American Jewish organizations rated as significant fund-raising powerhouses last year, bringing in more money than the year before.
But they did not grow as fast as other top U.S. philanthropies.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s annual ranking of the top 400 philanthropies in the United States — based on tax forms from 2000 — includes 25 Jewish organizations and institutions. Locally, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation raised $72 million, placing it among the top 200 with a ranking of No. 192.
The recently released rankings were based on data collected during a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity in the United States. They do not reflect the current challenges many philanthropies are now anticipating in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the faltering U.S. economy.
Some Jewish organizations jumped in their rankings, including the Jewish Communal Fund in New York and the Jewish Federation of MetroWest, N.J.
But for every group that increased its ranking, there were more Jewish philanthropies — including several major federations, Hadassah: The Women’s Zionist Organization of America and the Jewish National Fund — that saw their rankings decline.
Beyond the rankings, most Jewish groups listed increased their totals last year, but not at the same overall rate of increase of 13 percent for American charitable groups.
The Jewish federation system saw several other drops in ranking, with federations in San Francisco, New York, Detroit, Boston and Palm Beach, Fla., all going down in the list.
The ranking of 192 for the S.F.-based JCF, for instance, is down from No. 175 — though it is still $6.7 million ahead of last year’s $65.3 million total. Of the $72 million collected this year, approximately 31 percent, or $22.5 million, came from the annual campaign and 69 percent or 49.5 million came from the endowment.
JCF Chief Executive Officer Sam Salkin called this year’s ranking “a very significant achievement,” especially given the size of the Bay Area’s Jewish population and the number of donors in the geographic area.
“We’re quite pleased, and we’re grateful for the donor confidence it represents,” he said.
He was not concerned about the drop since, “fund-raising, particularly in regard to endowments, can vary widely from year to year.”
The East Bay and South Bay federations failed to make the Top 400 because they did not meet the minimum fund-raising requirement of $30.5 million from private sources, including foundations, corporations and individuals.
While many Jewish leaders have long worried that American Jewish support for Israel is waning, experts on Jewish philanthropy say these statistics show that American Jewish giving to Israeli causes is increasing.
“Jewish giving to Israel remains very strong and it’s just going in more directed avenues,” said Gary Tobin, president of the S.F.-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research.
One of the largest drops in the federation world — the United Jewish Communities’ plunge from seventh largest philanthropy to 33rd — was attributed to accounting errors the Chronicle of Philanthropy made last year.
The UJC is the umbrella for North American Jewish federations. The UJC’s funds come primarily from the Jewish federations, through a combination of dues and money earmarked for national and overseas needs.
It raised approximately $245 million in 2000 — the majority of which was then allocated to the Jewish Agency for Israel. An additional $63 million, which is not included in the tax forms due to technical accounting reasons, were allocated to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.
Last year, the Chronicle of Philanthropy double-counted certain revenues, and UJC tax forms included other revenues that are no longer included, according to Jerry Carter, the UJC’s associate vice president for finance and administration.
Adding to the apparent confusion was the fact that last year the UJC had been recently formed from the merger of three other organizations and that last year’s revenues also included back dues from member federations that had accumulated over several years, Carter said.
The Chronicle itself this week adjusted its Web site listings for last year, ranking UJC at 27 rather than seven.
However, Carter and other UJC officials said, the tax form numbers are less significant in measuring the health of the federation system than is the fact that the federation system collectively raised $2.9 billion in 2000, up from $2.4 billion in 1999.
Tobin, who studies American Jewish philanthropic trends, said overall, this year’s rankings show that “Jewish philanthropies are holding their own.”
Tobin said the ranking also illustrates an ongoing trend of Jewish philanthropists increasing donations to endowments and communal foundations, like the New York one, while federation annual campaigns decline as a percentage of total Jewish giving.
However, despite the fluctuations, “the fact that 25 Jewish organizations are on that list at all is remarkable given the size of the Jewish population,” Tobin said.
“We may look from the inside at who’s on and who’s not, and who’s increasing and who’s declining,” Tobin said. “But to the rest of the philanthropic world, the exact names and amounts matter less than that the list is filled with successful Jewish philanthropies.”
Tobin also cautioned against reading too much into the fluctuations of various groups, noting that a sudden increase in one year “could be the result of one or two huge gifts” or a capital campaign.