The Transformation of Shaloch Manos

Purim is a day for fostering unity. The sages instituted a number of mitzvos towards that goal including charity to at least two poor people (matanos levyonim), a gift to at least 1 friend (shaloch manos), and a festive meal (seudos purim) with family and friends. The gift should consist of two portions of significant food items. Since funds are usually limited, most halachic authorities say that charity for the poor takes precedence over gifts to friends.

Shaloch Manos has certainly changed over the years with the addition of poems, themes and more elaborate gifts. I think that a case can be made that this mitzvah is a healthy outlet for those with the creativity needs, the time, and the money to carry this out. However, it does create a pressure, which is not what Chazal intended.

Another area of change is that people give many more Shaloch Manos than the one gift that halacha requires. This creates FOLO, Fear Of Leaving Out. Since we are giving out so many, we are afraid that someone will be offended if we leave them out. Shuls and other organizations have addressed FOLO anxiety by creating Shaloch Manos giving programs whereby you give to a number of people in one fell swoop.

A typical Shaloch Manos program for a Shul with 100 members charges $3.00 for each member to whom you want to send. For $125 you can send to all the members in the Shul. A reciprocity option sometimes exists to automatically send to people who send to you, which is another FOLO reliever. Each member receives the same Shaloch Manos basket with a list of the people who sent to them. With the baskets costing about $25 each, and a 60%-70% participant rate, this 100 member Shul would make between $4,000 – $6,000.

Shaloch Manos has become a nice fundraiser, but do we lose anything in that process?

A Shul Dinner Primer

A Shul Dinner is a wonderful event. The members get together for a wonderful evening together; the Shul is celebrated and strengthened; the service of the honorees is recognized. However it takes a lot of work, and if not for its primary fundraising role, it would probably not be undertaken.

As we’ve discussed previously in the “Back of the Napkin Cost to Run a Shul”, even a small 50 member family Shul in a rented space and a part-time Rabbi, can easily cost $75,000 a year or about $1,500 per family. You can’t charge $1,500 per family for membership in a small Shul, so you charge a few hundred for membership, a few hundred for Yomim Noraim seats, hope to raise a few hundred per family at a dinner, and sweat to make up the rest of the budget. The dinner is the key event around which fundraising can take place. Let’s look at four major processes: getting an honoree, picking a venue, encouraging member participation, making the event run smoothly.

Getting members to agree to be honored is not simple. For a small shul of 100 or less active members, getting one couple (or individual) to be honored is fine. In our Shul’s earlier years we would honor 2 couples, but as the years passed we ran short of willing participants, so we usually honor 1 couple now. If we would have had the foresight, we would have honored 1 couple from the beginning.
Some primary reasons people refuse to be honored are:
1) they don’t want to make the financial commitment it implies
2) they don’t want to bother their friends and families
3) they don’t want of feel they deserve the honor
If you set reasonable fundraising goals, you can often overcome objections 1) and 2) by insisting that a big donation or invite list is not expected. Objection 3) sometimes requires the Rabbi to pay a special visit to teach the members about the merit received for accepting the honor for the benefit of the Shul.

After the honorees, comes the venue. Find a few dates that work for the honorees and that don’t present any obvious community conflicts. Call the local halls first, because the less travelling required the better, and it’s always good to do business in your local community where possible. In Queens and Long Island, you can expect to spend between $40 and $60 per person for the caterer and the hall. If you’re a good negotiator, and are willing to tone down the menu, you might bring it home between $30 and $40 per person. Make sure it’s respectable, since you’re asking you members to shell out a few hundred per person, and it’s a let down if they’re served a tired piece of chicken, with some overcooked greasy vegetables.

Next is to decide the participation levels for your journal. Set the dinner attendance cost within the reach of most members, and set the other levels from there. Get a local printer to print your invitations. When putting together your invite list, remember people generally don’t attend or contribute to other Shul’s dinners, so save yourself some postage and printing cost and invite those likely to contribute. Don’t skip the journal, as it’s a nice touch for the honorees, and it helps you to raise more money with the different journal page rates.

