Every year, Jewish Cincinnati faces real questions on how best to use your Annual Campaign donations to improve the lives of those most in need. How do we care for families struggling to afford food? How do we keep Jewish life vibrant and visible? And how do we effectively respond to a crisis or catastrophe? Resources are limited, but needs are not. Local Allocations is one way we take on that responsibility together, with people from across Jewish Cincinnati stepping up to help decide how shared dollars can do the most good.
Local Allocations is guided by volunteers. They’re community members like you and me. Some have served for years. Others are brand new this cycle. Last year alone, fourteen new committee members joined the work, including Richard Behrman. “I'm engaged by volunteering in the community,” he said. “And this just reinforced all the positive things that are going on in Cincinnati.”
People step up for different reasons. To give back. To learn what’s really happening across our community. And after visiting many of the organizations in person and speaking with those doing the work, many said the same thing: “I had no idea this was here. I never knew how much was happening.” Our volunteers visit programs in action, touring schools and group homes, campgrounds and agencies, then come back together to talk through what they learned.
To keep the process consistent, volunteers look at every request through the same lens. They’re not comparing who tells the best story. Instead, they’re asking the same set of questions each time. What need does this program meet? Who does it serve? How will life improve because it exists? Committee members pore through every proposal. It’s not exactly beach reading, but it’s where good decisions start.
When thinking about how to improve this process, we added more structure, so volunteers and our partners begin at the same place, with the same expectations. Orientation is clearer, with real examples of what we mean when we ask about results. Site visits are focused squarely on funding requests and what they will make possible, not on a polished pitch. As Andrea Baron, vice president of Local Allocations, put it, “It’s not just about what a program hopes to do. We ask, ‘What did you actually accomplish? And what did you learn along the way?’”
Once we got out into the community, a few themes repeatedly showed up. We learned that many of our kids have different learning needs. We heard it at Camp Livingston, at Rockwern Academy, and in other conversations. Counselors and educators talked about needing more resources for extra support, with parents quietly asking for help they didn’t need a few years ago. That kind of pattern helps volunteers look beyond any one request and see what broader issues Jewish Cincinnati is facing right now.
Local allocations are an important part of how we support Jewish Cincinnati, but it’s not the whole story. Federation support is year-round, and it shows up in more than one way. Sometimes it’s funding. Other times, it’s helping local organizations find additional resources, like security support, or helping connect with a donor passionate about their cause. It’s bringing together agencies to collaborate and respond when needs change. And when it comes to community safety and raising our civic voice, we do that work through JCRC and SAFE Cincinnati. That bigger picture matters because it shows what shared giving can do when it’s connected and channeled through a Federation that has been doing this work for 130 years.
If you’ve ever wondered how to get closer to the work, Local Allocations is one of the ways. The easiest first step is to stay connected. Send a message to [email protected], sign up for our email updates, or follow Jewish Federation of Cincinnati online for stories and updates from across the community. Because at its core, Local Allocations is about community. It’s people choosing to take responsibility for one another and building together.