Jewish Family & Children’s Service recently received a $1.2 million donation from an anonymous supporter, according to the nonprofit organization. 

The donor gave the money as an unrestricted gift, meaning the organization can spread it among a number of different initiatives. Those include the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry, counseling services, child abuse prevention, assistance for the elderly and chaplaincy. The money will go to the JF&CS endowment, and the organization will then draw a percentage from it each year, according to Laura Robbins, JF&CS chief development officer.

“It basically helps secure our future by having it go into our endowment in an unrestricted way,” she said.

The organization’s budget for 2018 is $5.6 million, and its endowment is almost $4.5 million.

It’s unusual for a donor to give an unrestricted gift of that size to the organization, Robbins said.

The gift also was unusual in that the donor, who has died, contacted the organization earlier this year and said, “I am trying to find a place that is close to my heart where I can make a donation when I pass away, which may be very soon,” Robbins recalled. The donor died six months later.

More often, donors reach out earlier in their lives and tell the organization that they are leaving money to the organization in their will, according to Robbins. 

“What’s wonderful is a donor’s trust in our agency, knowing that we are set up to provide those services for a long time,” Robbins said. “They trusted that we had a good history and saw that we were making an impact in the community.”