Over 20 Years at the Helm of LA’s Largest Jewish Foundation

The Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles (The Foundation) is the largest manager of charitable assets and the leader in planned giving solutions for Greater Los Angeles Jewish philanthropists. It combines the best attributes of a bank, trust company, investment firm, and nonprofit agency and provides donors with the flexibility to give to a wide array of causes. Created by The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles in 1954, The Foundation is notable for its enduring stability, which has enabled assets to grow to $700 million. It provides grants to programs and institutions, helps donors to develop effective tax and estate planning strategies, and facilitates their philanthropy.

Recently, Beverly Hills [213] had the opportunity to talk to Foundation President and CEO Marvin Schotland about the foundation and his role in it.

Beverly Hills [213]: How did you get involved with the JCF?

Marvin Schotland: The Foundation conducted a national search in 1988. At the time I was doing some work for a foundation in New Jersey and it was the result of that search that I came here. I wanted to give to the community, particularly the Jewish community, but I’m also interested in the larger community that we all live in here in Los Angeles and the United States. So this opportunity presented itself.

[213]: Please tell us about the Los Angeles Collaborative Grants Program.

MS: It’s a program where we sought out projects where there were other foundations who were working together in order to leverage resources in order to solve problems that are very difficult ones to solve if you are just one foundation functioning on its own. Here are two examples: the Green LA Coalition and the the Greater L.A. Water campaign. We are part of a consortium to launch that campaign in order to raise awareness about the water crisis that support sustainable local solutions.

The second collaboration project—the L.A. Public/Private Funder Project for Infants and Toddlers. The shortened version is Healthy City. That’s a program for the implementation of the second year of the 2-year Healthy City Project. The purpose is to gather and map philathropic investment data for pre-natal to 5 years old to identify service gaps and leverage existing investments for greater effect and fund new identities for collaborations.

[213]: One of the great things about your foundations is that if someone wants to give money but doesn’t really have the time, you manage it for them.

MS: It runs the gamut from an individual who gives sums of money in the way where our board takes full responsibility for the distribution of those dollars to individuals who come to us who have very specific ideas about what they want to accomplish and they utilize our services to assist them in figuring out the most effective way to do that. It’s very interesting work in that context because we are both able to contribute in our own name and our own governmental process and in addition to that we are able to really assist very philanthropic individuals in fulfilling their particular vision. We do the work and they have the joy of ultimately determining where to distribute the dollars through a partnership with us.

[213]: What is the Foundation’s plans for the future?

MS: Our committment to the future is to contribute in larger and more effective ways to the well-being of the community...the Jewish and the general community. The other piece of what we’re doing is making sure that we are adding value in one way or another to every single individual who entrusts us with their resources that they have set aside for charitable and philanthropy purposes in the community. And we do that in a variety of different ways.

We have approximately 700 million dollars of assets under our management and we anticipate continued growth over time, especially when the economy turns around. It’s our privilege as an institution to be able to participate in the well being of Los Angeles and to play a part along with many others in the process.

[213]: So what does this job mean to you personally?

MS: I get to meet and work with both extraordinary creative people and extremely committed people to the well being of our community. And what can be better than that?

One other thing—we have established a youth foundation that works with teenagers to assist them in thinking about philanthropy. Over the course of the last 5 or 6 years, we’ve had 60-70 teenagers, and we’ve taught them how to evaluate a program. All of these young people are coming from families of resources. It’s inspiring to see them set aside time to do this with us and it’s also inspiring to know that whether from their own right or inheritance of wealth through their families, at some point in time they are going to bed able to make responsible decisions and we will have in some small way assisted them from any where a year later or 20 years later when they really begin to do this in a more serious fashion.