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July 4, 2003/Tamuz 4 5763, Vol. 55, No. 45
Agencies hit hard
Federation cuts allocations, will revamp process
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
The constituent agencies of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix are facing a major budget crunch.
On June 18, the federation board of directors approved a measure that cuts the allocations to seven of its 11 constituent agencies by 10 percent for the 2003-2004 fiscal year.
Agencies affected are Bureau of Jewish Education, Council for Jews With Special Needs, Hillel Jewish Student Center, Jewish Family and Children's Service, Tri-City Jewish Community Center, Greater Phoenix Vaad Hakashruth and Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center.
Kivel Campus of Care's allocation was cut by a smaller percentage of 5.8 percent to help the organization with costs associated with compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
Allocations to the three day schools that are constituent agencies of federation - The King David School, Pardes Jewish Day School and Phoenix Hebrew Academy - were not reduced.
"The allocations committee (was) trying to hold to a priority that had been followed for the last couple of years to really support day school education and so they felt that they did not want to make a cut to the day schools," said Fred Zeidman, assistant executive director of federation.
Additionally, the federation board approved a plan to review the criteria for making allocations to the agencies. A work group will be created to study the allocations process and make recommendations to the board.
In the meantime, all 11 agencies will receive 1/12 of 90 percent of its 2003-2004 allocation each month for the next six months. At the end of the six-month period, the Commission on Jewish Continuity and Community will use new criteria to make allocations distributions for the remainder of the year.
"There is a need to reexamine how the dollars are allocated to ensure that we're being good stewards of our donors' money," said Zeidman. "While that is occurring, we made a commitment to the agencies that they will continue to receive their allocations. The only thing that changes and causes some uncertainty is what will be the final number that each agency will wind up with."
Some representatives of the agencies, however, said they felt blindsided by the decision, which they fear could end up reducing their allocations by an additional 10 percent - particularly when they already had approved their budgets for the upcoming year.
"I was shocked when I learned about the proposal an hour before it was voted upon, and the effect of it is such that I don't know how we're going to make payroll," said Rabbi Barton Lee, executive director of Hillel. "The services that we'd have to cut at this point to make up the numbers are impossible to contemplate."
Shelley Cohn, board member of both Hillel and federation, attended the June 18 meeting and voted "no" on the allocations measure. While she said she agrees that the allocations process could be improved, she also feels that the organizations are already struggling and to withhold the additional funds will have a devastating effect.
"There is an unrealistic understanding of how close to the ground and fragile the agencies are," she said.
Beverly Rubenstein, presi-dent of The King David School and a federation board member, also expressed concern with the effects of the decision to withhold funds.
"It's our middle-income population that's being hurt," she said. "What it amounts to is about an $8,000 holdback. In and of itself it's not a great sum of money, except when it means the difference between (scholarships) for two kids. It's a very big deal."
Sources at federation said that agencies were told earlier this year to expect cuts in allocations of up to 20 percent. Representatives of the agencies report that they were told to expect a 7- to 10-percent cut.
The work group will begin meeting this summer and will complete the process by mid-December. Zeidman said all funds eventually will be allocated to the agencies - it is just the amount of the distributions that has not yet been determined.
In May, federation an-nounced that the 2002 Annual Campaign generated $4,946,390, a shortfall of more than $200,000 from the 2001 campaign, which gener-ated $5,146,210.
At that time, Zeidman stated that there would be a reduction in funding of about $70,000 apiece to federation, constituent agencies and national and international agencies.
Federation's own allocation for 2003 is $1,642,262, down from $1,693,262 in 2002.
The current cutbacks in allocations represent a difference of $119,650 from the 2002-2003 allocations. In addition to the $70,000 cutback from federation, there was an additional $50,000 that was allocated from the Kraus Fund last year. This year, the $50,000 from the Kraus Fund, which is administered by the Jewish Community Found-ation, will be distributed through a grant process to programs that are created in response to the 2002 Great Phoenix Jewish Com-munity Study, according to Zeidman.
Contact the writer at beth_olson@jewishaz.com
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