The Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago today closed its 2014 Annual Campaign – the largest element in a communal fundraising effort that supports essential human services throughout Chicago and around the world – at $82,097,228, plus $9,694,035 for its Israel Emergency Campaign.

Overall, JUF/Federation’s multi-pronged fundraising effort last year mobilized $198,776,263 in resources to uplift the local and global Jewish community, support basic human needs, create Jewish experiences and strengthen Jewish community connections. Through its network of more than 70 vital social service agencies and programs, JUF transforms the lives of 300,000 Chicagoans of all faiths, and provides humanitarian assistance to 2 million Jews in Israel and around the world.

Examples include the delivery of more than half a million meals and other food assistance to local Jews; emergency financial assistance to 3,755 households; scholarship aid to 70 percent of local Jewish day school students; food, medicine, home care, and other necessities for 144,354 Jewish seniors and 26,308 impoverished children in the former Soviet Union, including embattled Ukraine; and services to assist the integration of 24,648 immigrants into Israeli society.

In addition to the Annual Campaign, JUF raises funds through bequests, the Centennial Campaign, corporate partnerships, donations to emergency relief efforts, donor advised funds, support foundations and other sources. As a major funder of human services addressing the needs of the most vulnerable populations in Illinois, the Federation also receives significant grants – totaling nearly $15 million in 2014 – from government and foundations, and is a beneficiary of the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.

“Once again we see just how incredibly generous and committed Chicago’s Jewish community is,” said 2014 Campaign Chair Lee I. Miller. “This marked the fifth year in a row since the recession that the Annual Campaign has increased over the previous year. But the real measure of success isn’t the number of dollars raised. It is how effectively those dollars are used, and the impact they have on the lives of thousands of individuals and families in need. That’s the difference we, as a community, make.”

“It is remarkable,” Board Chairman Bill Silverstein said, “that despite all the monumental changes and challenges that have occurred in the world over more than a century, JUF still is doing what it was created to do 115 years ago – help the hungry, the hurting and those most in need; strengthen our community; do our part to repair the world. We are passionate about that. And we are humbled that the community places such high trust in us to make that happen.”

“The success of JUF’s 2014 Annual Campaign speaks to the fantastic commitment and energy of its chair, Lee Miller; the End-of-Year chairs, Josh Herz and Martha Davidson; and all the other volunteers and staff who made it possible,” President Steven B. Nasatir said. “But it is the difference their efforts make in so many lives that speaks loudest to me and, I am sure, to each of them.”

Numbers tell the story

In 2014, in addition to the examples cited above, through JUF-supported agencies and programs, Chicago’s Jewish community made it possible for 26,619 people to get free or highly subsidized mental or physical healthcare; 5,564 seniors to stay in their homes rather than having to move to institutionalized care; 1,162 impoverished Jews to receive essential prescription medication; 1,228 children with disabilities to get intensive therapeutic services and education; and nearly 900 professionals to find jobs.

Countless Jewish experiences were sparked as 22,299 children engaged in JUF-supported formal and informal learning programs; 1,549 went to Jewish summer camp with scholarships; 6,317 families shared the joy of free Jewish books and music from JUF’s PJ Library; 638 got tuition aid that helped them start their child’s Jewish early childhood education; and 648 teens learned to be leaders through JUF programs.

Innovation also got a big boost as 17 visionary initiatives that meet local Jewish needs and engage community members Jewishly received grants from JUF’s Breakthrough Fund.

Since 2008, JUF scholarships and subsidies for Jewish early childhood programming grew by 300 percent, emergency assistance dollars provided by JUF agencies grew by nearly 400 percent, the number of free prescriptions filled grew by nearly 700 percent, and the number of people receiving free or subsidized health care more than doubled.

Internationally, JUF’s overseas programs helped 19,800 Jews from across the globe begin new lives of freedom in Israel; new immigrants received assistance with housing, Hebrew, employment and socialization; and some 12,000 at-risk Israeli youth and family members received scholastic and emotional support.

As rockets fell throughout Israel last summer, JUF launched the Israel Emergency Campaign, which provided meals, supplies, activity kits and special equipment to 180,000 seniors, people with disabilities and other vulnerable and shelter-bound Israelis. Some 81,000 children got a break from the explosions and fear when they were taken on respite trips, or to safe summer camps or youth village programs. And 27,000 Israelis living under fire received trauma support.

“In the simplest terms, the agencies we support and the programs we provide in Chicago, Israel and around the world are the conduit between those who need help and those who can provide it,” Nasatir said. “The fuel for all of those efforts comes from the tens of thousands who support the Annual Campaign.”