By Donna Gordon Blankinship, Editor, JTNews
It took the wisdom of King Solomon — and more than 50 hours of meetings — for two Jewish Federation committees to figure out how to allocate funds from the 2002 Community Campaign, which brought in $374,492 less to allocate than the previous year’s campaign.
Most local agencies received a cut — with average allocations dropped to 90 percent of the agency’s fiscal 2001 allowance. The only significant increase went to help Israel during its time of need. A special campaign called Israel NOW brought in pledges of more than $900,000, which will be sent directly to agencies that help people in Israel.
All the campaign allocations were approved on Monday when the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Board met.
The Finance and Administrative Committee cut the Jewish Federation’s own allocation from $1,528,999 in fiscal 2002 to $1,507,833 in fiscal 2003. In addition to this cut, the Federation also lost $65,000 from a technology grant it received during the past fiscal year.
One significant cut affected the Federation’s contribution to its national organization, the United Jewish Communities. The Planning and Allocations Committee, headed by volunteer Bob Low, cut the UJC allocation by $162,269. The total decrease for overseas agencies — including UJC but not the Israel NOW campaign — was $188,669. The total cut to local and national agencies was $188,470.
The Planning and Allocations Committee divides its allocations among four pillars: Jewish Education, Jewish Identity/Community Building, World Jewry and Human Need. Low said his committee took direction from the Federation executive committee and tried to make the least impact on Human Need allocations, because just as the Community Campaign had been hurt by the economic downtown so had social service needs increased.
Jewish Family Service was the only agency to see an increase in its allocation — from $443,438 in fiscal 2002 to $444,500 in fiscal 2003. Its subsidiary, the Seattle Association for the Jewish Disabled, lost some ground, however, with its allocation cut from $94,026 to $78,492.
Before Monday’s Federation Board meeting, the Stroum Jewish Community Center was scheduled for the biggest cut of all. Like most other local agencies, the JCC was expecting a decrease to an amount equal to 90 percent of its fiscal 2001 allocation. The Planning and Allocations Committee recommended an additional JCC cut of $35,000 to help fund new preschools at the Jewish Day School and Seattle Hebrew Academy — established to fill in a gap created when the JCC decided it would have to close its satellite centers at those locations. The Federation Board reversed that decision after a lively debate. The board decided to find money to help start the preschools — $20,000 for each school — from another source.
In his report to the board, Low emphasized how difficult the allocations process was but commended the 30 volunteers on the committee for their compassion, commitment and caring, and thanked Federation staff members Amy Wasser-Simpson and Chelsie Davis.
In his written report to the Federation Board, Low said, PAC will beworking to insure “all community members understand the impossibility of adequately funding the growing needs of this community, when we have fewer unrestricted dollars.”