Has there actually been change at JFNA? Given the financial realities of the emrgency created by the COVID-19 pandemic, one might have expected real, substantive changes at the 25 Broadway JFNA HQ; or, at the least, an acknowledgment that the 2020-2021 fiscal year Budget will reflect the circumstances that the members -- our communities -- are facing.
But...no.
Let's examine what has actually occurred:
1. Layoffs and salary cuts: At the outset of the pandemic JFNA's leaders announced "major" staff cuts -- yet, reading between the lines of CEO Eric Fingerhut's announcement ("between the lines" only because there are no real lines to read), these cuts appear to have impacted only on mid- and lower-level professionals in NYC and those at the bloated JFNA-Israel who were not under the protekcia of Caspi/Gurvis. The "magnanimity" of "voluntary" salary reductions by top JFNA pros are offset by what appear to be their temporary nature. Please note: New York UJA-Federation, JFNA's largest Dues supporter, just announced lay-offs or furloughs of 54 staff members, a 12% staff reduction, while JFNA temporized. And, NB, New York-UJA's CEO and President, Eric Goldstein, has voluntarily given up his salary for the coming year. I'm just sayin'.
2. The JFNA Budget: The JFNA Federation Members -- the actual owners of JFNA -- are themselves confronting a financial crisis of epic proportions. Yet, these leaders chose to ignore the realities impacting their own communities when they approved a 2020-2021 fiscal year Budget that assumed the full payment of Dues with a 10% contingency for failure/inability to pay ($3 million of a $30,290,000 Dues income). I will be taking a deep (or, perhaps, a shallow) dive into the JFNA Budget in an upcoming Post.
3. Unfilled Senior Positions: You may recall that upon assuming the position CEO Eric Fingerhut announced that he would leave the position of SVP-Financial Resource Development open -- he would serve in that role in the interim. Well, it appears that "interim" has taken on new meaning: viz, "more or less permanent." Yet, JFNA has reallocated $850,000 in the Budget for what appear to be TBD "on-line events," etc., to support communal campaigns under the leadership of two consulting professionals.
Shortly after his on-boarding, Eric terminated the position of SVP-Marketing and has now determined not to recreate it. Historically, the Marketing professional leadership was sequentially: assigned campaign-related marketing leadership; then, promotion of JFNA itself; then operational responsibilities for, e.g., the GA. Suggestions from lay leaders that Marketing be redeployed to promote the federation concept and federations themselves were uniformly ignored.
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Bottom line: it is hard to see positive change in the midst of the impacts of the pandemic on JFNA's financial resources especially at a time that those who supply the funding -- the communities -- are facing the dramatic contraction on their own resources. A $3 million Dues contingency appears to be a pipe dream.
I am reminded by all of this of the old fund-raising story: A federation solicitor approaches a donor with a plea for an increased gift. The donor: "I have had a terrible year. I can't even match last year's gift." The solicitor: "Just because you had a bad year, why should federation suffer?"
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6 comments:
Optical illusion indeed: Why didn’t the Invisible Man donate?
He couldn’t see himself doing it.
Maybe there is a silver lining in all of this. Here's a possible scenario. In 2020-2021 the federations reduce their actual dues by at least the $3mil projected as not collectible. Then when it is time to prepare 2021-2022 that same $3 mil un-collectible is left in the budget for the next year and the next year etc. In 5 years the budget should be closer to $15 mil than the current $30 mil. One can only hope.
Progress will only be possible if the lay leadership of the organization is truly willing to take drastic measures. Incremental change through normal measures will accomplish nothing. The time has come for federations to stop paying dues in order to force the organization to enter crisis mode. Only the realization that drastic measures are required will enable the required downsizing and return to mission.
The professionals at JFNA evidently think they can get away with business as usual.
They made some "strategic" staff cuts, the "strategy" being to get rid of some of the opposition (UIA remnants and other folks that don't fit in with the "team").
As far as budget, it will evidently be more of the same BS, at least until there are serious shortfalls in dues income which will force them to finally act.
You placed high hopes on Wilf/Fingerhut but it looks like they are not making a bit of difference. There are certainly no lay leaders or LCEs that are making an effort for change and the professions are certainly not interested in rocking the boat, even if they know that it is about to sink.
The organization needs to be totally revamped and reset. It seems that nothing short of that will do the trick and it also seems that nobody is willing to do what needs to be done.
A sad ending for what once was and could have been a serious and important organization.
Hopefully someone will step up and fill the vacuum but it may even be too late for that to happen or to make a difference.
So the JFNA CEO takes a pay cut of only 10% while the UJA-Fed of NY CEO will forgo his entire salary?
I guess that partially explains why JFNA laid off 20% of its staff while for UJA-Fed it was 12%.
I think I recall reading somewhere that NYFED informed JFNA that they would not be paying the amount of their dues in the recently revamped dues formula. But perhaps that was before the change was made. Richard, maybe you can clarify.
Regarding the NYFED CEO and his pay 'cut', I believe that that CEO came from the private sector and is in a position to forego a year's salary. I wouldn't assume that Fingerhut is in the same position, so you can't compare apples to oranges.
That being said, I also agree that the only real change will occur when a critical mass of federations just simply say 'no' to the amount of their dues and offer up an alternative amount that works for them, let's say 50% of what their current amount is, regardless of city size.
That will get the proper attention.
JFNA has lost their influence and the historical threat of expulsion of a federation for not paying their fair share of dues carries no weight.
What, exactly, in 2020, would a federation lose, were they to be expelled from the group?
FRD consulting? Leadership training? Israel mission enabling? Marketing?
What would they gain? At the very least, more money for their federation and local agencies. And, given the wealth of consulting organizations in the field today, they wouldn't skip a beat, even when they would need to pay consulting fees for very specific purposes.
We are at the tipping point and the JFNA board is asleep.
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