Development Activities

Fundraising at Margolin Hebrew Academy/Feinstone Yeshiva of the South allows us to offer financial aid to families in need, provide outstanding programming for our students, and help us retain a gifted and well-trained faculty. Although the Jewish community in Memphis, Tennessee is relatively small (under 10,000), our devoted supporters and parent body make enormous fundraising efforts. These efforts provide approximately 1/3 of our annual budget.

Our PTA/Ladies’ Auxiliary has various fund-raisers during the year that yield over $70,000 in annual aid to the school. Our annual Operational Campaign, Sweepstakes and Scholarship Banquet and Ad Journal account for most of our fundraising dollars. In addition, we raise a significant amount of money from the sale of supermarket and dry cleaner stored value cards and coupons and miscellaneous donations we receive for tributes. We have the following funds established for the purpose of giving tributes:

• Ann Slutsky Computer Fund
• Art Fund
• Camp Shemesh
• Cooper Gemillat Chesed Fund
• Celia H. Drazin Fund for Social & Guidance Counseling
• General Building Fund
• General Operating Fund
• General Scholarship Fund
• Kollel Torah MiTzion Program
• Library Fund
• Louis A. Fineberg Special Education Fund
• M.H.A.E.R.A.H. Program
• Rozzie Epstein Greening Fund

Endowments

In the past several years, we have made great strides towards building our endowment funds to guarantee the future of our school. In this effort we are a partner agency with the Jewish Foundation of Memphis.

The Irby Cooper Learning Endowment Fund, in memory of our beloved friend and great supporter, Mr. Irby Cooper, of blessed memory, was established in July, 2000. This fund provides income that is used for programming, books, and to provide salary and benefits for faculty and staff.

In addition, our General Endowment Fund was established by some of our generous donors many years ago to guarantee the future of Jewish education in Memphis. We continue to receive donations to this fund, but we have a long way to go in our fundraising efforts to assure the solvency of our school for years to come. The income from this fund is used to help us with our day-to-day operations and we are hopeful that it will eventually enable us to enhance many facets of our school.

Our goal of providing a quality education for our students is only possible if we maintain our high level of fundraising activity. We are constantly exploring new approaches to our fundraising activities and attempting to expand our donor base. We are always open to fresh ideas and new avenues for raising revenue.

Please contact our Executive Director, Shimon A. Kaminetzky, in our office to make a donation to any of our funds or volunteer your time for fundraising. For more information about our endowment funds contact Shimon or Laura Linder at the Jewish Foundation of Memphis.

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