By Alan Klugman, Executive Director
On February 16, the Jewish Federation of Madison Board of Directors passed a 2021-2022 budget that is significant on many levels. Despite our 2020 Annual Tzedakah Campaign coming in short of 2019 by some $20,000, we were able to maintain the previous levels of funding, and some areas of new and increased funding, to programs and services our community supports.
To begin with, we were able to keep allocations to all of our beneficiary agencies at 100 percent, meaning that they will receive the same amount of funding support in 2021 that they received in 2020.
We created two new budget lines that allow us to set aside $34,000 in each: one for a reserve to offset the loss of future major gift annual contributions and a second to provide special funding to campaign building and community outreach events.
In recognition of their extraordinary work and partnership over many years, two national agencies will receive increased allocations of $2,500 each, ADL (Anti-Defamation League) and HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society). ADL works with the Jewish Federation of Madison on all aspects of educating and combating antisemitism. HIAS has been the preeminent organization for resettling refugees, partnering with Jewish Social services at the local level.
We look forward to a time when our organization will resume its community-wide programming with expanded activities at the Goodman Jewish Community Campus and approved budgetary allocations in anticipation of this to allow us to make that a reality when safely possible.
Finally, this year's budget reflects our plans and goals to re-open the Goodman Aquatic Center to expand the enrollment at Camp Shalom to full capacity.
We are inspired by all the good we will do together for our community in 2021 because of your support. Thank you for your partnership in making all of this and so much more possible.