Funds for programs, services hold steady

The Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s board of directors on Tuesday, June 27, approved allocations for the fiscal year 2006-2007. The following is a set of questions and answers to help Jewish community members understand where funds come from and how they are allocated. Answers were provided by the MJF staff.

David J. Lubar,
president, Milwaukee Jewish Federation

How much money is being allocated?

The total dollar amount allocated to the community for 2006-2007 is $10,822,813.
Where does the money come from?

There are two primary sources of unrestricted revenues that fund annual community allocations: the Annual Campaign and the funds from the Jewish Community Foundation. In addition, relatively small amounts have been added over the past few years from the Stabilization Fund to meet community needs.

The Stabilization Fund was established in 2003 with funds collected from annual campaigns dating back to the 1970s.

This year, $7,772,740 came from the Annual Campaign, $1,430,000 from the Jewish Community Foundation, and $205,647 from the Stabilization Fund. An additional $1,414,426 was brought in through program-specific revenues and was allocated back to those programs.

I felt it was a phenomenal campaign considering the huge success of the Jewish Community Capital Campaign and the other campaigns throughout the city. We have a very caring community that truly “lives generously.” The campaign was only at 4 percent below last year. In light of what our community has done, our volunteers did an excellent job.
Marlene Lauwasser,
2006-07 Annual Campaign chair

Who gets the money?

The money is allocated to meet a wide range of important needs at home and abroad. The broad categories of allocation are: local agencies and MJF direct service programs (38%), overseas allocations (27%), Milwaukee’s Fair Share of United Jewish Communities operations (4%), continental allocations (1%), Federation core operations (24%) and other community uses (6%).

Local allocations for 2006-2007 went Aurora Sinai Hospital, B’nai B’rith Youth Organization, the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the Children’s Lubavitch Living and Learning Center, Hillel Academy, the Hillel Foundations in Madison and Milwaukee, Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee, Israel Center, the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, Jewish Chaplaincy Program, Jewish Family Services, Jewish Home and Care Center, Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, Wisconsin Jewish Conference and Yeshiva Elementary School.

Education continues to be expressed as a top priority by our constitutents. The Milwaukee Jewish Federation already allocates more than 50 percent of its local allocations to both formal and informal Jewish education. We are doing our best to meet that need. There are always greater needs than we have dollars available, and that is the challenge our panels have to deal with when they handle requests from agencies.
Sheryl Primakow,
federation planning director

Overseas allocations support Israel and Jewish communities around the world. The majority of this allocation (90%) goes to the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

It’s always rewarding to allocate monies for the real needs that exist for our Jewish family around the world, whether Jews in the former Soviet Union or new immigrants to Israel. The relationships we have nationally and internationally with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee afford real understanding of what those needs are. The bad news is, we need more money. International needs as well as Israel specific needs are always increasing.
Moshe Katz,
chair of the federation’s Israel
and Overseas Committee

Are there changes in
individual allocations from last year and why?

Allocations basically remained the same from last year to this year.

Our goal in allocations this year was to maintain as much as possible a similar level of overall funding this year as in the last several years. We understood that with the federation-sponsored Community Capital Campaign, as well as the capital campaigns of two other constituent agencies and three or four local synagogues, funding would be stressed. Because of that, and the need to assure our local and overseas partners that we are doing all of our part, our executive committee and board of directors early on determined that we would use whatever sources we could generate to accomplish this goal. And ultimately, we were able to do that.
Richard H. Meyer,
federation executive vice president

Who decides where the money goes?

A four-step process is used to ensure thoughtful, fair-minded decision-making for local allocations. Four Allocations Panels are convened: Supportive Services, Formal Education Services, Early Childhood and Informal Education Services, and Community Outreach Services.

After learning as much as they can about their assigned agencies, the panels work with the agencies to articulate their needs and advocate on their behalf. The results of this work are presented to the Agency Relations Committee, which is comprised of the panel chairs and a number of community leaders.

The Agency Relations Committee makes recommendations, which are passed along to the MJF executive committee. The executive committee, in turn, gives recommendations to the board of directors, which makes the final decisions for allocations.

The panel process went extremely well. A lot of difficult discussions were held and important decisions were made regarding the good work of the agencies and how best to use the community’s assets based on the year’s fundraising and the work the agencies are doing…. It is an important process and is the process by which the community can review the agencies and make sure the agencies are doing work that the community wants to support.
Mitch Moser,
co-chair with Abigail Nash of the
federation’s Agency Relations Committee