by dan pine
staff writer
How much has the Bay Area Jewish community changed in recent years? Let us count the ways: increasing numbers of interfaith and single-parent families. Growing Russian and Israeli immigrant populations. A stronger and more highly visible LGBT community. Alarming numbers of young Jews drifting away from the fold.
What’s a federation to do?
In the case of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, the answer is the Strategic Funding Initiative (SFI), the organization’s most comprehensive internal change in decades. As they say in romantic screen comedies after that first kiss, “This changes everything.”
The SFI revamps procedures up and down the “company” flow chart. Whereas the federation’s annual campaign and the Jewish Community Endowment Fund had limited integration before, now the two will align much more closely. Whereas funding decisions previously had been more reactive (either due to “squeaky wheel” agencies clamoring for funding, or to donors’ pet projects), now grant-making decisions will be more proactive, goal-driven and planned ahead of time.
“The federation hasn’t changed to this extent in 25 years or more,” says chief planning and program officer Karen Bluestone. “What’s different is that lay leaders and professional staff have come together as equal partners in figuring out the execution of those [new] ideas.”
The centerpiece is a new commission system consisting of three lay-led commissions: Caring for Vulnerable Jews, Educating and Engaging, and Israel and Promoting Peoplehood Around the World.
These three commissions, which will meet quarterly, oversee all of the federation’s work in their designated domains, from aiding Israel to feeding seniors to sending kids to Jewish summer camps. Commission members –– 10 to 30 for each –– track needs, identify solutions and decide who receives funding.
San Francisco resident Amy Morgenstern is a vice chair of the commission on Caring for Vulnerable Jews. As a veteran Jewish community activist, she likes what she sees.
“This is a breakthrough model,” she said. “It calls for determining where the federation can have the greatest effect and produce tangible results.”
Though her commission is just getting under way, Morgenstern forecasts four broad areas of focus: ensuring the welfare and dignity of elderly Jews; economic security of families; helping families facing loss; and helping children participate more fully in Jewish life.
Up until now, the federation divided its service area into three regions — San Francisco, the Peninsula and Marin. Now, say hello to Sonoma and South Peninsula. Adding those two means federation leaders can keep their noses to the ground, determining the needs of their individual neighborhoods.
Yet another shift reflected in the SFI is moving toward outcome-based philanthropy. In the past, subcommittees would review grant requests based on the types of agencies requesting funding –– JCCs or Hillels, for example. Under the new model, instead of focusing on type, the federation will focus on the desired outcome.
It’s all about getting a good return on investment.
For Morgenstern, a longtime Jewish community activist in her native Cleveland, volunteering for the commission is in keeping with her dearly held Jewish values. “This is precisely where the organized Jewish community ought to be heading,” she said. “The federation is not giving lip service. It’s about thinking together, to be as smart and efficient as we can be to have to greatest impact.”
Added Bluestone: “We’re a different organization than we used to be. Things we’ve done in our model don’t look like any others. We’re ready to be completely transparent about how far we’ve come and how far we need to go.”
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California