FRD FLAMEOUT -- A SAD HISTORY

As all of us know so well, the United Jewish Appeal in its time was a prodigious fund raising machine -- at its height, the envy of the philanthropic world; even at its end, with the merger that created JFNA, UJA was directly soliciting 10's of millions of dollars a year in the communities and on an incredible array of Missions, and among its own constituencies. Present company excluded, an remarkable succession of lay leaders -- women and men alike -- were matched with an amazing group of professionals. I was blessed to serve with so many lay and professional leaders who demonstrated devotion and passion and a singular commitment. When the brilliant Jonathan Woocher, z'l, wrote his seminal work, Sacred Survival, at is essence, he was chronicling through example after example, the United Jewish Appeal.

An unmatched continuum of professionals drove the UJA financial resource development effort: from the pioneers, the incredible, inspirational Rabbi Herb Friedman, z'l, Ernie Michel, z'l, Al Hutler, z'l, who then passed the leadership mantle to Bobby Pearlman and Mel Bloom, Irving Bernstein and the next generations of preeminent fund raising pros Russell Robinson, Mo Sherman, Shimon Pepper and Harold Cohen, Brian Lurie, Vicki Agron and Gail Reiss, among other passionate, committed, driven professional leaders. This was truly a Movement matched where great professionals matched with remarkable lay leaders too numerous to cite by name here. I venerated all of them; all of them are heroes.

There is no doubt that the zenith for UJA, and, from all of the accumulated evidence, the federation system was in the genesis and execution of Operation Exodus. Instead of that billion dollar campaign being the building block for greater systemic achievement, the Exodus special campaign appeared to have exhausted the system; an exhaustion from which the system in most of its component parts seemed unable to recover. From this incredible chapter in modern Jewish history, in American Jewish history, we have ended up exactly where we are today.

And, here's how we got to today...

THE MERGER. With 20/20 hindsight the federation system would have been better served -- far, far better served -- if those of us in leadership of UJA/CJF in the mid- to late-90's had determined to maintain the "UJA-CJF Partnership." We had achieved great savings through a physical consolidation, we had reassigned functions to assure that there would no longer be duplication and overlap, UIA would have continued as an independent entity and the Partnership, even with Co-CEO's, was operating more or less smoothly. But the Large City federations would have none of it; their leaders wanted ownership and the budget control that was part and parcel of ownership. Most important, as it turned out, was the Large City Federations implicit demand that there would never be another Operation Exodus unless they initiated it. (BTW, since the merger, not one Special Campaign run by JFNA achieved its goals -- not in wartime and not in peacetime.)

In the first days of what was then Newco, Charles Bronfman, the first Board Chair, engineered a rejection of the UJA Brand at an extra-governmental meeting. The handwriting was on the wall.

A Campaign/Financial Resource Development "Pillar" did some excellent work under Vicki Agron's professional leadership. Initially, this writer was named then dumped as the Pillar Co-Chair, restored only through Steve Nasatir's intervention. (Sadly, Agron didn't lift a finger in support, already insecure in her new professional leadership role -- a position secured for her in the new entity by the lobbying of Carole Solomon, Bob Schrayer, z'l, and...I.) The Pillar worked hard under a troika of Co-Chairs, Chattanooga's Michael Lebovitz (who would later serve as National Campaign Chair), Cleveland's brilliant endowment professional, Berinthia  LeVine (who would leave the system for a senior position at Cleveland DState University) and I (who would later be relegated to...Blog-writing)-- among its achievements, the emergence of the concept that would later be branded Total FRD, integrating annual and planned giving campaigns; and the decision to provide hands-on lay-professional assistance to high potential communities (a decision, the catalyst for which was Tauber's urging).

THE COLLAPSE BEGINS. Initially, within the Annual Campaign/FRD Task Force (which followed the Pillar episode) of the merged entity, there was continuity in both professional and lay leadership. The brilliant and passionate Carole Solomon was one of the great National Campaign Chairs, followed by Chicago's dedicated and indefatigable Bob Schrayer, z'l -- and  that continuity continued through the years of Steve Hoffman's service as then UJC CEO/President. (In the first years of what would be UJC [prior to its rebranding as JFNA], continuity wasn't so easy. For example, CEO Steve Solender, without any discussion with lay leadership attempted to recruit Bob Aronson, Detroit's dynamic CEO, to professionally lead both Campaign and the relationship with "Israel." I learned of this when Bob called me seeking my advice. Again I stepped up to support Agron; and, again, a one-way street as it turned out). Bob declined the position, Solender was soon retired and Steve Hoffman stepped in to lead JFNA with his usual distinction.

And, then, FRD hit a wall in the person of Howard Rieger, Hoffman's successor. Rieger, in the guise of a "Strategic Plan" (with no input from the FRD Department), drafted by him behind closed doors, evidenced in part Howard's distrust of Agron's and the FRD Department's work. Howard's continuing attacks on Agron -- some directed at me when I privately communicated to Howard my strong objections to the substance and lack of "due process" in his treatment of Agron and the FRD work that she led. While she was aware of my support and encouraged it, Vicki at one and the same time tried to curry favor with Howard by supporting whatever wholesale changes he demanded while he demeaned her quite openly -- among other things, even as I and other dinosaurs were kicked to the curb, Vicki asked me to review FRD plans ("in secret...pinky swear") and she assumed, correctly, I would be fine when I was removed from the FRD Campaign Cabinet -- offered as a human sacrifice I suppose. None of these actions preserved Agron's position or, more important, the role of FRD within JFNA.

IMPLEMENTATION. While in the midst of Howard Rieger's constructive termination of Vicki Agron, the CEO sprung a "reorganization" on FRD. Henceforth, Howard declared, with the acquiescence of Board Chair Joe Kanfer, FRD would be merged into (not "with," "into") the organization's Consulting Services Department, Barry Swartz, the head of Consulting Services would now absorb FRD into his work (Barry had almost no significant FRD experience), and Agron would second him. It was Rieger's passive aggressive way to rid himself of Agron -- clearly a goal more important to him than FRD services to the communities-- services that in the last survey conducted with the federations was their highest ranked need.

By late 2007, even Agron had had enough. She left to join the consulting world; leaving her "dream job," forced out by Howard Rieger. Then Gail Reiss, an incredible fundraiser and superbprofessional was passed over in succession to Agron and left first to New York-UJA and then (and now) as CEO of American Friends of Tel Aviv University. A great young leader, David Fisher, resigned as National Campaign Chair, disgusted with the treatment of the JFNA professional staff and the marginalization of FRD within the entity, among other things. (For his candor, he received an excoriating letter from the then Board Chair, Joe Kanfer.)

Eric Levine, a master researcher and data interpreter at UJA and, then, JFNA, succeeded Gail Reiss. JFNA FRD became but an after-thought.

COLLAPSE. And, then, Eric Levine was gone. Only a few excellent professionals remained. And Jerry Silverman and Kathy Manning arrived; neither had any apparent interest in JFNA's FRD. Both were absorbed with the so-called "Global Planning Table;" they left FRD to flounder under a succession of National Campaign Chairs who showed neither interest in pushing back against the leaders' disinterest nor in advocating for the revivification of the FRD senior staff. (The GPT, as all of you know, was DOA.)

Silverman and I met briefly for a chat at the bar of the Ritz-Carlton Battery Park one evening. Jerry left me speechless when he told me with great pride and glee that he had "just hired Paul Kane from New York-UJA." I had known Paul since his fine work in Chicago's Campaign and knew that he had done good work for New York but, at a time that JFNA needed new energy and new FRD professional leadership, as I told Silverman, Paul wasn't the right guy to meet either need. I needn't have worried: while Jerry saw Paul as his FRD guy, Paul saw himself as some kind of corporate cheerleader, a COO without the title and responsibilities; and, probably at Kane's suggestion, JFNA hired Reuben Romirofsky, a mid-level New York-UJA FRD professional. So, while Paul, as a full-time consultant, seemed to spend significant time promoting Jerry, continental  FRD continued to sink -- seemingly its professionals were relegated to raising money (but never enough) for either JFNA's budget or a series of failed special campaigns. 

Under Silverman, FRD had morphed into less than an after-thought.

