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Facing shrinking donations and expanded requests for aid, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation laid off seven staffers last week and instituted several other cost-cutting measures.

 

“It became apparent some months ago that even though we would end up in somewhat better straits than some of our fellow nonprofits, we were taking a big hit this year,” federation CEO Daniel Sokatch said last week. “The economic situation was continuing to unravel in a way that would require serious cuts.”

 

Among the steps taken, the federation cut salaries for top management (including Sokatch) by 5 percent while freezing salaries for other employees. In addition, the federation placed a suspension on employer contributions to its 403(b) program and reduced some vacation benefits.

The seven eliminated positions spanned all departments, Sokatch said. Staffers were dismissed July 2; each received a severance package. Those staff reductions, along with a handful of layoffs three months ago, total 10 percent of the federation staff.

“As a manager, the worst decision you can ever make is to let good people go,” Sokatch said. “All are Jewish community servants and were committed to this community.”

No other layoffs are anticipated at this time, Sokatch added.

The cuts came two weeks after the federation announced a $1 million emergency grant to key local Jewish social service agencies. This was the first outlay from the federation’s $7 million Catalyst Initiative, intended to meet urgent community needs as well as address systemic demographic challenges within the Jewish community.

The Catalyst Initiative is funded with monies earmarked only for external community uses.

“We would not use that money for internal needs,” Sokatch said. “There are other funds we have tapped to avoid further [internal] cuts. We used them to avoid to going to furloughs and to keep allocations as high as possible.”

Sokatch said that beneficiaries of federation aid — including synagogues, Jewish day schools, camps and social service agencies — can count on continued financial support with a minimum of cuts.

That pledge comes even as the 2008-2009 annual campaign will apparently fall short of its goal (a figure on the amount of money raised is not yet available).

Sokatch noted that the amount pulled in by the annual campaign does not, in and of itself, explain the federation’s cutbacks.

“Campaign is a critical element,” he said, “but its falling short is a reflection of a greater and more holistic economic decline. Return on investments are short, endowment is down, the need in broader community is soaring. This is more global.”

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