The ADL and the American Jewish Committee reportedly have suffered steep declines in contributions.
According to the Forward:
“The Anti-Defamation League has lost more than $20 million in annual contributions over the past five years, going from more than $73 million in 2006 down to $51 million in 2010, according to its latest tax filings. That is a 30 percent fall-off, before taking inflation into account. Similarly, the American Jewish Committee, which brought in $62 million in donations in 2005, raised only $38 million in 2010. In the last half of 2009 – the only part of that year the group reported due to a shift from fiscal to calendar year – the group raised $10.6 million in donations.”
Also, IRS records show that the ADL has cut more than 100 employees between 2008 and 2010, from 528 to 427, the Forward reported. In the same period, national director Abraham Foxman’s salary has risen from $563,024 to $624,470.
The decline, according to the report, is based on the depressed economic climate coupled with a shift by young Jewish philanthropists to support single-issue groups, which have proliferated over the past decade.
Pro-Israel groups such as AIPAC, J Street, the Israel Project and Stand WithUs, as well as charities such as the American Jewish World Service, have seen significant jumps in contributions.
“There are organizations that have been created to take single elements of what the American Jewish organizations have been doing all along,” Foxman told the Forward. “The pie hasn’t gotten bigger, but the slicing has increased.”
For a deeper look at the numbers, please see the Forward article. — jta