September 1, 2010 to August 31, 2011

INTRODUCTION

It is a pleasure to present you with the 22nd annual report of the Yad Chessed Fund.

Details of the various activities of the Fund are provided below.

• Emergency assistance
• Monthly food assistance
• Purim program
• Holiday food assistance before Pesach and Rosh Hashanah
• Clothing assistance to families with children.
• Interest-free loans

EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE

Yad Chessed can intervene on a client's behalf at very short notice, for example by paying a bill to prevent a family from being evicted or having its heat shut off. In other, less critical cases, Yad Chessed provides supplemental food assistance or sends a check to help with essential car repairs, medical co-payments, unexpected housing-related expenses, and so on.

During the past fiscal year Yad Chessed distributed $134,798(*) in emergency assistance including $72,771 for housing, $15,896 for heat and other utilities, and $5,137 for medical and dental needs.

MONTHLY FOOD ASSISTANCE

Yad Chessed supports a number of families on a regular basis, mainly in the form of supermarket gift cards we distribute each month. During this past year Yad Chessed distributed a total of $102,010 to an average of 85 families each month.

PURIM PROGRAM

One of the important commandments of Purim is matanot l'evyonim (gifts to the poor). In his Mishnah Torah, Maimonides described this commandment as follows: "One is duty bound ON THE DAY OF PURIM to distribute to the poor." However, for many people in the Boston area who do not personally know any poor people, it is very difficult to fulfill this commandment. Each year Yad Chessed makes arrangements to allow individuals, synagogues, and schools to carry out this obligation.

In 2011 over fifty congregations and educational institutions, as well as various individuals, participated in the Purim program, allowing Yad Chessed to distribute $94,645 in matanot l'evyonim to 451 needy families.

HOLIDAY PROGRAM

Yad Chessed distributes supermarket gift cards in advance of Pesach and Rosh Hashanah to help defray the extra costs associated with celebrating these holidays. In 2011 Yad Chessed distributed $25,160 in food assistance through this program.

CLOTHING ASSISTANCE

Generally Yad Chessed distributes TJ Maxx gift cards in the spring and fall to families with children to help defray the costs of purchasing clothing for their children. In 2011 Yad Chessed distributed $9,700 in clothing assistance. Because of the significantly increased need for emergency assistance, Yad Chessed once again eliminated the fall clothing distribution.

INTEREST-FREE LOANS

Some people do not need or will not accept direct assistance. They may be temporarily out of work, arranging a child's wedding, starting a new business, or facing unexpected bills. Yad Chessed is glad to help these people with an interest-free loan, generally to be paid back over the ensuing year. In 2011 Yad Chessed distributed $35,985 in interest-free loans and collected $40,798 in loan repayments.

NAME CHANGE

Upon the advice of our attorney who specializes in nonprofit organizations, Yad Chessed changed its organizational structure from a charitable trust to a nonprofit corporation. Unlike a corporation, a trust is generally governed by a limited number of trustees who can serve indefinitely without the need for periodic elections or formal meetings. The structure of corporate governance usually includes regular turnover and a larger number of people and provides a format for the participation and contribution of a variety of people representing different interests in the community. This change required creating a new entity and a new name. Our new name is officially Yad Chessed Fund, Inc although we will refer to ourselves as Yad Chessed Fund or simply Yad Chessed.

SOME WORDS OF APPRECIATION

Yad Chessed would not be able to carry out its work without the help of a number of key people. For many years Ira Vishner has spent a large amount of time handling the donations and loan repayments, both physically bringing them to the bank as well as entering them into our computer system. He enters the names and addresses of new donors, makes address changes, and keeps track of hundreds of post-dated loan repayment checks.

Marc Fogel, who chairs the board of Yad Chessed, has continued to spend many hours in many different ways including expanding Yad Chessed's capacity, broadening Yad Chessed's presence in the community, and continuing to enhance the computer program used to track the grants and interest-free loans we provide and the donations and loan repayments we receive.

The IRS requires that donors of larger amounts of money receive a letter or receipt that indicates that they received no goods or services for their contributions. Other donors make contributions in honor or in memory of someone and request that we send a card to a particular family or individual. We also have a policy of acknowledging all donations made by children. Heather Ganitsky handles all of these tasks in an efficient and timely manner.

Deborah Fogel reviews all of Yad Chessed's solicitation letters and other communications, and has helped improve their clarity and effectiveness.

Finally, Izzy Zuber provided a review of our statement of assets and fund balance which is required by the state of Massachusetts. To these wonderful people who have given so generously of their time, a very special thank you.

A FINAL WORD

2011 was a very busy year for Yad Chessed. We received $442,263 in donations from 1035 donors, and distributed $346,840 (actual dollars) in grants and $35,985 in interest-free loans to 522 families (1244 individuals).

Thank you to all our donors for making it possible to help the many needy people who have requested assistance.

(*) Except where noted, all of the numbers reported for the various forms of assistance reflect the value to the client rather than the cost to Yad Chessed. In many cases Yad Chessed receives a discount of up to 10% allowing your donations to have an even greater impact.