Shalom friend,

This Gift in Action explains how your gift to the Jewish Federation of Ottawa's Annual Campaign helps to strengthen and improve our beneficiary organizations, and their programs and services through the Innovative Capacity Building Fund. 
In the past fiscal year, 2020/21, Federation awarded $73,234 to help Jewish organizations such as the Soloway JCC, the Jewish Youth Library, and congregations Or Haneshamah, Young Israel, Temple Israel, access new technology.

Innovation funding was also awarded to help board development and strategic planning for Torah Day School of Ottawa, Tamir, Jewish Family Services, Beit Tikvah and NCSY. This type of funding helps organizations maintain and improve their governance and keeps Jewish Ottawa thriving.
"The Innovative Capacity grant has given us the ability to contract Amy Katz, a well-known consultant for Jewish non-profits ... In our goal to rejuvenate and revitalize our shul for a successful path forward that allows us to best engage our community, we needed to rethink our leadership approach and redefine the role of our governance and how we work together.

Our initial consultations allowed us to determine the obstacles we face and produce an action plan for the initial work that we want to accomplish. We hope that our work with her will continue to help us develop best practices and further engage the greater board and shul so that we can continue to meaningfully impact the community for many more years to come."

With tremendous thanks and gratitude,

Rabbi Aryeh Kravetz
Congregation Beit Tikvah
"The innovation funding allowed the SJCC to purchase specialized technology that facilitates hybrid meetings called the Meeting Owl. It's a special camera, microphone and speaker system that allows people to collaborate across distances, which means that even people who are isolated and missing the connection the SJCC provides can still find ways to meaningfully engage with other community members through programming and adult education."

Maxine Miska
Assistant Executive Director, Soloway JCC
It is exciting and inspiring to see how Jewish Ottawa organizations are continually striving to improve, helping to guarantee that the best possible services are available for our community.

A special thank you to you, our donor. Your support of the Annual Campaign allows the Federation to champion such innovation.


Warm regards,
Yudit Simmons