By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
In response to a community campaign that is suffering and the need to create a staffing plan that reflects its new fundraising and allocations model, the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle made personnel cuts this month that by June will reduce 25 percent of its workforce.
“We’ve had a down campaign for the past two years, so there was sense that we needed to reset the level of our operating costs within the Federation,” said CEO and president Richard Fruchter.
Most of the agency’s departments are being restructured, many programs consolidated, and anything not central to its core fundraising mission will either be discontinued or attempts will be made to find outside funding to keep them going. On the potential chopping block are education programs such as the community-wide Hebrew High School and teacher education seminars, among others.
“Unless it can afford to be fully funded for what it does, we can’t afford to run it out of here,” Fruchter said.
The cuts will shave about 19 percent from the Federation’s budget — about $500,000 — and eliminate the equivalent of seven full-time positions. Eleven employees have been affected, some with reduced hours. It’s a move that has been in planning for eight months, Fruchter said.
“We knew we had to bring overhead down since we weren’t raising more money,” he said. “In our world that means cutting personnel because programs are personnel. There isn’t that much more to cut.”
The Federation also sees a need to push more of the money it brings in through its community campaign out to its beneficiaries, Fruchter added.
“We want to get more money out into the community, because the community needs more in difficult times,” he said.
Despite the layoffs, with the launch of its new strategic plan in July the Federation is also hiring. A major gifts and planned giving officer will round out a restructured campaign department and a community planning associate will work on looking at big-picture needs for the community.