By Joel Magalnick, JTNews Correspondent
The Seattle Association for Jews with Disabilities has had a very tough year. In addition to rising health care costs, the reserves in the supporting foundation fund of the Jewish Family Service department have been depleted by loss of investment income, and its endowment fund has essentially been tapped out. SAJD’s struggles over the past year have caused it to resort to cost-cutting measures such as staff reductions to be able to continue to provide its services.
As a result, a one-time allocation of $9,999 — in addition to an increase in its annual disbursement — has been made to SAJD as a part of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Fiscal Year 2004 agency allocations. SAJD’s story is one of the few that tells of big changes in this year of tough decision making.
Most agencies ended up with the same amount of money they received for 2003. That year’s allocations came in at an across-the-board cut to 90 percent of 2002’s levels.
This year’s official campaign total, as was previously reported, came in at $5.977 million, approximately two percent over last year.
“We had an up campaign, and we were able to put additional money in places where they were needed in a frankly tough economic climate,” said David Ellenhorn, who chaired the Federation’s Planning and Allocations Committee, the group that made the final decisions on where the annual campaign money goes.
That’s not to say, however, that the PAC didn’t start without direction.
“They got a clear signal from the leadership of the Federation that human-needs issues, both locally and overseas, are the ones that got the highest priority,” said the Federation’s Executive Vice President Barry Goren.
One of the ways PAC simplified the process was to make a conscious decision at the outset to not accept any requests for specific projects. This meant that agencies such as Council House, which had received money for projects in the past but are not beneficiary agencies, would not receive any community campaign dollars this year.
Beyond that, allocations were then divided into four pillars: human need, Jewish education, Jewish identity and community building, and world Jewry.
In the human need pillar, Jewish Family Service, which has faced its own problems of increased need for services with less money to provide, received a $30,500 — or 6.9 percent — increase in its allocation, while SAJD’s regular allocation — not including the extra $9,999 — increased by $6,172, or 8.4 percent.
“We’re definitely very grateful for the increased allocation,” said Claudia Berman, assistant director of JFS. “The needs are greater today than ever.”
Berman added that the agency felt positive that the Federation increased its allocation, but noted that helping the disabled is a community responsibility.
The extra dollars given to SAJD “are not going to make these problems go away, but we’re trying to be responsive,” said Goren.
Under the education pillar, most agencies saw modest shifts in their allocations based upon head count. Two stand out, however: the first is a new agency, the Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder, a day school run by Chabad-Lubavitch.
“We’re not able to fund them at the same level as the other four day schools that we fund, but we’ve begun to fund them,” said Goren. Ellenhorn added that funding should reach the per capita standard of $670 in four years.
The other notable move the committee took was to pull $5000 from the Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington.
“The genesis of that cut unfortunately was some displeasure on the part of people at the Federation with public stances that the Jewish Studies department had taken in regard to speakers coming to the university,” Ellenhorn said.
Both Ellenhorn and Paul Burstein, a professor in the program and member of the PAC said the two sides had made positive progress in trying to work out these issues.
As for the Jewish identity and community building pillar, three agencies saw significant changes. The first was in the Federation itself; though the costs to run the agency increased by more than seven percent — largely to support the cost of fully funding the position of assistant executive vice president for Jewish philanthropy, which was created to increase the level of giving — the actual budget for the Federation increased by 0.69 percent. Some personnel was shifted into different capacities to maximize efficiency of “data management and donor research capabilities,” according to the final allocations report, but two high-profile positions, including the Community Development director, were eliminated to make up the difference.
“The percentage increase was made by Barry and our leadership, [who looked]at the entire amount of money that was spent inside this building,” said Amy Wasser-Simpson, assistant executive vice president for planning and agency relations at the Federation, “and unfortunately that was why Chuck [Broche]‘s position was eliminated, to free up dollars for the system and be able to fully fund the executive vice president and raise the level of giving.”
The Hillel Foundation for Jewish Life at the University of Washington received a $10,000 bump in its allocation specifically earmarked for programming for adults aged 21–30; however, the Israel Cultural Committee, which had previously been funded separately, was rolled into Hillel’s funding. None of the moneys were reduced as a result of this action.
“In June, our grant ran out for the JConnect staff position,” wrote Hillel’s Rabbi Dan Bridge in an e-mail. “We at Hillel remain committed to continuing and even expanding on JConnect programming in the future, utilizing present staff and a larger volunteer pool.”
The Jewish Transcript, which is owned by the Federation, had $5000 cut from its budget.
Ellenhorn said PAC felt the Transcript has reached a point where it was nearly self-sufficient, which contributed to that decision.
Two areas received special consideration for the World Jewry pillar: Argentina and Israel.
“There was a huge need for on-the-ground, human welfare relief in Argentina,” Ellenhorn said. “It was a priority for us to make sure that we were sending some money for welfare and relief in Argentina.”
To fulfill that need, $50,000 came from the Israel Emergency Fund, a program heavily promoted as a “second-line” campaign in fiscal year 2002, but which continued receiving donations in 2003.
Generally, money for assistance in Israel falls into the Federation’s annual allocation to the United Jewish Communities, an umbrella organization for American federations. Ellenhorn said commitments to Israel increased by approximately $150,000 within the total allocation because of negotiations by Seattle’s Federation to reduce its share of the UJC overhead.
Now that this year’s allocations process is finished, Ellenhorn, who has one more year as chair of Planning and Allocations, said he is gratified by the process, but relieved it’s over.
“I’d always love to have more money to give to agencies,” he added, “but other than that, and in light of where the economy is, I’m very appreciative of everyone’s generosity.”