In a way, the St. Paul Jewish Federation’s annual meeting on May 20 marked the end of one era and the beginning of another for Twin Cities Jews to the east of the Mississippi.
Two announcements headlined the night: The largest endowment gift from living donors in the federation’s history and the acquisition of all the Talmud Torah of St. Paul’s assets for a new education fund.
Don and Rhoda Mains, longtime federation supporters, are giving $2.6 million for a new Mains Family Endowment Fund.
“It’s just an amazing moment to celebrate them and celebrate all they’ve done for the community,” said David Kaplan, CEO of the St. Paul Jewish Federation. “And what they’re going to continue to do for the community in perpetuity.”
The Mainses see this endowment as an investment in future generations and a way to show leadership for other donors who may be interested in similar gifts.
“They’ve invested their time, their treasure over the entirety of their lifetime into the St Paul community to make it stronger,” Kaplan said. “This gift came about from conversations … about (what) they want their legacy to be, and what kind of future they are hoping for.”
With the St. Paul Federation’s annual endowment draw at about 4.5%, the Mains fund will spin out a little over $110,000 each year. Over time, the fund and its support will grow.
Notably, the endowment is unrestricted, meaning the federation can deploy those dollars how it sees fit. Don and Rhoda “were adamant, absolutely adamant – it was a requirement to complete this agreement – that the funds be unrestricted,” Kaplan said.
They “firmly believe that the federation needs the flexibility to put those dollars where they’re needed most, and where those dollars might be needed most is going to be different today than it might be in 10 years or 100 years.”
TTSP struggled for years. Now, it can help others avoid that
Ari Parritz grew up attending the Talmud Torah of St. Paul day school in the institution’s heyday of the 1990s and early 2000s. But as he grew up, TTSP started a downhill slide.
Demographic changes meant fewer Jewish kids going to day school, Parritz said. And the Great Recession hit TTSP’s enrollment further.
“We were able to hold on and continue to offer programs when 99 out of 100 other organizations like TTSP would have been forced to close,” Parritz said.
That was partly because TTSP had its building, which it leased out for extra revenue. The financial runway saw the institution catch a new wind with higher enrollment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But soon after came a new downturn. The day school closed in 2023 having enrolled just 10 kids, and nine months later the afternoon school was also shuttered.
As a member and then co-president of the TTSP board, Parritz saw that decline up close.
“We were in a cycle that had gone on over many, many, many years, where we couldn’t grow because we were too small, and we were too small because we couldn’t grow – and there was just no way to get out of that,” he said.
Day schools across the U.S. have struggled in similar ways, prompting closings and institutional pivots. But others, such as Rockwern Academy in Cincinnati, have found success with growing student retention.
Parritz saw little chance TTSP could replicate that success. “We were already deep in the water,” he said. “Day schools that have enrollment that are at 150 to 200 kids, where they really could be like 300 to 400 kids, are in a great place to be able to grow off of a strong foundation.”
After a strategic planning process, the board decided that they had spent enough money keeping TTSP afloat. It was better to help other organizations prosper and avoid TTSP’s fate.
(Editor’s note: Hineni, previously TTSP’s adult education program, is now named FolkLab and an initiative of Jewfolk, Inc., with funding support from TTSP.)
“If we stop maintaining the overhead infrastructure to operate these programs ourselves, we can better consolidate resources in the organizations that aren’t at this minimum viable floor or below this minimum viable floor,” Parritz said.
Under the St. Paul Jewish Federation, TTSP’s assets will form a roughly $3 million endowment fund, spinning out about $135,000 annually. The fund is restricted to fulfill TTSP’s historic mission of Jewish education and will be overseen by a separate committee with five members.
Parritz will be one of those committee members. As an organization, TTSP will dissolve.
“Ultimately, our board felt that this was the best thing to do, not for us, but for the Jewish community writ large,” Parritz said. The board was driven by asking, “How can we help the community, more so than helping ourselves or helping the organization as a specific entity?”
Stronger funding and focus for education
Parritz doesn’t just want to support good but perhaps floundering Jewish education programs in the Twin Cities. The new TTSP endowment committee is squarely focused on supporting quality initiatives.
“How can we help other people who are currently doing (Jewish education well) get to great, or currently doing a great job, get to even better,” he said.
That effort will be part of a restructured Jewish education department at the St. Paul Jewish Federation that will oversee grants, scholarships, Israel trips and other education funding under one umbrella. With the new TTSP endowment, the federation’s total funding for Jewish education will reach over half a million dollars every year.
Ruth Hampton Olkon, the former CEO of the Jewish Family Service of St. Paul (now merged into the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Minnesota), will lead the new education department.
Olkon will do listening sessions with the St. Paul Jewish community and work with a committee made up of local educators to shape the department’s mission and approach.
“Ruth is a fantastic community builder, she is a great consensus builder, and is someone who can see the big picture,” Kaplan said. He sees the new department as a way to be more effective with funding and programming.
The TTSP endowment committee may take a little time to find its feet, and Parritz plans to take feedback from the community, too. The committee wants to fund immersive Jewish experiences, such as day schools and summer camps, that studies show create a deep and lasting impact on Jewish kids.
But the funding process, and where the committee fits into existing infrastructure, needs to be clear. In other communities, some Jewish institutions that have become exclusively funders have turned into independent foundations.
Under the federation umbrella, the TTSP endowment committee has some independence. But it does rely on the federation’s judgment and screening process.
“The thing that we are being very careful on is to respect the role of both of the Twin Cities Federations,” Parritz said. “Right now, there’s a very well-defined intake process for what you call startup programs or totally new things.”
I asked Parritz if TTSP’s endowment setup might reduce the diversity of Jewish education in the Twin Cities. If TTSP had become an independent foundation, for example, it could take a chance on new ideas that the federations may not see as worthwhile or successful.
“What you’re highlighting is an important need,” Parritz said. But “we’re not set up to do that. We’ve specifically organized ourselves to be a more lean, efficient mode of getting funds out into the community, which means that we have to rely on other people’s staff to do that work.”
Parritz sees federation staff as being in a better position to give starter grants and evaluate new ideas. He also noted that there are other donors in the Twin Cities that can support ideas the federation may pass on.
“We can be extra sure that we’re not stepping on any toes or duplicating any processes,” Parritz said. “The last thing anyone needs is more process and more paperwork.”
(Editor’s note: Jewfolk COO Liz Palmer and FolkMedia Consulting Manager Juliana Sellers are the executive director and co-board chair, respectively, of TTSP).