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Fundraising for Jewish needs is only half of the Federation’s job. Our mission also includes assessing the most pressing local and international Jewish needs and identifying those services and programs that will enhance the well-being of fellow Jews and strengthen our Jewish future. The process of identifying needs and allocating funds is the responsibility of our allocations committees.
The Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County conducts an allocations process once a year. The process involves planning meetings as well as discussions with the representatives of agencies requesting funds. An allocations cycle is completed in approximately six months in the winter and spring of each year. Two committees, one for local needs (the Planning & Allocations Committee) and one for international needs (the Israel & Overseas Committee) are comprised of the community’s most committed lay leaders as well as local rabbis from all streams of Judaism.
In recent allocations cycles, the process and criteria for determining beneficiary agencies and programs is structured to respond to the ever-changing needs of the Jewish community. Therefore, the process by which the committees work and the criteria they use to make their decisions are custom tailored to each year’s circumstances. In the most recent allocations cycle, the Planning & Allocations Committee evaluated requests for local funding based on a three-tiered set of community priorities:
1. Emergency assistance, including vulnerable populations and crisis counseling, otherwise known as Sarah & Max Pechter Center for Local Safety Net Services;
2. Jewish day school and summer camp scholarships;
3. Jewish identity and culture, also known as Jewish Life & Learning, as well as Outreach to the unaffiliated in our community.
The Israel & Overseas Committee likewise felt that in the current economic environment, the most recent allocations process should be driven by a priority for emergency assistance and life-saving programs. Israel & Overseas funding is broken up into “Core” funding, which is allocated annually to our two overseas partners, the Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). “Electives,” which vary from year to year, are chosen at the discretion of the committee.
As local and international needs grow, the allocations process increasingly presents difficult decisions. The allocations committees keep all donors in mind when making their decisions, knowing that they are, in essence, a voice for the community and it is only through the community’s generosity that these needs can be met.
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