By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
The economy has come calling to the Jewish Federation.
Where as recently as March fundraising for the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s annual community campaign appeared to be on track to reach last year’s level of $6.05 million, organization officials are now projecting a decrease of close to half a million dollars — somewhere between 8 and 10 percent.
As June 30 approaches and the fiscal year marches quickly to a close, the Federation is scrambling to narrow at least some of that gap with a matching initiative for community members who increase their donations from what they had pledged earlier in the year, as well as last-minute attempts to secure new donors.
“That’s going to have a tremendous impact on the service we provide both to Israel, to 257 communities overseas, and to our local partner agencies,” said Federation CEO Richard Fruchter.
The shortfall, echoed campaign chair Iantha Sidell, affects the entire Jewish community — in particular, some of the smaller agencies that rely on Federation allocations each year to keep afloat.
“I’m concerned about the [Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center] and the Historical Society,” Sidell said.
Federation board chair Ron Leibsohn said that because of the economy, nearly all of the agencies the Federation supports have been reduced to shoestring budgets.
“They can’t really cut anymore and still be effective,” Leibsohn said. We’re “at a point where if we do not raise more money at the Federation there’s going to have to be serious cuts in everything from schools to camping, social services and food banks. All across the board organizations are going to have to cut services again.”
Leibsohn stopped short of calling the situation a crisis, but said, “it’s certainly an extremely serious situation that we as a community are in if we don’t raise additional funds.”
Sidell expressed concern for how area day schools will be affected by smaller allocations, particularly when many are experiencing falling enrollments and increased scholarship requests. For the K-5 schools, parents who must unenroll a 3rd grader will likely end that child’s day school education at that point.
“It’s sad when people want to give their kids a Jewish education and there’s no scholarships,” she said. “They may miss out altogether.”
To help stem the losses, Leibsohn asked the Federation’s board members, some of whom have been heavily affected by the recession themselves, to once again ante up for a special matching fund, which has currently reached about $35,000, to double donations from current donors who increase their own pledges.
“That means every gift that comes in from now on could be matched. That really gives an incentive for people to give, because $1 becomes $2,” Fruchter said. “If everybody did that, even smaller gifts add up to quite a bit of money so that we won’t have to make enforced cuts. That means basically letting go of important personnel who are providing critical services to the community.”
The Federation has already done just that with the elimination of three full-time positions, including Jewish Education Center director Barbara Binder Kadden. One of those positions eliminated had been open, and the work was spread among current employees.
The Federation began using a system last year that objectively rates each of the agencies to which it gives allocations, with a promise of at least 75 percent of the previous year’s allocation. This year the Planning and Allocations committee has repeated the process with the 75 percent guarantee, meaning some agencies could end up with as little as 62 percent of their allocation of two years ago. Sidell said nearly all of the organizations that receive funding will see their allocations reduced from last year, but that the Federation could guarantee the 75 percent despite the campaign’s results.
Sidell, who as a volunteer spends a lot of her time soliciting donations for the Federation, said she is seeing the recession take its toll on many of her donors first-hand. While she noted that some are stepping up to increase their gifts, she is seeing many incomes dwindling and is often having to work harder to ask for even an extra $100. She’s also worried that people who have made large pledges may not be able to fulfill them.
One donor, she said, decreased their pledge from $30,000 to $15,000. She doesn’t expect that donation to immediately return to its previous levels as the economy improves — it will likely be more incremental.
This means that bringing the Federation’s campaign back to the $6.2 million high water mark of two years ago and beyond could take years, Sidell said.
Coupled with inflation, particularly in light of the inevitable high-interest payback of the infusions needed to restore the economy today, that money that will continue to shrink in effectiveness for its beneficiaries while agencies will continue to struggle just to hold the line.
Leibsohn expressed hope that people will dig a little deeper to help those in the community who have fallen on hard times.
“I think it’s traditional that in times of crisis we make the sacrifices and come together to solve the problems,” he said. “That’s what I’m counting on and I’m hoping the rest of the community sees things the same way.”