Jewish Fertility Foundation Launches Ambitious Campaign
Speaking at the organization’s annual fundraising dinner in The Stave Room, Elana Frank, founder and CEO, announced an ambitious long-term capital campaign.
The Jewish Fertility Foundation, the rapidly growing Atlanta-based nonprofit, is planning to accelerate its expansion over the next five years as it grows into a major national organization. Speaking at the organization’s annual fundraising dinner in The Stave Room, Elana Frank, founder and CEO, announced an ambitious long-term capital campaign.
“We look ahead with a bold goal to raise $18 million over the next five years to support 10,000 new Jewish intended parents and expand JFF’s impact nationwide to do this.”
It’s a big step up for the organization that provides grants and other financing to help prospective parents afford the steep cost of fertility treatment and, over the past 10 years, has helped 363 women with their medical expenses. So far, 223 children have been born as a result of the aid, including one birth that coincided with the dinner on Jan. 14. The event that evening raised almost $297,000.
In her talk that evening, Frank recalled how the organization came into being a decade ago after she returned to America from living in Israel. Two of her three children were born there with fertility treatments provided at no cost by the country’s national health insurance program.

In America, getting that kind of help was expensive. She soon found herself discussing infertility and its cost in America with friends at the Marcus Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody.
“I remember sitting in the JCC baby pool in Dunwoody, and it was the first time that I ever braved a conversation about my infertility. The pool moms and I discussed how infertility feels like being stuck in a constant cycle of hope and heartbreak, and then they spoke about the extreme cost in America, One woman shared that her twins cost about $60,000.”
Almost three-quarters of patients receiving in-vitro fertilization treatments in this country go into debt to receive them. The cost of these treatments can range from $12,000 to $25,000 for each pregnancy regimen or cycle. Sometimes several cycles of treatment are necessary before a pregnancy is successful and there is no guarantee that multiple attempts will result in a birth.
However, in the last 25 years the success rate among many women has more than doubled,
The Society for Assisted Reproductive Technology points to statistics that show a success rate of almost 65 percent of live births per new patients under the age of 35.
But paying for the treatment is another matter. In half the states in this country, medical insurance does not cover fertility treatments. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, only 21 states now mandate the coverage, and 16 states make the treatments a part of Medicaid. For those undergoing the demanding treatments, there can be painful physical and emotional consequences. Without insurance women often give up after a single try at pregnancy.
A study in 2018 described psychological stress as the most important reason couples discontinue the treatment. Over the past 10 years, the Fertility Foundation has made grants totaling $2.5 million. Today, the organization serves more than 1,000 clients in 10 locations across the country.

But the potential need is enormous. According to recent medical statistics, one woman in eight experiences medical infertility, but among Jewish women the figure jumps to one woman in six. About 17 percent of them seek treatment. Since Oct. 7, 2023, the organization has seen a 76 percent increase in fertility grants and what they describe as a surge in individuals seeking greater connection to Jewish life.
Both the Marcus Foundation and the Zalik Foundation have been important contributors to expanding the fertility organization’s infrastructure and grant making.
The Marcus Foundation has also been instrumental in expanding the work of JScreen, another important Atlanta medical nonprofit that provides genetic testing and counseling for a wide range of conditions such as Tay-Sacks disease, which is more likely to occur in the Jewish community.
The featured speaker at the Fertility Foundation dinner was Dr. Matt Goldstein, CEO of JScreen, who joined the organization after his oldest daughter died of Tay-Sacks disease. In a deeply moving presentation, he described her agonizing death and how a combination of genetic screening and fertility counseling led to the birth of his son, Ezra, a two-year-old who is healthy and thriving today.
He praised the work of the Jewish Fertility Foundation for what it has accomplished for him and others during its decade of work in the Jewish community,
“We are in a time,” Dr. Goldstein pointed out, “when we have incredible tools and immense knowledge and capability to ensure that we bring healthy children into the world and to keep healthy families and communities around to nurture them.”
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