MICROCOSM

There are so many examples of failures at the hands of Jewish Federations of North America under the current regime, one often does not know where to begin. We've catalogued the drivel of TribeFests and #ish to the waste of the Global Planning Table right on through a series of GAs, the massive theft that led to the collapse of the National Agencies-Jewish Federations Alliance and the conversion of The Network into an ATM to support JFNA's bloated Budget. And, of course, there is more.

So it is that today we turn our attention to the Ethiopian National Project (the "ENP")  circa 2017 and JFNA's "commitment" to raise $18,000,000 -- that's $18 MILLION DOLLARS -- over four years for an important ENP effort. Nothing evidences JFNA 2017 better/worse than this. 

Let the ENP explain the intent:

"Jewish Federations of North America have launched a new, special campaign to help ENP include 8,729 7th through 12th graders in ENP SPACE (School Performance and Community Empowerment) Scholastic Assistance Program for four years, commencing this year, 2016-17. A new major educational initiative carried out in partnership with Federations, the Government of Israel and the Ethiopian-Israeli community, 35 cities will benefit from ENPs proven-successful program. Project 1460 is named for the number of days in four years by which ENP will engender a major transformation of participant children." 

When I first wrote about this "campaign," back in April, Did You Hear Abouth the Stealth Special "Campaign?" http://ujtheeandme.blogspot.com/2017/04/did-you-hear-about-special.html, I detailed the lack of planning for this JFNA effort; the use of the Executive Committee to "approve" this "Campaign" so as to avoid the Board; the fact that the leadership of JFNA FRD were not even consulted about this Campaign before it was dumped upon them; the history of previously failed efforts to raise financial resources for the ENP; and the fact that in all events, this "Campaign" would be a "best efforts" one, with no binding commitments whatsoever.

Here is a portion of the Confidential Memo/White Paper considered by the Executive Committee when it approved this non-binding "campaign:"

"The JFNA Executive Committee is being asked to authorize the launch of a supplemental funding campaign in support of the Ethiopian National Project’s SPACE (School Performance and Community Empowerment) campaign. The Ethiopian National Project’s (ENP) goal is to raise $18M to support the SPACE program over a four-year period. JFNA’s support will be limited, focused and largely targeted at major donors identified by Federations as well as those who have previously demonstrated a particular interest in Ethiopian Jewry." (emphasis added)

Over the first weeks and months of the race for SPACE funding, marketing materials flowed, mission itineraries were redirected to SPACE Program visits and, as is JFNA's way, when those donors (and which donors, exactly, were JFNA talking about?) couldn't be found, JFNA pled with federations to allocate funds to SPACE. (After all, the raise would be broken down to 4 tranches of $4 million.) 

Well, as I suggested in the earlier Post, under the circumstances of the illusory "commitment" to SPACE (and in so committing to the ENP and to the Government of Israel), the lack of planning, and the total failure to engage the federations to gain commitment to this effort in advance of the Executive Committee action, and given JFNA's non-existent attention span, absent a miracle, this Campaign would not succeed.

I am going to specualte (because JFNA, as always, has released no information) that JFNA FRD has been able to raise $4 million, maybe a little more, of the $18 million campaign; and that the super-majority of those funds "raised" came from federation grants (or advances), not from donors. And I'm going to further speculate that JFNA has told the ENP and the GOI that they now have the "match" (though it's only for Year 1) and suggest that the rest "will come" so "let's get started." That's just speculation. But there are some realities; as I wrote:

"...this is an $18,000,000 non-campaign. It is not a collective effort; in fact, it is a campaign in name only antithetical to the very definition of 'collective.' Sadly, because the needs are great, it is doomed to failure."

Sadly as well, the so-called "Campaign" for SPACE appears to have morphed into an afterthought at JFNA; just another failed campaign, joining all of those prior campaigns which JFNA has begun and which, like SPACE, have all fallen short, most often far short, of the needs. These campaigns, none of which have been binding on the federations -- in fact, none of which were ever submitted to the federations for their approval -- and this, the most recent of which, was totally lacking a campaign plan at the time of its approval by the JFNA Executive Committee, and all of which were quietly subsumed by the next distraction, the next bright shiny object in JFNA's "wash, rinse, repeat" cycle.

I asked a friend the simple question: "What happened to the SPACE effort?" The response: "I'm guessing that it's gone to that JFNA Burial Plot where other poorly thought-out efforts, GPT, etc. have been laid to rest. Perhaps a Plenary at the GA could be devoted to a cathartic system-wide kaddish for all the programs that have died under Jerry's watch." 

Great idea.

Thus, the SPACE non-campaign, dumped on the organization by Silverman (joined, in this instance, by Sandler) is another of those examples of JFNA in microcosm -- like, for example, the annual failure of The Network, the collapse of the Federations-National Agencies Alliance, etc.. These are but examples of JFNA fecklessness and of the constant failures of leadership.

Failures of leadership...JFNA's stock in trade. What it does best/worst.

Rwexler