Mortimer L. Schiff has accepted the chairmanship of a Special Prospects Committee whose task it will be to help raise the budgetary requirements of the ninety-one affiliated institutions of the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies without an annual drive.
Mr. Schiff announced that he would call a luncheon for Wednesday, April 13, at the Bankers’ Club, of all those who secured special, one-time donations for the Federation last year, with a view to having the special donors convert these gifts into regular, recurrent subscriptions. The Board of Trustees of the Federation last week approved a gross budget of $8,550,517 for the Federation institutions, of which $4,384,525 is to be supplied by the Federation, largely through the efforts of the Business Men’s Council, of which Perey S. Straus is the chairman.
Since the Federation was founded ten years ago, more than $32,000,000 for philanthropy has been raised through its committees, but always with a special, highly-organized annual campaign. At the last annual meeting of the Federation, Sol Stroock, in his presidential address, voiced the hope that the annual campaign might be eliminated.
In a letter to special donors, Mr. Schiff explained the situation this way:
“I have been giving considerable thought of late to the operations of our Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, both as a substantial contributor to its funds and as the President of the Jewish Board of Guardians, one of its important affiliated organizations, and I have reached the conclusion that the most serious problem that confronts Federation at the present time is the lack of a dependable annual income to meet its budgetary requirements. Only about two-thirds of the money it requires comes from recurring annual subscriptions and the balance amounting to about $1,500,000 must be raised each year by means of campaigns and appeals with all their attendant publicity and meetings, to say nothing of the considerable expense that this entails.
“The most serious result of this, however, is the curtailment of activities of the affiliated organizations, as the trustees of Federation cannot adopt adequate budgets when they do not know in advance what amount will be available for distribution. Because of this, some years ago, I converted my own special donation to Federation into a fixed annual subscription, and I am so convinced that the success of Federation depends on this being done by the greatest possible number of contributors, that I have accepted the chairmanship of a committee created for this purpose.
“As a matter of fact, a very large number of those who make donations to Federation as the result of campaigns and appeals repeat these donations in succeeding years, but as long as they do not include these gifts in their annual subscriptions, they must be approached and solicited again and again. What we want to accomplish is to have these donations converted into annual subscriptions and it is for this I ask your cooperation. I am sure you realize the importance of reducing the annual deficit of Federation to a minimum and thus, if possible, avoid the expense, annoyance and waste of annual extensive city-wide campaigns.
“I am not asking you to give more in 1927 than you did in 1926 or even to pay at once what you do give, but to permit Federation to bill you at any time in 1927 most convenient to you for the same total amount as you give in 1926 and to continue to do so annually hereafter until you decide to change the amount. Your consent will not only give you immunity from any appeal this fall but will greatly help Federation in solving its most pressing problem.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
