Interview with Mikki Futernick

Establishing a Lion of Judah Endowment (LOJE) allows women the opportunity to go the extra step to endow their gifts in perpetuity. Creating a LOJE ensures that a woman’s values live forever, while providing a legacy for her children and grandchildren. Today there are more than 2337 LOJE representing more than $339 million. The Lion of Judah Endowment program continues to be the best vehicle for concerned and committed Jewish women to leave a lasting legacy and annual campaign dollars that will continue to meet the needs with the federation.

Mikki Futernick, the National Chairman of Lion of Judah in 1993 talks about the driving force behind the creation of LOJE.

Establishing a Lion of Judah Endowment (LOJE) allows women the opportunity to go the extra step to endow their gifts in perpetuity. Creating a LOJE ensures that a woman’s values live forever, while providing a legacy for her children and grandchildren. Today there are more than 2337 LOJE representing more than $339 million. The Lion of Judah Endowment program continues to be the best vehicle for concerned and committed Jewish women to leave a lasting legacy and annual campaign dollars that will continue to meet the needs with the federation.

Mikki Futernick, the National Chairman of Lion of Judah in 1993 talks about the driving force behind the creation of LOJE.
 
I come from a family that believes in giving time to the community. My father was chairman of the Dade County Welfare Planning Council, a precursor to the United Way. My mother started the first Girl Scout Troop for Retarded Girls in Dade County. We weren't wealthy. My parents gave small sums to many different charities. As I grew, I knew that was something I had to do as well.

When I married I also became involved. I'm a past president of the National Council of Jewish Women and the Women's Division of the federation. Our federation has several branches; I was the chairman of the South Dade branch.

For ten years I was a professional fund raiser for the Milton Hood Ward Company, a fund raising counsel. My specialty was synagogues. In order to help congregations build synagogues, I had to learn a lot about planned gifts, which were then considered the way of the future. Demographers tell us that women outlive men and inherit their money. My idea was to find a way to educate these women to make sure they left part of that inherited money to their Federation.

The UJA had started the PACE fund at that time to help perpetuate the campaign through endowments, but it wasn't doing much. It had no lower limit, no pizzazz, and didn't appeal to many people, especially women. They only managed to get two or three endowments from women per year.  So I went to a woman friend who knew a lot more about endowments than I did and talked with her about what we could do to be more successful. We came up with a few different ideas. I then called a committee meeting of a dozen past Women's Division presidents from Miami and laid out the whole LOJE idea. They agreed it was something we needed to create, so we began to flesh out the concept.

At first we decided that we wouldn't touch the LOJ pin, as many people thought that adding to the pin might denigrate it in the eyes of the annual contributors. We talked about getting a crystal lion that women could put it on display in their homes, but I knew that if the symbol of LOJE was not on the pin in some way the concept wouldn't go anywhere.

We also came up with five rules: Two of the most important rules were that the husband couldn't cut his gift so that his wife could make hers and that the minimum was to be $100,000 (a 20 to 1 ratio), so that at least $5,000 would be generated and given in the woman's name every year. You can find the other rules in a pamphlet at the national office.
 
We met once a month and at each meeting continued to discuss what we could do to recognize LOJE members. Finally, we hit upon two flames that we felt looked good and might not hurt the pin. We had Ballogh's Jewelry put a flame on each of two pins and brought them to meeting. Everybody loved the way they looked-- noticeable, but not too noticeable. We selected the flame that sits on the pin to this day. Then we came up with the theme of Or L'Atid--light unto the future--and decided to give it a whole biblical story. Two people that were very instrumental in creating the LOJE with me were Penny Marlin, the Miami federation's Foundation Director and Michele Sherritan, the National Women's Division Assistant Director.

Now that we had agreed among ourselves and had the approval of the Miami Women's Division Board, we took the concept to the National UJA Women's Division Board to bring the concept to a national level. It didn't pass the first time as there was a little commotion about the high $100,000 minimum and concern about what would happen to PACE. So it was put it on the table until the next meeting, when it was accepted in its entirety. I then made a presentation at a National Lion of Judah meeting in Washington, D.C., with all the support materials, and from there LOJE took off like hot cakes. You would have thought we were asking for a dollar.

I don't know if there's any way to explain things like this. It was like magic. If you study psychology, you learn that there are two reasons people do what they do: One is what they tell you is the reason, the other is the real reason. It could be that they want to imitate their neighbors.  I don't know, and frankly, I don't care, as long as they do what helps other people. We're going to need that money in the future and I'm very glad it will come to us. I'm not a very emotional person. I worked as a professional fund raiser and volunteer for many years. But I truly enjoy helping people do the right thing. People don't always know what's right. I try to show them how they can do something really good with their lives, and a lot of those people turn out to be very grateful.
Now it's 10 years later and LOJE is still selling like hot cakes. Lots of ideas don't even last 10 years. I am proud that LOJE is still there, that it grew so much, and that it will continue to grow. LOJE is critical to the federation movement because the young people aren't as affiliated or concerned about the Jewish people as the older generation. How will the needs of the Jewish people be met if there are no external forces coming in to meet them?

With philanthropy, when you help others, you really help yourself. Each of us is responsible for giving her life meaning. Endowing a Lion of Judah is one of the many things you can do to make yourself someone you really like.

Contact insert a local endowment professional's name and contact information here to learn more about LOJE.