Allocation Decisions

On Feb. 16, when the total amount
of this year's fundraising effort is
tallied, a group of 25 Federation
volunteers from the Planning and
Allocations Steering Committee
(PASC) will receive a much more
accurate total and begin
the last stage of the allo-
cations process — who
gets what.
The group works year-
round, visits each agency
at least once a year, and
then the agencies present
their budgets at the end
of the year, said Irwin
Elson, PASC chair.
Irwin Elson
"The standard alloca-
tion is a serious, well-
thought out process, with three
major committees: the Community
Services Division, Culture & Group
Services Division and the Jewish
Education Division:' Elson said.
"Those three committees assess the
needs and set allocations among the
19 [local] partner agencies that are
represented!'
Elson said that the committee saw
the economic turmoil three years
ago and worked quickly to adjust.
"Other than New Orleans, the rest
of the country did not seem to be
suffering like Detroit was:' he said.
"There's always been some form of a
challenge fund, but a year after the
Lebanon War, we clearly saw that
there was crisis looming in Detroit!'
Previous challenge funds were
used mainly for overseas needs, but
the Sakwa Challenge Fund, formed
during last year's Campaign, allocat-
ed $8.2 million to families in need
both here and in Israel. The overseas
allocations' "split" was 34 percent
of the total, said Howard Neistein,
Federation chief administrative
officer.
"The split itself is not a cur-
rent approach to determining the
overseas pool, as it was several
years age he said. The 2009 split
will depend upon the results of
Federation's fundraising achieve-
ment. The overall parameters will be
determined at the Federation Board
of Governors meeting in March.
Challenge funds are not "ever-
green;' Elson said. "We realize that
they are not a normal part of the
budget, but they have helped to meet
the needs of families in crisis during
this time."
But what happens if the overall
goal comes up short? The answer is

devastating, Aronson said.
"If we come up short, we'll have
to cut our own Federation size and
our partner agencies may have to
do the same. We'll have to look seri-
ously at [cutting] funding for basic
human services, job placement and
job training, programs to
aid with health, housing
— everything."
Many of the larg-
est Jewish federations
around North America
are faring even worse,
he said, "which is ironic
because we're Detroit,
and we're known to be
the ultimate sufferers!'
But that doesn't change
anything.
"We are one family. This is a time
for us to take care of each other. We
have the capacity to do it," he said.
"Let's step up and live up to our
Jewish responsibilities as Detroiters
and citizens of the Jewish world, no
matter what it takes."

Harry Kirsbaum is Jewish Federation's

associate director of marketing and
communications.

If you would like to volunteer for

Federation's Super Sunday on Feb. 8,
visit jewishdetroit.org/supersunday or

call Michael Benghiat, (248) 203-1459.

More coverage: Editor's Letter, page 5
and JNonline.us

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February 5 • 2009

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