After the invitations go out, comes the ad deadline game. It’s no secret that Jews run a little late when it comes to deadlines, so a liberal amount of Shul announcements and email reminders are usually necessary. Calling members who have not responded is a very wise idea, since people are more likely to respond to a call then to other forms of solicitation. In our Shul we encourage all new members to come, sometimes by reducing their contribution to just cover the catering costs.

Lastly comes the event itself. The goal is to make it respectable for the honorees, enjoyable for the members, build connection to the Shul, all within a reasonable elapsed time. Reasonable timings are 60 minutes for the shmorg or hors d’oeuvres, 60 minutes for the main meal and program, 20 minutes for desert. Throw in a mincha and/or a maariv and some transition time, and your talking 3 hours total. Although in a certain sense, the speeches are the most important part of the dinner, people today seem to have trouble sitting through them. Generally the dinner chairman, the Rabbi, the president, an introduction for the honorees, and the honorees themselves should speak. Inform all parties of the target time for their speech.

You can see there’s a lot of steps, so you need a competent dinner committee, consisting of a dinner chair, a journal chair, and a few other people helping with the planning and execution. It’s helpful if you can get some the same people from year to year, because there’s a lot of knowledge that is gained each time a dinner is run. It’s a great event and with some proper planning it can be even better!

Rabbinic Compensation Stats

Yeshiva University’s Center for the Jewish Future commissioned a study to shed some light on Rabbinic Compensation and Benefits. The survey was distributed to some 1,000 rabbis across North America, including those who serve as teachers, chaplains, campus rabbis, and are retired, in addition to those with a current pulpit. A total of 265 rabbis responded, representing a cross-section of Orthodox rabbis across the U.S. and Canada.

Here are some stats from the study:

• The average synagogue in the study employs close to two rabbis, with large synagogues, defined as those with 500 or more member units, employing almost three.

• The average synagogue employs the equivalent of about 1.6 full-time office employees.

• The median 2017 compensation for all rabbis in the survey is $90,000. For senior rabbis, the median is $100,000; associate rabbis $85,000; assistant rabbis $65,000; and campus rabbis $77,000.

• Pay varies significantly by the size of the synagogue. The median compensation for senior rabbis at large synagogues is $200,000, medium size synagogues (200-499 member units) $150,000, and small synagogues is $70,000.

• More than half (52 percent) of the surveyed rabbis do not receive health benefits, although a significant portion of them are covered under their wife’s plan.

• Nearly seven out of 10 rabbis do not receive any life or disability insurance from their synagogue, and only slightly more than 50 percent receive retirement benefits.

• Only about 20 percent live in a synagogue-owned home or apartment, or have a joint arrangement. The vast majority own or rent the residence in which they live.

• Vacation benefits are generous, however, with half of the rabbis receiving four-to-five weeks annually, and 20 percent entitled to six or more weeks.

• About 58 percent have additional employment, with the most common secondary position as a Judaic studies faculty member.

• Rabbis also supplement their income with rabbinic-related activities, such as officiating at lifestyle events, although it is typically a minimal amount; two-thirds make less than $2,500 a year doing so.

• They also typically get reimbursed for certain job-related expenses, such as conferences and professional development, entertaining guests on Shabbat and holidays and cell phone usage.

The Shul Newsletter and Membership Privileges

A friend recently asked whether he can get on our Shul’s mailing list to receive our newsletter. I told him that only members are on the mailing list. He raised his eyebrows a bit and he didn’t seem interested in Shul Types, Authority and Financial Strategies, so I didn’t explain the underpinnings of this policy. So let me lay it out briefly here.

A large part of our Shul’s revenues come from the members in the form of membership dues, high holiday seats and dinner donations. In exchange for membership, privileges include:
– priority on the Rabbi’s time when asking questions
– seating on Shabbos
– Chesed committee benefits including meals for births, during aveilus and in other times of need
– the intangible benefit of belonging to a group who shares their values in Torah, Avodah, Gemilas Chasadim and Eretz Yisroel.
– the weekly newsletter which primarily details Shul events and member related announcements

And if you’ll ask, isn’t it better for the Shul if more people know about it’s activities? I would answer that:
– community-relevant information is publicized on other channels
– we don’t think the newsletter attracts new members or significant donations
– we think there’s value to keeping the newsletter a private privilege for members only
– there’s increased privacy in keeping the information among the members

Although reasonable people may come to a different decision regarding the Shul Newsletter, I think the policy we have makes sense for our Shul at this time.

What’s a Rabbi Worth?

In membership based Shuls, determining the Rabbi’s salary is a significant issue. It’s hard enough to determine the fair salary of a Rabbi who’s attending life cycle events, teaching classes, giving drashos and paskening the occasional shailoh. But when your Rav is functioning as a Moreh Derech, a spiritual guide, for a significant portion of the congregation, it’s very difficult to put a price on that.

How can we put a price on someone who: cares deeply about you and your family; is always available; and constantly assists you in applying the Torah’s wisdom to your life situations, both large and small? You can’t put a price on Torah and spirituality, so where does that leave us?

The obvious answer is for the Shul to pay what it can afford, but that number has some flexibility in it, and is a function of what the members are willing to pay for dues and services. Based on my research, a Rabbi receives anywhere from $200 to $500 per member family. The larger the Shul, the lower the per family rate.

A related problem is when the Rabbi to whom you ask your questions is not the Rabbi of the Shul to which you belong. It seems the primary model for compensating the Rabbi is through the Shul structure. It doesn’t seem to be a normal practice to send a Rabbi a yearly check because he’s your spiritual advisor. I think all Jews need a Moreh Derech, but many, possibly most, don’t have such a person in their life. Perhaps we need to introduce non-Shul based compensation structures so people can connect to spiritual advisors who are paid adequately for their time.

Back of the Napkin Cost To Run a Shul

Can We Afford a Shul
What is the budget of a Shul? Let’s say we have 50 member units (families or singles) who want to start a Shul. The members will finance all of the costs. If the 50 members are financing the whole Shul it’s reasonable to pay between $1,000 and $2,000 each. Generally, the smaller the Shul, the higher the cost per member. We’re looking at a budget of between $50,000 and $100,000 a year.

The two major costs will usually be rental space and the Rabbi’s salary. Additional costs include utilities, food costs, program costs and professional fees.

Space Rental

Let’s start with space. With 50 member units, we will need space for between 50 and 100 people on a given Shabbos. The rule of thumb for a Shul is between 15 and 20 square feet per person for the main sanctuary. With 100 people on a given Shabbos, we’re looking at between 1500 and 2000 square feet for the main area.

We need to add about 30-40 percent for bathrooms, food area, storage, coat area, bookshelves, etc.., so we’re looking at 2000 to 2600 square feet. If we want to add a social hall area, we would need to add another 50%, but let’s leave that out for now.

The cost depends on your location and the space itself. Let’s say we can rent space at $15-20 per square foot per year, so were looking at between $30,000 and $50,000 per year for space.

Rabbi and Other Costs
For a a part time Rabbi for a shul this size, you should expect to pay between $20,000 and $80,000. That’s a big range, but a lot depends on your location, the services required and the experience level of the rabbi. Utilities and miscellaneous will cost about $1200 a month.

Summary
On a $75,000 budget you will need 50 member families at $1,500 per family. Rent at $30,000, Rabbi’s salary at $30,000 and miscellaneous at $15,000. You can play with the numbers to see what works for you.

Strategies for Shul Financial Success – Part 2 – Some Basic Principles

This is part 2 of Strategies for Shul Financial Success. You can read Part 1 here. I think it’s clear to most, that the Orthodox community is moving to smaller Shuls, which need a different financial structure from the big Shuls of the past.

In strong observant Jewish communities like Monsey, Kew Gardens Hills, Passaic, Lakewood, Teaneck, Five Towns and Brooklyn most small to medium size Shuls are not struggling. The financial struggle is occurring mainly among the big Reform, Conservative and Orthodox synagogues who have declining memberships and big budgets.
Take away: most existing Orthodox Shuls should not radically tamper with their existing financial structure.

The Chabad free membership model is based on the fact that most Shluchim are committed to their communities/territories for the long term and they often finance their Shul activities with schools. In the small town Chabad communities, the expenses are lower and the Shul can be financed through the employment of the Shluchim and contributions from a handful of donors.
Take away: don’t emulate the Chabad free membership model unless you’re covering your budget from sources outside of the membership or from a handful of members. Kiruv Shuls need to provide a flexible fee structure with free membership for beginners.

Most of the Shuls starting up today are on the small side, between 30 and 100 families. As I calculated in Back of the Napkin Cost To Run a Shul, the cost of running a 50 member Shul with a $30,000 Rabbi’s salary is about $75,000 or $1,500 per member family.
Take away: your Shul will probably cost between $1,500 and $2,000 per member.

To hire an experienced Rabbi, which is critical for your long term success, you need to pay between $50,000 and $100,000. Even the young brilliant amazing personable Rabbi, that you do hire for $20,000 – $30,000, will probably not stay with you at that salary for more than 3-5 years. This is one of the major problems Shuls face today. As we transition to smaller Shuls with smaller budgets, we can not adequately finance the Rabbis we need to be successful.
Take away: your small Shul structure will probably not be able to finance the Rabbi you need.

The three major sources of income for a Shul are membership dues, High Holiday seats and an Annual Dinner or Melava Malka. Mi she-beirakhs and facility rentals are secondary sources. Any shortfalls will need to be made up by donations from wealthier members. Your actual fee structure should be based on a budget spreadsheet which has been critically reviewed by a few wealthier Shul members.
Take away: create a budget and have it reviewed by a few wealthier members of your Shul

Strategies for Shul Financial Success – Part 1 – Changing Needs Over Time

There is no single formula for Shul financial success, because a 1,000 family Shul in a well-to-do suburb needs a much different strategy then 20 families in a rented basement. The size of the budget and the potential revenue sources are obviously the main driving factors, but I’d like to share some strategies that have been helpful over the years.

Our Shul started with about 20 members renting a basement in a small house. When I became treasurer in 1991 we had moved to the basement of a local high school with about 80 families and a Rabbi on a part time salary. We were 6 years into a 10 year lease at a very reasonable rent. In that year some forward thinking members, with an eye towards our lease ending, pooled together some resources to purchase a house which we subsequently rented out.

In 1995, the Shul President, started to put together a committee and a plan for the building of our new Shul. I was in the fourth year of a six year run as treasurer, and I still have the one page spreadsheet showing the cost breakdown of our $1,000,000 shul and our summary of pledges, loans and cash on hand to cover the projected capital costs. I took over as Shul President, for a 2 year term, the year before we moved in to the new building. A major focus in those years was redeeming pledges and continuing to get new pledges to finance the building.

When we moved into our new Shul in August, 1998 our expenses had increased significantly with a mortgage, outstanding building expenses, a sizable utility bill, a part time janitor, and other expenses necessary for the upkeep of our Shul. Over the past 15 years, I’ve been active on the board working on our finances and our expenses since we’ve moved in to the building have not increased significantly. We’re also approaching paying off our balloon mortgage. Clearly, our financing needs and strategies have changed significantly over the past 20+ years.

I would say that the one strategy that has been consistent over the years is to be frugal. Whenever you are making a purchase for a product or a service, shop around and hondle. Look for the best product at the best price, even if it takes a little more time. Even if you’re not frugal in your own family finances, when it comes to public Shul funds you should adopt that trait. Your goal is to keep the expense side of the budget as low as possible given your situation.

In future weeks we’ll discuss how we made our budget over the years and financed the construction of our building.

Running a Successful Shul Dinner

A Shul Dinner is a wonderful event. The members get together for a wonderful evening together; the Shul is celebrated and strengthened; the service of the honorees is recognized. However it takes a lot of work, and if not for its primary fundraising role, it would probably not be undertaken.

