NOT WITH A BANG BUT A WHIMPER

The National Agencies participating in the Jewish Federations-National Agencies Alliance were advised on March 13 that the Alliance had died a premature death. In a letter from the newly installed Alliance Professional the Agencies were advised:

"Dear National Agency Colleagues,

Notwithstanding ongoing efforts to preserve the National Federation/ Agency Alliance as a collective funding process among Federations to support national agencies, the pool of funding available continues to erode as more individual communities seek to manage their own decisions.  As a result and based on the latest discussions of the Steering Committee, we are writing to inform you of an immediate change related to the 2018-2019 funding cycle. For this next budget year, there will not be collective funding from the Alliance.  Rather, Federations will make their own funding decisions with respect to agency funding and will inform you directly of those decisions.  Federations will disburse their funds directly to the agencies in 2018-2019.  

Based on the material that you have already submitted for the Alliance review process, JFNA will review and summarize each agency’s request for funding for 2018-2019 and forward those materials, with all relevant attachments, to the Alliance communities shortly.  We will also convene Zoom meetings to facilitate agency presentations for those communities interested in a joint review process.

We recognize that this is a major change and it is coming late in the preparation of the next funding cycle.  While Federation communities continue to respect and value your work, our historical model is no longer sustainable. We are committed to facilitating an easy transition to your working directly with individual communities.  Your long partnerships with the Alliance served many communal objectives.  We’re confident that some of those objectives will continue while new ones are developed.  

Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or concerns." (emphasis added)

The Forward jumped on the story inappropriately focused on, of all the impacted National Agencies, HIAS, the organization, which having dropped "Hebrew" from its name, may have been a contributing factor in the termination of the Alliance:

https://forward.com/news/396753/charities-left-in-lurch-as-federations-abruptly-end-funding-program/?utm_content=daily_Newsletter_TopSpot_Image&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20-%20M-Th%202018-03-19&utm_term=The%20Forward%20Today%20Monday-Friday

All of you who read this Blog even only periodically recognize that I have not shown much restraint in my condemnation of how JFNA leadership abandoned the legacy National Agencies over time and, in particular, over the years of the Silverman maladministration. It is JFNA that is now nailing the coffin it has built over the past decade shut. 

A brief historical note: at the birth of JFNA, New York’s Louise Greilsheimer, then New York UJA’s immediate Past Chair, was appointed to head a Commission on National Agencies. Over a period of months, that Commission could not reach consensus, but from its ashes the Alliance was formed — much like ONAD for overseas agencies, the Alliance was created to (1) vet the roles/relevance and budgets of the legacy National Agencies; (2) assure funding from the member federations of the validated agencies; (3) recruit additional federation membership in the Alliance; and (4) advocate for full funding for the vetted/approved Agencies. In practice, the Alliance succeeded only in step (1) and, as the years passed, failed more and more and more in every other area.

Let's briefly review:

• Remember, The Alliance was created to (1) validate the work of the National Agencies and, once validated, (2) to support the budgets of those validated. The Alliance leadership invested in (1) and never...that's n.e.v.e.r... performed (2) because (2) would have required advocacy and, quite frankly, hard work.

• The Alliance, from its birth, until a decade ago, had a wonderful professional who understood the Alliance mandate. That professional was terminated without reason (or protest from the Alliance lay leadership) and, for no apparent reason, staffing was shunted off to JFNA-Washington where it would be no more than a part-time assignment for a D.C. professional. (That is until this fiscal year, when a new senior professional was assigned to supervise the burial.)

• At no time did either Alliance leadership engage in the necessary, vital advocacy among its members for increased allocations or the recruitment of new members. If one rereads the plea of an Alliance Chair to the JFNA Board a few years ago, one would understand the futility.

• The Alliance essentially oversaw the collapse of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and, then, the death spiral of JESNA, both national agencies with a critical role to play in national Jewish life. 

• Over the last five years, New York UJA-Federation first threatened to pull its disproportionate Alliance allocation (40%, as I recall, of the National Agencies Funding Pool), agreeing to extend its deadline through FY 2017-2018. Now, it is clear that New York has executed on its threat, converting it to a devastating reality. The Alliance leadership had no impact whatsoever on the New York UJA decision.

• And in a brazen daylight theft, Silverman demanded that over $1 million in National Agencies funds be delivered by the Alliance leadership to JFNA as "seed money" for an Education "Unit." Let me be clear: these funds were the property of the National Agencies and these funds were purloined by Jerry with the connivance of the Alliance leaders. This was a pitiable chapter. (And, BTW, how's that Education "Unit" doing?)

• The Agencies leadership was told that there would be at least a year of lead time until they received the email advising there would not be a year, there would be nothing. 

As you can tell from the "death to the Alliance" letter above, JFNA isn't taking any more responsibility for the Alliance's collapse than it did for the Alliance's existence. Further, it's failure here dumps the National Agencies at a time that the federations to which they must now advocate for an allocation many of which are already in the midst of their annual Budget processes. Many of these legacy Agencies are simply unprepared to reach out to the federations and/or donors for financial support.

This is the close of a sad chapter. It is evidential of JFNA's criminal neglect of one of its critical responsibilities. The Alliance was one expression of collective action. It is no more.

So, what else is new?

Rwexler