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Denver, Colo., July 27, 2023 – Rose Community Foundation recently welcomed Jacob Rosenblum as its new director of Jewish community grants and partnerships, helping to lead the Foundation’s longstanding work to increase the strength and capacity of local Jewish organizations and encourage a dynamic and inclusive Denver/Boulder Jewish ecosystem.
“With Rose Community Foundation’s roots in – and longstanding commitment to – our local Jewish community, finding the optimal person with the optimal experience for this role was critically important to us. We are excited to welcome Jacob to our team and leverage his background in strategic grantmaking, philanthropic engagement, program evaluation, nonprofit operations and community building.”
— Rose Community Foundation President and CEO Lindy Eichenbaum Lent
Rosenblum recently moved to Denver from Chicago where he served as associate director at nonprofit and philanthropic consulting firm Arabella Advisors, managing a portfolio of nonprofit projects and providing operational oversight to ensure they met their strategic and programmatic goals. He previously worked at Crown Family Philanthropies, spearheading a new philanthropic education curriculum through a Jewish lens and engaging next-generation family members in grantmaking. He also served on the Young Community Changemakers faculty for the Community Memorial Foundation, teaching high school students about philanthropy and leading them through collaborative grantmaking processes, and he worked at the University of Chicago Urban Labs performing policy research and program evaluation of various housing models aimed at reducing homelessness.
“Rose Community Foundation’s emphasis on supporting the strength, diversity, inclusivity, sustainability, and connectivity of the Denver-area Jewish community is inspiring. I am honored to join this team and very much look forward to getting to know Rose Community Foundation’s incredible community partners while building upon the Foundation’s history of leadership, strategic investments and collaboration in the Jewish community.”
— Jacob Rosenblum
Rosenblum was very involved in the Chicago Jewish community, participating in Temple Sholom’s Justice Pen Pal Program, community organizing with the Jewish Council on Urban Affairs and Religious Action Center of Illinois, and serving as the advocacy co-chair of the Northwestern Hillel Social Justice Board. He also has a history of personal engagement with Moishe House, OneTable and Bend the Arc. Rosenblum holds a bachelor’s degree in social policy and statistics from Northwestern University, where he received the Hillel Social Justice Award and was a Public Interest Program Fellow; he is currently completing a master’s degree in urban planning and policy at the University of Illinois Chicago.
Rosenblum’s predecessor at Rose Community Foundation, Vanessa Bernier, will continue to serve as project manager for Leading Partners Colorado and the Strength-to-Strength Initiative.
“We are grateful for Vanessa’s strong leadership of the Jewish Life portfolio over the past four years and thrilled that she – in addition to helping with this transition and current grant cycle – will continue to serve as project manager for the Foundation’s ongoing professional development workshops for senior staff and board members of local Jewish organizations,” said Eichenbaum Lent.
These professional development programs are part of the Foundation’s larger support of the local Jewish ecosystem which includes significant annual grantmaking, additional philanthropic support from donor-advised funds housed at and stewarded by the Foundation, nonprofit endowment-building incentives and trainings, aligned giving opportunities for Jewish philanthropists, and giving circles for Jewish teens and young adults. To learn more about Rose Community Foundation’s multi-faceted support of the Denver/Boulder Jewish community, visit rcfdenver.org/jewishlife.
