By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
There’s no question that nonprofit organizations are suffering in today’s economy. Many pleas from organizations, whether inside or outside of the Jewish world, let their donors know that they are desperate for funds while others, like the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education, have had to close their doors. Which is what makes the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle somewhat of an aberration: An organization that, for now, is holding its own.
“Right now we are on a par with last year in terms of our total number” of dollars brought in, said Keith Krivitzky, the Federation’s Vice President of the Center for Jewish Philanthropy, though he cautioned that with the rate at which donations have been recorded that number may not be completely accurate.
“Compared to most…federations across the country, this seems to be better than the norm,” Krivitzky said, “but at the same time we’ve got a long way to go before we get to the end of our campaign.”
The Fiscal Year 2008 intake of $6.05 million was down from the 2007 campaign total of $6.2 million. According to documents sent to beneficiary agencies to request their Fiscal Year 2010 allocations, the goal for the campaign ending April 30 is to hold the line at $6.05 million.
Despite being on pace now, Federation officials are holding their breath during the second half of the community campaign, which runs through April 30. What has Krivitzky and others inside the Federation concerned is the number of donors that had made their gifts or pledges by this time last year, “but are sitting on the sidelines thus far this year,” he said.
If, at the end of the campaign, these previous donors remain on the sidelines and do not recommit to their pledges, the final numbers could have an even greater effect on organizations whose own fundraising efforts are being hindered by the economy and depend even more upon the allocations that come as a result of the community campaign.
“There are a number of donors who seem to be sitting on the sidelines this year. Is some of that money at risk? I’m sure,” said Krivitzky. “What that figure is remains to be seen.”
Jewish organizations in the Puget Sound region as well as a handful worldwide rely upon the Federation to help bolster their operating budgets, though the amount, percentage-wise, that the Federation’s campaign has been able to offer has become smaller as agencies’ budgets have grown larger. In tough times, however, any extra dollars the Federation can provide — particularly when fundraising suffers — can make a big difference in even just keeping the lights on.
“[Organizations are] going to be looking to us even more this year to make sure that we can provide those very needed funds for those very needed functions,” Krivitzky said.
Still, allocations for many of the Federation’s beneficiaries could decrease. Local Jewish organizations completed a process that enabled the Planning and Allocations Committee, which reviews allocation requests, to quantify the value each agency provides for the community. The process created a realignment of what had been a status quo of allocations that had remained essentially unchanged from year to year — depending upon the community campaign’s final numbers. This year, as happened last year, agencies were told that the Federation’s board of directors had guaranteed 75 percent of their 2009 allocations for 2010; the rest will be determined using the internal process, known as the Dwaffler Attributes.
Krivitzky said that the Federation has become more aggressive in its fundraising, and is responding to the financial crisis in several ways, including a full-day, “Challenging Times Phone-a-thon” that will be held on March 15.
“We really do want to try and contact a couple thousand people in our community,” Krivitzky said.
Already, he said, more than 50 people have volunteered to help out and the beneficiary agencies are being asked to solicit their donors as well to participate.
“We really do need people to step up. It’s not just about doing business as usual,” Krivitzky said. “People are really depending upon the community campaign this year like they haven’t in many years.”