Sunday, April 10, 2011

PARTY ON!!

I have recalled for you, chevre, that during my UJA Chairmanship I took to heart the criticism leveled at the United Jewish Appeal from the great CJF Planning Director, Norbert Fruehauf, that UJA had become nothing more than "excellent party planners." UJA's Development professionals took the criticism to heart as well. We looked critically at ourselves; we reentered the arena of federation FRD -- training, lay leader solicitations, reinvigorated constituencies, innovative programming, strategic planning -- and we tried to respond to the federations and UJA's lay leadership. We attempted to renew ourselves pre-merger. One of my close friends, a terrific federation pro who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent, related to me that one of the participants in TribeFest questioned "..when did we get into the party business?" Or words to that effect. In 2011. Well, we're in it and from the pat, pat, pat of backpats, we're proud to be in it. Here's my take. JFNA doesn't know what to do with itself. It budgets $30.3 million per year and collects a substantial part of its Dues. It must believe that its funds are fungible because though it recites 58 programs in its current Budget, funding actually goes where ever its leaders direct. (The Budget is apparently but a set of multiple "suggestions" of where your funds will be spent.) Financial Resource Development used to be, long in the past now, the major Budget block for JFNA; now it's merely a memory; assisting federations with FRD used to be a major function, now that is but a memory...Now, beyond the substance of JFNA-Israel, or disaster response what is there of real substance? And how does JFNA define its purpose? (For example, for TribeFest it's "social action and volunteerism" [luckily without citation]), for its Annual Reports something far different). But, as JFNA's leaders can't, how would you define what JFNA is -- not what it should (or could) be? To many of us, first, JFNA must be a serious organization confronting serious issues in a serious way. Second, its priorities must be those of the federations -- it's great (OK, maybe not great) that JFNA "partnered" with 40 organizations, many with a focus on Jewish young men and women, many not, to the end that TribeFest would attract 1,000 people or more, and to what end? A Global Planning Table is being constructed ostensibly to increase the resources of our true "partners" but to what real end as JFNA has demonstrated no commitment to increasing those resources or advocating for them -- so, to what end? And, so it goes, in every area but Washington, one can ask the same question: to what end? Where has the question been asked of the federations, what are your priorities for us? (A good question for Jerry to have asked on his 78 federation visits. Maybe he did. To what end?) Then JFNA must act on the answers it receives. Not on the answers it thinks it hears -- on the actual answers it receives. If it is capable of doing so. My fear is that this JFNA is in the party planning business -- and we aren't real sure they are even good at that, just defensive. Rwexler

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is a rumor going around that at the large city campaign directors conference last year Jerry asked the campaign directors to give a numerical rating to the "development department" at JFNA and the results weren't good (the only exception -- everyone loves the Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission). So now a year plus later -- same development department, same lack of training and lack of daily support, but more missions and events. I guess they are going by the motto - find out what you do well and do it??????

Anonymous said...

The "rumor," if true, would not surprise inasmuch as JFNA believes that all wisdom is in the Large Cities (he with the gold, yada yada yada). Yet, the irony is that while the Large Cities may not need the Development services, federations of other City-size do -- but, of course, JFNA would not know that.

Anonymous said...

I'm a 3rd anonymous.

The 2nd anonymous raises the basic conundrum faced by the Federation system.

The smaller Federations are the ones who desperately need the services of the national body (and JFNA surely knows this), yet the larger Federations (who sometimes wonder why there is a national body at all) are the ones who are consulted and have the decision-making power.

Anonymous said...

And regretably they also have the funds. That's the major reason that JFNA pays attention to them almost to the exclusion of all others.

Anonymous said...

It is interesting to see the "small federations" complaining. I read the first anonymous's comments as a complaint as well. So if everyone is complaining -- small and large, then who is happy?

Anonymous said...

all size federations benefit from such concepts as "super Sunday", "suite solicitation", "lion of Judah, "Maimonides society", "NORCs", "major gifts missions", partnership 2000 "collaborative fundraising". Size matters but attention, technique and staying power matter more.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 3 commenting on Anonymous 6 - Very interesting list of things that every federation benefits from. Let's see if I got this right; super Sunday", "suite solicitation", "lion of Judah, "Maimonides society", "NORCs", "major gifts missions", partnership 2000 "collaborative fundraising". It would be a good test for evaluation purposes to identify which of these JFNA (or UJC) created or initiated and which of these they have had any additional input into.

Anonymous said...

anonymous 6 here: In most of those cases UJA/UJC/CJF were adept at running with ideas beta tested on a local level and then refined them to bring across the continent. The ability to choose the right products is naturally predicated on an understanding of what life in the Federation trenches is all about. And to paraphrase a truly over-valued statement: What got one there might just get all of us there.