By Joel Magalnick, Editor, JTNews
The job market is not fully recovered, many people are uneasy about the jobs they do have, yet commitment to Jewish life at home and abroad remains strong. As a result, not much has changed in the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s allocations to its beneficiary agencies for next year. The Federation, which had a small increase in donations over the 2004 fiscal year, closes the books on June 30 with a recorded total of $6.1 million.
“We’ve ended up with a 2 percent increase, which is good if you look at the state of the economy and other federations around the country,” said Robin Boehler, the Federation’s campaign chairperson. “We think this is very respectable.”
From Boehler’s own experience and from talking to others, she said it appears that the region has finally come to terms with the end of the dot-com era.
“I think we’ve evened out,” said Boehler. “People are pretty much comfortable with where they’re at.”
Yet the job outlook is still not rosy, she added. Several people she solicited had been out of work for quite some time. Others, she said, were able to give beyond what had been requested, but cautioned they may not be able to do it again next year.
“Some people know what it means to give a tzedakah gift,” Boehler said, “and when they do well, the campaign does better.”
Overall, with the modest increase in donations, the allocations to most agencies stayed even.
“I see the money going to places where there is a direct and pronounced need,” said David Ellenhorn, who chaired the Planning and Allocations committee, which disburses the funds raised by the Federation. “The places we gave increases were to fund specific needs, and keeping every one else relatively flat helps those agencies keep the lights on.”
Amy Wasser-Simpson, the Federation’s vice president for planning and external affairs, said the small increase meant that the committee had to think more strategically when examining how to parse out the monies.
“Looking at the agencies with the very most need, whether it be our overseas partners or whether it be those agencies where there were substantial Samis cuts, we tried to make some small dent because we could never fill the entire gap,” she said.
Day schools will be feeling a pinch in the coming year because the Samis Foundation, which has experienced a loss in income from investments and the commercial real estate downturn, will be unable to sustain its grant levels from past years.
“We knew we could not make up the difference,” said Boehler. “The hole’s bigger than we could fill with the community campaign.”
She added that even with the cuts, not having those Samis grants at all would make things much more difficult for area Jewish Day Schools.
“We’d have to raise a lot more money, or our schools would be in a lot worse shape,” she said.
On the Human Need front, Jewish Family Service’s request for a $50,000 increase was not fulfilled. Wasser-Simpson said that the committee decided that the Seattle Association for Jewish with Disabilities, an arm of Jewish Family Service, could benefit more. So SAJD received a second one-time allocation of $15,000 — $5,000 more than last year. Ellenhorn expressed regret about not being able to give more to SAJD.
“There’s just a drastic lack of funding for Jews with disabilities in this city,” he said. “We’re trying to help with that, though frankly it’s a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed comprehensively.”
One area where the Federation is trying to spur movement is with the young adults, specifically with the Hillel JConnect program, which serves the post-college to age 30 demographic. JConnect received a $15,000 bump to help keep the program running for another year.
For teens, however, a proposal for an all-city youth director to help bring together the many disparate programs was shelved because of greater need for money elsewhere. Ellenhorn said the Jewish Education Council had stressed the benefit of such a position, but was unable to do anything about it this year. “We could do a lot better job with our teens if the community worked together,” he said.
JTNews, which is owned by the Federation, received a $14,182 one-time allocation to alleviate an increase in occupancy expenses.
Though the community campaign set an early goal of $7 million, Boehler said she knew it would be unattainable. However, given the feedback from agencies when setting the goals, she said it was the right amount.
“More money is more money and we’re happy,” she said, “but we’re short of what the community needs. No doubt about it.”
Rob Spitzer, outgoing Federation board president, said that he thought the committee leadership worked hard to ensure that agencies weren’t cut while keeping its eye on strategic community investment over the next decades.
“Our job is to build community,” he said, “and I think that our eyes are better focused on that goal.”