JEF is a non-profit corporation established to receive, administer and allocate funds and property to serve the Jewish Federation, its network of beneficiary agencies and institutions, the Jewish community of New Orleans and other tax exempt organizations. Its major functions include development of the community’s bequest and endowment programs, the investment and management of charitable funds for Jewish institutions and agencies.

Income earned from Unrestricted gifts made to JEF’s General Fund supports endowment administration and provides grants to Jewish agencies and “seed money” for new and innovative projects not covered by annual budgets. Agencies may propose projects that allow them to be on the cutting edge of community planning.

The purpose of JEF grant awards is to encourage agencies to stay current with the Jewish community’s changing needs, to be in the vanguard of new and developing patterns of Jewish life, pointing the direction for communal organizations, pioneering on the frontiers of Jewish communal existence.