Jewish Federation Announces Nearly $10 Million for the Jewish Community

Nearly $10 million worth of grants, scholarships and allocations to our community and to Jewish Federation programs, services and operations were recently approved and announced by the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle: $5.261 million from the Community Campaign, $3.5 million from endowment funds, $854,888 in donor designated funds, $102,223 for specific local projects, $42,370 for specific overseas projects, $101,727 in Jewish overnight camp scholarships, and $19,824 in teen Israel scholarships. Even our community's teens granted $7200 of community funds for social service projects through our J.Team youth philanthropy program.

We are still raising funds to pay for these allocations. Donate today!

The Community Campaign

The Community Campaign net allocations for this year are $5.261 million. This reflects a 8.3% drop in funds that can be allocated to partner agencies (see list below) in our community. While the total amount of funds raised was down, the number of donors increased. Hundreds of new donors supported the Community Campaign, as well as hundreds of people who renewed gifts this year that had not given in recent years.

“With the prolonged economic downturn, there is less discretionary income from which people and businesses can make charitable donations. We are feeling that pinch along with other philanthropies. However, we continue to be heartened by our community's generosity even in tough times,” stated Richard Fruchter, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle.

The allocation of dollars to our community through the Community Campaign is done by the Planning and Allocations Committee (PAC) made up of 20 diverse members of our community. They use a series of Jewish Federation and partner agency-developed criteria to evaluate where the funds are needed most to meet our community's priorities. This “Dwaffler Attribute Process” provides a framework of a dozen objective criteria. The mission of organizations, their funding requests and their services are evaluated as to the stability and efficacy in meeting their clients' and our community's needs.

“With the fewer campaign dollars to allocate, we had a very challenging task. We felt fortunate to have the Dwaffler process which enabled us to prioritize our community's highest needs—both here and abroad—to make objective, thoughtful and balanced decisions,” explained Lisa Fein, PAC Chair.

“International requests made a compelling case. The needs for education and Ethiopian integration in Israel, combined with the growing impoverished elderly population especially in the Former Soviet Union resulted in a higher Dwaffler score. Jews around the world are really looking to the North American and European Jewish communities to help and if we don't come through, who will?” posed Jack Almo, Vice Chair of PAC.

Our international giving increased by 0.7%, while local agency allocations decreased 16.7%. The two agencies that received slight increases were the Jewish Federations of North America (which comprises our overseas allocations to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Jewish Agency for Israel) and Leket Israel (formerly Table to Table).

Other Funding to the Community

The Community Campaign is just one part of the Jewish Federation's overall fundraising. Other giving comes from our endowment, fundraising for specific projects and emergency needs, scholarships, outside grants and more.

Endowment Grants
The Seattle Jewish Community Endowment Fund distributed $3.5 million in grants in FY2010. 82% went to Jewish organizations and 89% stayed within our local community. Our partner agencies accounted for 29% of our grants with Jewish Family Service and the Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center receiving the most, with $250,000 and $230,000 respectively.

Special Projects
A growing pool of funds raised and distributed in our community are for specific projects and scholarships totaling $266,144 this year, including: $68,944 for The PJ Library™, $33,200 for Teen Philanthropy and $42,090 for the Bill Halpern Ethiopian Endowment Scholarship Fund. In partnership with the Samuel Israel Foundation and private individual donors, we also distributed an additional $101,727 for children to go to Jewish overnight camps this summer and $19,824 for teen Israel scholarships.  Donors directed an additional $854,888 to specific organizations, as well.

2010-2011 Partner Agencies

American Jewish Committee
Anti-Defamation League
BBYO - Evergreen Region
Caroline Kline Galland Center and Affiliates
Hillel at the University of Washington
Hillel at Washington State University
Hillel at Western Washington University
Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle
Jewish Family Service
Jewish Federations of North America (formerly United Jewish Communities)
                American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
                Jewish Agency for Israel
Jewish Studies Program at the University of Washington
JTNews
Khabarovsk Chesed Center
Kiryat Malachi Emergency Medical Clinic
Leket Israel (formerly Table to Table)
Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder
Northwest Yeshiva High School
Seattle Association for Jews with Disabilities
Seattle Hebrew Academy
Seattle Jewish Community School
SELAH: Israel Crisis Management Center
Stroum Jewish Community Center
Taglit-Birthright Israel
TIPS Partnership with Kiryat Malachi-Hof Ashkelon
Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center
Washington State Jewish Historical Society
YEDID: Kiryat Malachi Citizens Rights Center