11.12.2020 - JSGD - Fundraising Appeal

Jain Society of Greater Detroit

JSGD FUNDRAISING APPEAL

December 11, 2020
Respected Members,
Jai Jinendra!

On behalf of JSGD BOT, we wish you all A Happy New Year in advance. I hope you all had wonderful Diwali celebrations and got to spend time with your family during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

This year has been challenging is an understatement. JSGD had to take an unprecedented step of closing our derasar, canceling our significant events such as Fundraising Dinner, Mahavir Janma Kalyanak, but setup virtual darshan, scaled down anniversary celebrations. Some of our members came forward and volunteered to do daily evening group prayers for almost four months via phone. It was well received.

During this year, our JSGD membership has been cooperative and understanding for the EC and BOT decisions, and we thank every member for that. JSGD members donated almost $40,000 towards the noble cause of Covid-19 relief for the Gleaners foodbank and State of Michigan.

We want to bring JSGD membership attention to our financial state as a society; the Covid-19 pandemic has made a dent in our pledges and donations this year. Not only did we lose several significant fundraising opportunities, but overall donations have gone down while certain necessary expenses continue to be there. This year our society is in red, i.e., we have an income and expense imbalance for 2020.

Our EC has done a great job by managing certain expenses by cancelling contracts, reducing the hours needed for certain services. BOT postponed a major project related to HVAC this year, an expense of about $350,000 - $400,000.

As of November 20, 2020, we had total expenses of approximately $221,000 but incoming pledges/donations of less than $100,000 (excludes Covid19 relief donation). We have outstanding pledges of $67,000 (for prior years). To put it in perspective, we had about $419,000 in donations/pledges for the year 2019. Our average fundraising total for a typical year is between $300,000 - $400,000. On November 21, 2020, EC and BOT did a joint virtual General body presentation via YouTube. We presented these facts as part of the presentation. If you have not seen the presentation and would like to see it, please visit our JSGD YouTube channel (https://youtu.be/zyBQ27ZfXIQ).


Here are some of the major expenses that are lined up for the next year

1. HVAC project ( ~$350,000 - $400,000)
2. Possible Shikhar repairs - amount not known yet.
3. Recurring expenses for the temple (~ $300,000) will be part of the EC budget, and numbers may change.

1. Please clear your outstanding pledges; if any, you would have received statements from our finance team (Contact for any queries).
2. We have approximately 500 + member families; we recommend a donation of $300 per family before the end of the year.
3. If your employers match donations, then try and get a matching donation to increase your contribution.
4. Stocks/funds donations to JSGD - some of our members have approached us about, and we can receive those donations as well.

• Zelle –
• Venmo - @jsgdfinance
• Check – Write Check payable to – JSGD and mail it to the temple address.
• PayPal –