AGRON REDUX. There was a growing clamor, mainly from Small and Intermediate and Large Intermediate Federations, for campaign assistance. To respond, Board Chair Michael Siegal and Silverman seduced a wonderful lay person, Harold Gernsbacher, with promises of "the earth, the wind and the stars," to the National Campaign Chairmanship. With little professional staff to fall back on, Gernsbacher drafted his own Campaign Plan and Silverman agreed to retain Vicki Agron, who, since leaving JFNA, had built a solid reputation as a consultant, as a JFNA part-time "Senior Consultant" to work with Harold. Agron jumped at the chance to make a triumphant return to FRD at JFNA albeit in a part-time role.

Gernsbacher was a throwback as Campaign Chair -- he was everywhere. He led every National Mission, spoke wherever and whenever asked (although not asked often through no fault of his own) with great heart and great enthusiasm. He was the "outside person;" Vicki was working the inside with her usual incredible energy. The Campaign Cabinet was restored (including a few past Chairs -- no, I wasn't asked) along with several forgotten functions. Another Campaign Plan emerged (though, as I told Agron in the confidence she had demanded, it was mainly a rehash of the old and a bunch of cliches. This was the last time that Agron asked for my help.). But there was a recognition that little help would be provided the federations that paid the Dues without full-time FRD professionals in place. 

As I came to understand, Silverman, always sure to take care of himself, refused to offer sufficient compensation to attract a cadre of high level FRD professionals to JFNA. (Those were apparently not within the "earth, wind and stars" promised Gernsbacher!!) Instead, Agron created a "secret" (the names were not released to the system) Consulting Team of four top FRD professionals from federations around the country, all part-time, assigned to communities determined by Agron (it's possible she told Harold Gernsbacher). In addition, as Paul Kane phased out, Max Kleinman, recently retired as MetroWest's long-serving CEO, joined Silverman's "secret" consulting team, and assigned to raise millions to satisfy JFNA's commitment to Holocaust survivor relief. Max was one of the best of his generation of federation CEOs.

When Silverman, or, perhaps, COO Mark Gurvis, was pressured by communities to provide broader Consulting Services, someone made the decision to convert the part-time FRD Campaign Consulting Team expanding their services away from FRD and four additional part-time Consultants were hired. In the midst of all of this, Agron recommended that Silverman hire Brian Abrahams, a bright and personable senior Aipac professional who decades earlier had worked for UJA, as Senior V-P Financial Resource Development. Brian  had no Federation Campaign experience.

I greeted Brian's hire with enthusiasm believing him to have the potential to be a Russell Robinson not realizing that Agron would continue to control this Consulting Team (and Abrahams would have his own community consulting assignments). Brian, within weeks of his hiring (I was going to write "arrival" but Brian officed in Chicago out of the Chicago federation offices), fired the woeful Planned Giving professional whom Agron (the part-time consultant) had hired but months earlier. There have still been no high level full time professional hires leaving Brian, Beverly Woznica (in Los Angeles) and Arlene Berland and some Mission professionals and the 8 part-time Consultants and one Senior part-time Consultant as today's JFNA FRD. 

And that FRD Campaign Plan of which Agron was so proud? Your guess is as good as mine.

Financial Resource Development was/is still eating up 50% of JFNA's budgeted dollars but I challenge any of you to try to connect the dots between budget and activity. From all evidence that FRD Budget is just another ATM for Silverman's application as he and Gurvis determine.

WHAT'S NEXT? 

The future for FRD at JFNA remains unclear; what is certain is that without a full-time FRD professional staff, there will be none. Perhaps it's time to...

• Retain the original 4 members of the Consulting Team, apply the compensation paid the most recent Consulting Team hires and Agron's Compensation and enable Brian Abrahams to add two high level FRD professionals to his team. It would be a start. 
• Deploy the FRD Campaign Cabinet to key high potential federations which agree to partner with JFNA in enhancing their campaigns -- back in the day (more than a decade ago), JFNA FRD did partner with Las Vegas and Phoenix (until that program was killed off by Rieger [as I recall]). 
• Revitalize the national Missions Program by appointing Mission Chairs who are committed to personally recruiting a group of Co-Chairs across the country and potential fellow travellers in each instance -- all of whom would then be expected to personally recruit participation.
• And, focus, on the reality that the federation system is bleeding donors at an ever-increasing pace, find some best practices for rebuilding the donor base and implement a new approach.

And move forward from there building on successes...

What will happen? Fill in the ___________________________________________________

Rwexler