Facing a declining donor base 20 years in the making, UJC/The Jewish Federations of North America is reframing its brand and the way its community of member federations works together.

By Abny Santicola

Sussman, now an independent consultant for the federation and president of Response Concepts in Bethesda, Md., is an expert in building donor bases, and acquisition and retention. She hit the ground running and built models to look at the attrition rate of donors and the impact of acquisition over one year, two years, etc., to analyze what the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington needed to do to turn the pattern of attrition over and grow its base. One thing she found out was that a declining donor base wasn't an issue in D.C. alone but rather a major problem for all of the North American federations.