Central Body of Jewish Federations Accepts Plan for National Advisory Budgeting

The Board of Directors of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds meeting here approved in principle a report favoring national advisory budgeting subject to the acceptance of such a program by its member welfare funds, federations and community councils, it was announced today.

The program, if adopted, would provide for the review by a representative national committee of the budgets of national and overseas agencies, and reporting of the findings to the member agencies as a guide in distributing the funds raised by each community.

National Advisory Budgeting is defined in the proposal under consideration as a review by a national committee selected by the Council or by the welfare fund members of the Council. It is assumed that the Committee appointed for this task would be acceptable both to the member agencies of the Council and to the national and overseas organizations as an impartial and objective group concerned primarily with reaching equitable decisions which would be helpful to fund raising and to local budgetary procedures.

The national and overseas agencies would, under the proposal, determine what their budgets should be. The national committee to be established would then review the budgets, and after objective and thorough study, would attempt, together with the national and overseas agencies, to arrive at joint decisions on the amount of funds required to carry out the specific programs. These would be recommended-in an advisory way-to the welfare funds as minimum goals for fund-raising and fund distribution.

Where joint decisions could not be reached, the Committee would advise the welfare funds as to the part of the agency’s budget and program of work which had been agreed upon and would present both sides of the major items of difference. The Committee would not attempt to establish local quotas. The decisions reached by the Committee could be utilized by the member agencies which desired to do so as a guide in determining the distribution of the maximum funds raised in each local community.

The establishment of a national advisory budgeting service for the member agencies of the Council was proposed at the 1941 Assembly in Atlanta, following action by various regions calling for such a service. A referendum of the Council’s agencies at that time resulted in the decision by the 1942 assembly to launch a limited program as a three-year experiment at the end of which time the matter was to be given further consideration. As a first step, a budget research committee was appointed by the board of directors under the chairmanship of Jacob Blaustein to carry out and evaluate the limited program. The board’s most recent action was taken on the basis of a report and recommendations submitted by Mr. Blaustein.