By Manny Frishberg, JTNews Correspondent
While the financial news around the Puget Sound has mirrored the harder times people are feeling around the country, some of the most prominent Jewish organizations in the Seattle area say things could be a lot worse than they are.
Layoffs at Boeing and the economic downturn have clearly taken a toll, but the local Jewish community has also responded with characteristic generosity to help cushion the blow, according to officials from groups ranging from Jewish Family Service to area congregations and the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.
Barry Goren, the executive vice president of the federation, said total donations have remained fairly stable this year. He was optimistic that the results of this year’s fundraising efforts — despite the worsening economic conditions — may even top last year’s campaign, which collected more than $9 million.
“The impacts of the economy and of 9/11 were not as large as I’d feared. There are probably some gifts that we will lose because of the economic downturn,” he allowed. One reason he gave for the relative stability is the federation’s reliance on a stable base of large donations from well-known local philanthropists.
“Although we have somewhere between 4,500 and 5,000 donors,” he said, “90 percent of the money comes from 10 percent of the donors.”
One concern Goren mentioned was that because the federation allows people who give $5,000 or more to designate where that money is spent, a larger portion of the donations may end up being earmarked for specific programs, leaving less for programs that are less popular with particular donors. People who have given money to the federation in past years have actually been finding ways to increase their donations by an average of about 8 percent over last year, he said, but they could still face a shortfall in unrestricted dollars, which also pay for community agency overhead.
“We do have some special fund-raising that we’re doing here this year,” he said. “We’ve been asking donors to make a gift to a special campaign called ‘Israel Now!’ because of the 18-month war [to help] the victims of terror and violence and their families.” Goren said that campaign has raised $200,000 over and above their usual efforts.
Esther Herst, executive director at Temple B’nai Torah, said the community has been in “a significant economic downturn” since before Sept. 11. “What I am struck by is a tremendous generosity of spirit, of energy and of finances among our congregation for what Temple B’nai Torah does and for what is needed around the rest of the world,” she said. “It’s more important that people make their mortgage payments and keep food on the table, so we have seen families within our congregation who are having financial difficulties come to us and we make appropriate adjustments.”
Herst said they have made efforts to make cuts where they would not affect the programs and services of the temple and she does not foresee needing to have any layoffs as a result. She sees fewer people facing financial problems now than a few months ago and expects a likely turnaround by fall.
At Temple Beth Am, Sandy Void, who took over the director’s post last October, said they have seen less than a 1 or 2 percent drop in their operating budget since he arrived. He said they are lucky in that they are still a growing congregation with some 50 new members in the last several months. Since as much as 70 percent of funding is from memberships, he added, the influx of people joining the temple has kept them from even greater shortfalls.
Overall, one of the hardest-hit agencies to date is Jewish Family Service, contending with a $200,000 drop-off in revenues since Sept. 11.
“The irony of being a social service agency in bad times is that the number of people coming to us needing help has increased,” said JFS Executive Director Ken Weinberg. Since last fall, he estimated that requests for emergency assistance or rent payments, food and other necessities by people on the edge has gone up by 20 percent.
“It has been an exceedingly difficult year for us,” Weinberg said. “Before Sept. 11, it looked like the year would be okay, we had a balanced budget. After Sept. 11, things really changed very dramatically. After some very careful planning we cut $200,000 from our budget.” But it has come at a cost: More than seven staff members were given layoff notices, one satellite office in Bellevue was shut down, and everyone, without exception, took three days of unpaid leave.
General giving has been down by a fifth since last September and, Weinberg said. One major donor who typically gave enough to pay for two or three staffers each year “went from a significant number to zero.”
Weinberg said they were also able to keep the downtown Bellevue office open, thanks to an unnamed benefactor who stepped forward to provide office space rent-free in the Eastside city for the next two years.
While the state budget for social services was cut by legislators in Olympia, Weinberg allowed that the final result “was not the total disaster we thought it might be” but added that there are still “many programs in which our clients will feel the pinch of the state budget.”
At the Stroum Jewish Community Center, the events of the past seven months have exacerbated the financial challenges that existed there previously. Board President Paul Etsekson said that one factor is that, unlike the majority of the groups serving the community, the J is not a true charity. People join the community center for the programs and services they offer.
“They’re buying something and they expect something in return,” he said. “When people are losing their jobs or they are feeling less flush, the first things that go are the things they feel they can do without.”
He said they have placed a freeze on hiring and supplies, including a decision not to replace assistant director Rick Nelson when he left in December and eliminating the development department set up a year or so ago.
“Our biggest issue has been the cost of holding the land,” Etsekson said, referring to property adjacent to the Mercer Island facility that the JCC is buying.
Several Jewish organizations have expressed an interest in using that land. Fifteen community members provided a guarantee for the $2.3 million loan for the land and Etsekson said they have restructured the loan, spreading the costs “among several agencies.”
In the long run, said the federation’s Goren, “the Jewish community in this area is growing, and as the economy strengthens, I’m sure the Jewish fund-raising here will continue to grow.”