Your Email:

Friend's Email:

Note: (optional)

Subject:

Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38517/full/38517/s.f.-based-federation-makes-cuts/ <br /><br /> <b>S.F.-based federation makes cuts</b> <br /> Thursday, July 9, 2009 | by dan pine <br /><br /><p>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.</p> <p> </p> <div class="capDivLeft" style="width: 126px;"><img alt="BAfederation sokatch, daniel" class="left" height="204" src="/images/uploads/z_photos_2009/x07_10_09/BAfederation sokatch, daniel.jpg" title="Daniel Sokatch" width="126" /> <div class="caption">Daniel Sokatch</div> </div> “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.” <p> </p> <p>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.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>“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.”</p> <p>No other layoffs are anticipated at this time, Sokatch added.</p> <p>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.</p> <p>The Catalyst Initiative is funded with monies earmarked only for external community uses.</p> <p>“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.”</p> <p>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.</p> <p>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).</p> <p>Sokatch noted that the amount pulled in by the annual campaign does not, in and of itself, explain the federation’s cutbacks.</p> <p>“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.”</p>

Please enter the letters and numbers you see in the image below: