According to yesterday’s JTA philanthropy newsletter,
“Hadassah laid off another 17 employees this week, amounting to another 5 percent of its work force. The organization laid off a quarter of its staff last winter.
It isn’t clear where the cuts were made, but Hadassah is still insisting that they are part of a long-planned restructuring process that while pushed forward by the recession, was not caused by the recession.
… It’s certainly been a rough year for Hadassah. First it was a major victim of Bernard Madoff. Then the woman who helped manage the organization’s relations with Madoff wrote a tell-all book describing her affair with the swindler. And a couple of weeks ago, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in its annual Philanthropy 400 that the organization’s fund raising was down 50 percent last year.
Hadassah officials are disputing the chronicle’s numbers as wrong, saying they aren’t sure where or how the Chronicle came up with them.”
You should be a little more compassionate and offer some appreciation of the great things they’ve accomplished, including Young Judaea and the Medical Organization/Hospital. Yes, they’ve got huge organizational and financial issues. But it’s a little tiring to see you lashing out at them when you get the slightest opportunity.
The worst thing about your reporting on Hadassah is all the innuendo – “is still insisting” – does that mean it isn’t true that their restructuring efforts were in place before the downturn, Madoff, etc.? Your reporting of Hadassah’s activities (and never mentioning any of the positives) makes me question the rest of your reporting as well.
On a regular basis we highlight news items published elsewhere in the media we feel would be of interest to our site visitors. If online, we link back to the original. If not online (as in this case) we refer to the source. We welcome comments on our choice of links, but remind our readers we are not the ones making, or writing, these news stories.
As indicated, this was sourced from the JTA‘s most recent philanthropy newsletter. Questions on the content of the article might better be directed to them.
Hadassah has long engaged in meaningful work in multiple areas. However, they are not proactive in bringing current news of their endeavors to the attention of the media.
To ssssS: I attempted to begin an off-line dialogue with you, but you provided a made-up email address.
I was one of the many good employees that were laid-off in January. Working at Hadassah was more than just a job, we believed in the work of the organization and it felt good knowing that at the end of the day our work was doing something good for someone else.
My disappointment is with the leadership at Hadassah, and due to their mistakes, our jobs were lost and yet they still remain at the helm. What happened to us last year was not the result of strategy or good thinking, it was the result of panic and selfishness. For many years I had witnessed much fiscal irresponsibility. It was not necessary to bring in a million dollar consulting company to tell them what we all knew.
If you wish to see yourself as a leader, it is your responsibility to set quality standards for leadership and act as a role model for doing the right thing. For this, Hadassah, you have failed miserably. Rather than putting so much energy into figuring out where to cut, and how to do less, the right thing to do should have been to identify where more is needed and how you can do more. Can you imagine if the headlines that week would have read, “Hadassah, forever doing the right thing.” Perhaps then, your loyal donors would still be willing to believe in you.