There has been a lot of ‘noise’ recently in the Web 2.0 world about changes underway within the UJC system. Let’s cut to the tachlis. Here’s how the UJC frames a few new initiatives (all quotes are taken from yesterday’s emailed Leadership Briefing):
1. The UJC name is history.
“As part of an overarching effort to create a stronger continental brand for the Federation system, and based on brand research results, UJC’s strategy calls for changing its name to Jewish Federations of North America to better align and reflect the names of member organizations…UJC plans to launch the new brand…around the 2009 General Assembly in November.”
For you brand pundits out there, take a look at the GA Website. No name branding; no organization logo; read the about section and you’ll find no mention of the UJC brand. So while the official launch may be months off, practical change is already underway.
Now, we can only hope the UJC leadership goes one step further, takes a lesson from the Jewish Agency, and puts to a quick death the term Next Gen. [see our post from last November, The NextGen - R.I.P.]
2. The UJC has engaged Blue State Digital, the masterminds behind Obama’s $500 million campaign, to develop “…an e-philanthropy guidebook designed specifically for Federations, including email templates for new, existing, and lost donors.”
3. The UJC will be creating a system wide effort to promote Jewish volunteerism to engage Jews of all ages.
“The Jewish Service Initiative aims to collaborate with other domestic and overseas partners to promote and develop more opportunities for hands-on volunteerism through the Federation system, allowing Jews of all ages to better connect with Federations while meeting expanding needs…” and “…is studying collaborations with existing service groups such as Repair the Word…”
4. As to the speculation regarding Howard Rieger’s replacement as CEO, here’s the official word:
Incoming UJC Chair Kathy Manning, who chaired the CEO Search Committee to identify Rieger’s successor, reported that the committee was “closer to a resolution” and that “we hope to make a decision in the very near future.”
Guess negotiations aren’t going as well as hoped.
All the branding- and e-funding in the world is not going to help a system which is so incredibly out of touch with the current generation of young Jews.
It doesn’t matter how it is branded- it matters WHAT THEY ARE DOING…or in the federation’s case- what they are not doing.
They are funding programs for the larger community- like their literacy programs, but not funding Jewish schools or giving scholarships for dayschool.. How does that make sense?
If we (young donors) want to fund something for the general population we will. We give to the Federation to fund JEWISH programs.
Sarah,
If you look at federation spending, you’ll note that the lion’s share of the money goes to specifically Jewish causes — supporting vital organizations across the federation’s community and in Israel and around the Jewish world (including many programs like Jewish senior living programs, Jewish free loan programs etc. that aren’t sexy and don’t have a lot of buzz to them that might help them get standalone donors.) A much smaller chunk goes to tikkun olam-driven funding of general community programs, disaster relief etc. That percentage is decided based on needs assessments community by community.
These clowns spent a MILLION bucks to figure out a new name. A MILLION! That could fund 20 startups for two years. in 1999 they spent even more to come up with UJC. http://jta.org/news/article/1999/02/12/918/UJACJFmoveintog
And the kicker is that the original name of this entity was… drumroll… Council of Jewish Federations…. WTF!?
How much money could they possibly waste in demonstrating how out of touch, ineffective and WASTEFUL they are?
Too much is the answer, and its high time it was put to an end. Let’s man the barricades, sharpen the guillotines and take the gluttoness do-nothing ceo’s syphoning off our donations to their pockets and constant rebranding campaigns out of the equation.
Jerry,
So the solution to the federation system’s overall efficiency (check out the ratings) as a gatherer and distributor of funds to Jewish needs is to start a whole raft of new organizations with their own administrative needs instead of making the current infrastructure work better?