Drexel University Mazel Tov to Josh Waldorf on the occasion of his daughter Lily making aliyah to Israel

  22. Upcoming EC and Board Meetings Executive committee Meeting Monday, November 16, 2020 Board of Trustees Meeting Monday, December 14, 2020

More Related Content

giItT1WQy@!-/#giItT1WQy@!-/#giItT1WQy@!-/#giItT1WQy@!-/#giItT1WQy@!-/#giItT1WQy@!-/#