His federation isn’t slaughtering the sacred cow but merely offering another breed. Following in the footsteps of charities nationally, the East Bay federation will enable local donors to specify how they want their gifts spent.
“People are looking to be able to see, touch, feel, taste in a very direct way the benefits of their philanthropy,” says Nahshon.
For the 1997 campaign, donors will be urged to give first to the general fund. They will than have the option of giving to four specialized funds focusing on social justice, education, Israel and spiritual renewal.
The federation hopes to earn $1.5 million this campaign year for the specialized funds.
“It’s a wonderful opportunity to give to something you’re interested in,” says campaign chair Ruth Reffkin, a financial planner from Berkeley. “Our goal is to empower people to feel they have more of a voice in how their gift is allocated. We want to give some additional options.”
Another choice: Donors contributing a minimum of $10,000 can “actually design a project, follow it and help it along,” says Reffkin.
Nationally, federation campaigns have been roughly flat for the last five years. In the East Bay, the last fund-raising year saw a subtle drop from $2.8 million in 1995 to $2.7 million in 1996.
Nahshon is hoping the federation’s plan will encourage new donors and motivate regular contributors to give more by aligning the agency’s philosophy with the overall trend in national philanthropy.
He calls the recent bent toward specific giving “a social trend.”
“It’s part of the same trend that now sees people being less trustful of government, less inclined to trust central organizations.” The old model, Nahshon says, “was based on the ethic that Jews pay a voluntary tax. An internal sense of obligation drove that kind of giving. Today, that sense of obligation is eroding.”
While the federation is appealing to donors’ needs to have a more direct connection to their good deeds, leaders are stressing that donations to the overall campaign are still crucial to maintaining services.