Based on its revenues, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation topped the list of largest nonprofit service organizations in the Bay Area, according to a survey compiled by the San Francisco Business Times.
This is the first time the JCF has made the top spot; last year it was No. 2. The rankings are determined by the organizations’ tax returns. And in the fiscal year of 2000, on which this survey is based, the JCF reported revenues of $97.8 million.
Sam Salkin, chief executive officer of the JCF, chose to downplay the significance of the ranking. “What it really says is that we have a record that allows donors to have confidence and trust in us,” he said.
Thomas Pisarek, the Business Times editorial researcher who compiled the list, which was published last month, explained that the JCF moved to the top slot because of a change in procedure.
Last year, the YMCA of San Francisco was in first place, but this year it was broken up into its different area chapters instead of counted as one entity, which caused its largest branch to rank No. 8.
Prior to 1999, “we were still adding the revenues of each chapter of an organization and counting them [together] as a single entry,” said Pisarek, suggesting that if the current system had been in use, the JCF would have ranked higher in previous years. It ranked 11 in 1998, 10 in 1997 and 9 in 1996.
Despite this move up the ladder, the ranking “is not the key measure of impact,” said Salkin.
Looking at an organization’s tax return does not necessarily give the best indication of its effectiveness, he suggested. “We certainly don’t do what we do because we want to show up at the top of a list.”
Noting that the ranking signifies JCF’s gross assets, he said, “The real measure is not the gross of your assets, but the amount of money that you distribute to your beneficiaries.”
Salkin said the figure of $97 million was not one he would come up with to determine the organization’s effectiveness.
“We distribute $125 million to organizations, and we have an annual campaign of nearly $22.5 million that doesn’t show up in that number at all. We raised $22.5 million and we gave away $22.5 million, so we had no gross in those assets from the campaign.”
Furthermore, he said, achieving such a ranking is “nothing we aspire to. We do aspire to having a significant impact on the community locally, nationally, internationally, in Israel and overseas.”
At the same time, Salkin said that the ranking is “some kind of recognition that we’re doing something right and something well. The JCF was the only Jewish agency on the list of 25.
The Business Times also compiled a list of the largest foundations in the Bay Area. While no Jewish foundations made the top five, six of the 25 on the list were Jewish foundations.
They include: the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, which placed eighth with assets of $505 million; the Richard & Rhoda Goldman Fund, placing 10th with assets of $430 million; the Koret Foundation, No. 12 with assets of $320 million; the Miriam and Peter Haas Fund, in the 14th slot with assets of $266 million; the Walter and Elise Haas Fund, 15th on the list with assets of $233 million; and the Levi Strauss Foundation, No. 21 with assets of $115 million.
Both lists encompassed Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, and the city of Palo Alto.