fundraising techniques

[cellio]

(Written last night.)

The Jewish approach to fundraising -- or, at least, fundraising for the synagogue -- is really starting to get on my nerves.

Any organization with activities and a building has operating expenses. Churches rely on donations (I believe that's pretty much universal); synagogues collect annual dues, with fixed fees. I have no problem with this part of it; in fact, I think it's remarkably frank and up-front to do it this way. It forces the organization to be explicit about expected expenses, and it confronts the member with some approximation of his fair share of that. (Yes, of course those with limited means get adjustments. Part of my fair share is supporting folks like that, because I can.) I think this approach is good. The vast majority of operating expenses come from dues, augmented by things like interest, rental fees, fees for certain optional activities, and so on.

However, I hadn't realized how much additional fundraising tends to be involved. Further, the approach to that additional fundraising is much more in-your-face than I care for.

In the last year I have paid dues (of course) and been solicited (successfully) for an endowment campaign. There were some issues with the latter, but it came out ok. I have also been solicited for attendance at a fancy fund-raiser dinner, donations of goods for an auction at said dinner (obviously they wanted pricier items here; people in tuxes don't bid on small-ticket items), a direct cash donation to a different fund-raising activity (a food festival), labor for said food festival (described as "every congregant's duty"... um, no), and a bevy of smaller items. Most of these solicitations have been targetted and delivered in person. Many of them have made me feel like I am dealing with a very slick used-car salesman. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. (I did not contribute to any of these for that reason.)

Some of this is because I'm a board member, but most of this is carrying through to the rest of the congregation. I get the impression, in chatting with other board members, that this is considered normal in synagogue life. We are not doing more of this than anyone else, it seems, and are doing considerably less than some other congregations.

At tonight's board meeting the president gave a little speech about how we're going to need fund-raising activities (like that fancy dinner) every year just to meet operating expenses, and we need people to organize them. Now I thought that the endowment campaign we're doing now was to raise operating funds (so we can keep dues increases down), and asked about that. He basically said that yes, that campaign will eventually produce operating income, but we're always going to need fund-raising, even after that happens, and blah blah blah. (If that's true then we have a problem with our dues computation, yes?)

Now as a board member I've seen the budget, and I don't really see what he's seeing in it. But it became clear that we were having a cultural difference, not a fiduciary one, so I stopped pressing. I think the real issue is that it seems perfectly natural to him -- and to most of my fellow board members, apparently -- to take this approach to fundraising. It's natural and it can do no harm, so of course we do it. Or something like that; this is my interpretation, not something that anyone said explicitly.

Churches, on the other hand, pass the basket when they have additional needs. It's relatively unobtrusive, and it doesn't put any individual congregant in the position of having to deal with a used-car salesman in his face. If you can give you give; if you can't you don't, and no one really gets hassled over it. It's all pretty anonymous, actually, except if you need tax receipts. And near as I can tell, it's pretty successful. I think we could learn from them.

Comments

Re:

[peacheater77.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree that non-invasive is probably the best way to go here. Yes, I think that you should consider a tzedekah box.

I have a Orthodox Jewish friend who lives in Chicago and goes to a synagogue there for the high holy days and he says that it usually is a mess because there are so many people and there's a pecking order about it too. He says that he gets pecked on a lot because he's not a "regular" member of the congregation although he pays his dues. Anyhow that's one 84 year old man's experience with it all.

Would be glad to hear more from you.

Alex