UJA-Federation of New York braces for tough times
The UJA Federation of New York is expecting a difficult year, the organization's executive vice president and CEO, told me.
"We are going to have a challenging year," John Ruskay told the Fundermentalist in a brief telephone interview Wednesday afternoon, "but we remain confident that our donors will understand, as they have in the past that when the going gets rough economically, the UJA-Federation and our agencies are out there with support for those who have lost their jobs with basic necessities and core support. That is in a sense, the theme of our campaign: It is time for those who can do, to do."
The UJA is holding its annual Greenberg Wall Street dinner next week, which last year accounted for $40 million of the federation's $153 million annual campaign. The event is named after Ace Greenberg, the former chairman of the Executive Committee of The Bear Stearns Companies, who became the vice chairman of Bear's retail business for JPMorgan Chase & Co. when JP Morgan bought out Bear after his bank went under in April.
Ruskay said that he has met individually recently with many of the federation's largest donors and they have agreed to step up their donations to help the federation keep pace.
Still, he acknowledged, this will be a tough year.
"This is unfolding as we speak, and it is hard to predict," Ruskay said. "But one donor said to me, 'UJA will be the last place we cut. I love my university and my museum, but we need to make certain that the people in our city are taken care of.'
"This has been evolving for a year and a half, and obviously the last few days there is a lot of concern, and the shock waves have been significant, but we have been coping with this. It has been forefront for us."
Last year, the federation had to withhold 1.5 percent of all of its grants to take care of basic needs and cut $1 million out of its administrative budget.
And this year could be worse as donors lose jobs, and grants from local and state government drop because of a decreased tax pool, he said.
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economy,
federations,
fundraising,
UJA New York
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Thanks Dan… I have a bit of a different take on this than the JPost… I don’t believe this is a new story. It is one that has been developing for a year and a half now. This week just exacerbates what we all knew… read the post that will go up shortly. I’d love to know what you think.
As one of the leading fundraising and management consulting firms working across the U.S. in the Jewish community, we are watching carefully the impact of the economy on giving by every donor. To date, million dollar gifts to all charities in the U.S. have continued to escalate this year and we know that big gifts drive campaigns. Generally, giving, too, is ahead of the levels set last year for NPO’s in the U.S. Giving to non-profits in the U.S. has only been impacted negatively in a handful of times. Clearly, these are times, that require some new directions and approaches as we, in the Jewish community, are certainly not giving to full capacities!
The UJA NY has apparently been complicit in disinviting Sarah Palin to speak at the recent UN rally against Ahmadinejad. Palin was to deliver a landmark speech about Iran. Under democrat party pressure the UJA demanded that Palin be disinvited. SO democrat marginalizing of Palin was more important that her support for Jews and Israel. Hoe incredibly sad for Jews.
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Dan
09/18/08 01:14 PM
See a related article in today’s Jerusalem Post, Jewish charities fear Wall Street chaos.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1221489064624&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull