14th Annual JFS Executive Luncheon Featuring Barbara Corcoran Raises $481,000 for Jewish Family Service

Barbara Corcoran, real estate mogul, business expert, and investor/shark on ABC’s Shark Tank, entertained nearly 600 business and professional leaders attending Jewish Family Service’s (JFS) 14th annual JFS Executive Luncheon held on April 18 at the Hyatt Regency Denver at Colorado Convention Center.

Before the program, Chief-level sponsors attended a brief reception and photo op with Corcoran. As the program began, JFS interim president and CEO Debra J. Zimmerman acknowledged the event co-chairs, David Feiner and Rob Kaufmann, and the committee for their dedication and support, as well as expressed gratitude to JFS’s 155 staff members.

Several members from the JFS community shared, through video, why they “Invest in JFS.” Shortly after, Corcoran took the stage and entertained the audience with her rags-to-riches story of how she went from growing up in a two-bedroom apartment with her parents and nine siblings, to selling her first real estate business for $66 million, and some of the business lessons she’s learned along the way. She also shared some behind-the-scenes tidbits about being on Shark Tank and what she looks for in entrepreneurs who ask her to invest.

After her presentation, JFS staff members pitched their programs to Corcoran in a show JFS called “Just for Sharks.” Staff members Lisa Rincon, Doug Vega, and Dicia Kemp pitched KidSuccess, JFS’s school-based mental health program; Lunchbox Express summer lunch program; and Preventing Homelessness to Corcoran and the audience of “sharks.” Corcoran was so impressed that she personally pledged $10,000 to each program, and emcee Jim Benemann followed up with an announcement of an anonymous $50,000 match. Attendees’ donations helped meet that match and the event grossed more than $481,000 to support the life-transforming programs of Jewish Family Service.

More than 60 companies, organizations, foundations, and individuals supported the event through sponsorships. Top sponsors include Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, JEWISHcolorado, Brent and Julie Morse, Mindy Levy Peckar and Steven Peckar, David and Anna Asarch, Dependable Cleaners, Jack and Celeste Grynberg, Charlie Gwirtsman and Nancy Reichman, Kris Family Fund, The Ernest S. Madison Family Foundation, MassMutual Colorado, Michele and Richard Right/Katzson Brothers Inc., and ROI Equities—Jamie and Leanna Harris.