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As the CEO of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Jennifer Gorovitz recently had to do what CEOs dread: issue pink slips. Last week 18 employees lost their jobs, effective immediately.

Jennifer Gorovitz

The layoffs followed an annual campaign tally of $19.4 million in unrestricted donations — $3.6 million shy of the federation’s target for its 2009-10 campaign and $5.2 million less than its 2008-09 take.

“We are not a beleaguered organization,” Gorovitz said, despite the less-than-hoped-for tally. “First of all, $19 million is a lot of money, particularly when we live in a state with unemployment that exceeds 12 percent, and an economy that is the worst in a generation. We should be very proud of that number.”

Nevertheless, last week bought pain to the JCF office. In addition to the 18 layoffs, another 15 staff positions have been eliminated through attrition and consolidation. Currently, the federation has 92 people on staff.

“Members of the executive team met with as many of the departing staff as possible to thank them for their loyalty,” said Gorovitz, who took over the top spot in May after seven months as interim CEO. “From the staff remaining, the feedback has been very supportive. Everybody recognizes change is absolutely essential to keep the organization strong and on solid footing for the future.”

Gorovitz, 46, said the federation’s lay and professional campaign staffs “tried mightily” to reach the $23 million goal, and “can’t be faulted in any way.”

But the shortfall will impact the federation and its grantees. Last year, the Jewish Community Endowment Fund provided a $2.6 million bridge grant so that federation could give the same $25 million to its grantees that it had given the previous two years.

However, there will be no bridge grant in 2010, which means many beneficiaries will have fewer dollars to work with. Most agencies were alerted in January that allocations for the July 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011 fiscal year might be slashed by as much as 30 percent.

Still, with operating support grant letters going out this week, Gorovitz said the federation would strive to fund agencies as fully as possible.

“One of the reasons we made the [in-house] cuts as we did was to maximize the amount of funding we could release into the community for allocations,” she said. “We endeavored to fund at 100 percent all of our agencies serving our most vulnerable populations.”

That means, for example, Jewish Family and Children’s Services, Jewish Vocational Service and the Jewish Home will receive from the federation 100 percent of the funds they requested for this year.

Certain other programs, such as the Synagogue/Federation Partnership, which seeks to increase participation in synagogue life, and the Catalyst Initiative, which provides emergency funds for families and institutions in crisis, will not be subject to budget cuts.

With fewer federation staffers, internal restructuring was inevitable. Previously, the combined federation and JCEF each oversaw their own fundraising and allocations arms. Now, they will integrate, with fundraising for both divisions falling under a new development and outreach department, and allocations under the community impact department.

Gorovitz said these and other streamlining changes have been afoot for months and will continue even when the economy picks up. Over the next few months, the lay and professional staffs will comb through the budget to look for other savings.

“When we talk about the changes in the economy, in philanthropy generally and our Jewish community, we’re talking about the need to become better and different, but not to become bigger,” she said. “That’s not the solution. The solution is to have greater impact in the areas where we add unique value.”

Difficult as the layoffs and budget cuts have been, Gorovitz emphasized the positive.

She noted that the campaign experienced no net loss of donors over the past year. Moreover, a few days after the campaign closed on June 30, a $1 million bequest came in to the endowment, bolstering its coffers.

“It means,” she said, “our message of care and concern, and our desire to ignite Jewish life in the Bay Area is really getting out there.”