It's a little early, I know, for a Purim Spiel, but Boston's Federation has created one of the best...ever. So, please read what follows and then we'll talk below:
"The Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston
took a donor family’s lead in creating a new program to provide jobs for young
people with disabilities.
Jay Ruderman, head of his family’s foundation, and several of his relatives
approached Boston’s Jewish federation two years ago for
help in pursuing a new philanthropic goal for the family:
providing aid to young adults with disabilities.
Officials at Combined Jewish Philanthropies of
Greater Boston didn’t take any action at first, they just
listened very carefully.
Then, the federation swung into action. It reached out to Jewish
Vocational Services, a group it had long supported that provides
job training to adults. Now the donors’ money is helping the
vocational charity serve a broader number of
clients, giving teenagers and college-age students with
disabilities access to training, internships, and jobs.
The Boston group is unusual in its willingness to
collaborate with donors over where they want their
money to go. As long as a project advances a Jewish cause and
meets other basic criteria, donors can earmark
their funds. And when donors suggest a project that the
federation thinks might be popular with other
supporters, it might even promote the idea in citywide
fundraising pitches.
That approach is not typical in the
Jewish-federation world, where for decades local
leaders have chosen which social-services and other
charities will benefit from the money raised in
annual fundraising drives.
But other Jewish
charities are now considering whether to
follow Boston’s lead. Allowing donors more say in where
their money goes is a key reason the Boston
federation has been thriving in the slow economic
recovery while those elsewhere continue to face a tough
time. In Boston, donations rose more than 80 percent last year to
$132-million, helping Combined Jewish
Philanthropies rise to No. 163 on the Philanthropy 400, up from
No. 256 last year. And in the fiscal year that wrapped up in June,
giving surged another 60 percent. The
federation is now raising twice as much as it did in 2007,
before the recession took hold.
Shift in Approach
The Boston federation’s fundraising approach evolved
under the leadership of Barry Shrage, its
president for 25 years. He incorporated the
earmarking idea into a 2007 plan for ways of improving
contributions to the organization by more
than incremental increases over the five years that
followed.
The new approach did not insulate the Boston
federation entirely from the bad economy.
Donations to Combined Jewish Philanthropies
fell by 21 percent in 2009 and 14 percent in 2010. But with the group’s new
fundraising outlook, those losses have been more than erased.
Boston officials have worked especially hard to
collaborate more with people who set up
donor-advised funds, accounts that individuals and
families set up at the federation to make
charitable gifts at a later date. Because more and more
donors went to use some of the money for secular causes,
says David Strong, the federation’s chief
financial officer, “we want to make them
understand how we can work with them on all their
philanthropy, not just Jewish causes.”
That attitude, along with recovery in the stock
market, Mr. Strong says, has helped gifts to donor-advised funds
to soar, to $76-million last year, and then more than double in
fiscal 2012, to $159-million.
Gains Not Typical
Over all, few federations have achieved such
impressive results. Compared with the Boston federation,
almost every other Jewish federation on the
Philanthropy 400 had a much smaller increase or reported a
decline in total contributions last year.
At the Chicago Jewish federation, for
example, donations were flat in 2011, declining by
1 percent, even though fundraisers had persuaded about
70 of its most generous donors to double their
annual campaign gift.
Chicago takes an approach similar to that of
other federations in urging its donors to make
unrestricted donations. Mr. Schrage says that what
bothers him about that long-held tradition at the
federations is that it favors the same “entitled
institutions” year after year and is
“generally empty of vision and purpose.”
With little reason to donate more, he says, donors simply
contribute a little more every year when they might give big
increases if they were excited about a cause or asked to pay
attention to new and pressing concerns.
While some federations have philosophical
objections to letting donors have so much say, they also
have a practical concern: Will people give as much in
unrestricted money to annual campaigns if they are
allowed to earmark a portion of their donations?
As it turns out, the Boston campaign hasn’t suffered from
offering the option.
Its annual drive will raise $45.6-million this year. It’s one
of the fastest-growing campaigns among
federations in big cities, says Jerry
Silverman, president of Jewish
Federations of North America, an umbrella
organization for 155 federations.
Over the past five years, donors who earmarked a portion of
their gifts for particular causes increased their
unrestricted gifts at twice the rate of other donors,
the Boston federation found.
While other federations may be subject to
criticism from donors or board members if they
emulate Boston, Mr. Silverman says the
federation is “on the leading edge of being able to
recognize a shift in their market and being able to adapt,
apply, and grow—and raise the meter on results.”
Other Jewish federations have taken notice
and sent staff members to Boston to learn more about
Combined Jewish Philanthropies’ internal
operations and its relationships with donors,
says Zamira Korff, senior vice president for
development. “There is a sense of emotional and
intellectual partnership” with donors, she
says. “We are not just handing out a menu of giving
opportunities.”
Serving as an example to others, she adds, can be both
exhilarating and daunting. “It’s a high-wire act,” she says.
“The more we succeed, the more pressure we have to keep the bar
high.”
As Vice-President Biden might say: "this is just a bunch of malarkey." Had the reporter -- for the Chronicle of Philanthropy of all places -- understood the basics of Jewish Federation FRD, she would have known that she had been served a plate of hogwash. Let's look at some facts:
- Boston with the same Jewish population as Chicago, claimed to have raised $45.6 million -- Chicago, which Barry Shrage for some bizarre reason chose to criticize, raised $80 million in that same year;
- And, Boston has historically lumped together its designated gifts (which, at last look, comprised the lion's share of its Annual Campaign), while the $80 million Chicago reported was the amount of unrestricted gifts;
- It was Boston which was the first Federation to unilaterally reduce its overseas allocation after committing, at the creation of what is now JFNA, along with all other federations, to maintain the level of overseas allocations for two years; and
- After the Fair Share Dues obligation was imposed by the Federations upon themselves, it was the Boston CJP which was the first to demand that JFNA recalculate its dues, subtracting from its annual campaign totals the very designated gifts it now brags has set "the bar high."
Then there are the quotes from CEO Silverman that reflect how little he still understands of where federations must be -- to suggest that Boston "is on the leading edge" by embracing designated giving as its mantra, is strange in that "donor choice" has been around for a long time....a long, long time. Strange that CEO Jerry would not have known that, thinks its something new and different. Stranger still is that the "collaborative model" was developed at JFNA (back when it had an FRD Department) -- but why would Jerry know that?
Friends, you should know, as the reporter could have easily learned, that Boston's professional leader has been attempting to peddle his anti-federation message for too long -- with its suggestions of deconstructing the very basis of federation as the central planning instrument of the Jewish community. Now he used "statistics" that bear no relationship to truly raising money...and who applauds it? CEO Jerry Silverman.
Boston embarked on its anti-federation journey long ago. Barry Shrage has been trying to sell his community's story -- which is one of lack of success clothed in a camouflage jacket of so-called "cutting edge innovation" for as long as we've known him. Now, with further proof that 55% of all statistics are wrong, he has "convinced" the Chronicle and Jerry Silverman. Pitiful that some will now buy into it without regard for the facts.
Sad indeed.
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