As we’ve discussed previously, even a small 50 member family Shul in a rented space and a part-time Rabbi, can easily cost $75,000 a year or about $1,500 per family. You can’t charge $1,500 per family for membership in a small Shul, so you charge a few hundred for membership, a few hundred for Yomim Noraim seats, hope to raise a few hundred per family at a dinner, and sweat to make up the rest of the budget. The dinner is the key event around which fundraising can take place. Let’s look at four major processes: getting an honoree, picking a venue, encouraging member participation, making the event run smoothly.

Getting members to agree to be honored is not simple. For a small shul of 100 or less active members, getting one couple (or individual) to be honored is fine. In our Shul’s earlier years we would honor 2 couples, but as the years passed we ran short of willing participants, so we usually honor 1 couple now. If we would have had the foresight, we would have honored 1 couple from the beginning.
Some primary reasons people refuse to be honored are:
1) they don’t want to make the financial commitment it implies
2) they don’t want to bother their friends and families
3) they don’t want of feel they deserve the honor
If you set reasonable fundraising goals, you can often overcome objections 1) and 2) by insisting that a big donation or invite list is not expected. Objection 3) sometimes requires the Rabbi to pay a special visit to teach the members about the merit received for accepting the honor for the benefit of the Shul.

After the honorees, comes the venue. Find a few dates that work for the honorees and that don’t present any obvious community conflicts. Call the local halls first, because the less travelling required the better, and it’s always good to do business in your local community where possible. In Queens and Long Island, you can expect to spend between $40 and $60 per person for the caterer and the hall. If you’re a good negotiator, and are willing to tone down the menu, you might bring it home between $30 and $40 per person. Make sure it’s respectable, since you’re asking you members to shell out a few hundred per person, and it’s a let down if they’re served a tired piece of chicken, with some overcooked greasy vegetables.

Next is to decide the participation levels for your journal. Set the dinner attendance cost within the reach of most members, and set the other levels from there. Get a local printer to print your invitations. When putting together your invite list, remember people generally don’t attend or contribute to other Shul’s dinners, so save yourself some postage and printing cost and invite those likely to contribute. Don’t skip on the journal, as it’s a nice touch for the honorees, and it helps you to raise more money with the different journal page rates.

After the invitations go out, comes the ad deadline game. It’s no secret that Jews run a little late when it comes to deadlines, so a liberal amount of Shul announcements and email reminders are usually necessary. Calling members who have not responded is a very wise idea, since people are more likely to respond to a call then to other forms of solicitation. In our Shul we encourage all new members to come, sometimes by reducing their contribution to the catering costs.

Lastly comes the event itself. The goal is to make it respectable for the honorees, enjoyable for the members, build connection to the Shul, all within a reasonable elapsed time. Reasonable timings are 60 minutes for the shmorg or hors d’oeuvres, 60 minutes for the main meal and program, 20 minutes for desert. Throw in a mincha and/or a maariv and some transition time, and your talking 3 hours total. Although in a certain sense, the speeches are the most important part of the dinner, people today seem to have trouble sitting through them. Generally the dinner chairman, the Rabbi, the president, an introduction for the honorees, and the honorees themselves should speak. Inform all parties of the target time for their speech.

You can see there’s a lot of steps, so you need a competent dinner committee, consisting of a dinner chair, a journal chair, and a few other people helping with the planning and execution. It’s helpful if you can get the same people from year to year, because there’s a lot of knowledge that is gained each time a dinner is run. We had our dinner this week and it was a smashing success, due in no small part to our amazing dinner committee.

If you have any questions or thoughts you can leave a comment or email me at shulpolitics@gmail.com.

Collecting Outstanding Balances From Members

It costs money to run a Shul. On a the back of a napkin, we previously estimated a cost of $75,000 per year for a 50 member family Shul. The costs include rental space, Rabbi’s salary, utilities, food costs, program costs and professional fees.

The vast majority of the necessary funds come from the membership through donations, dues, holiday seats and other fees. It’s inevitable that you’ll run into situations were Shul members are not current or behind more than 120 days in their obligations. The question is how to deal with these situations.

The first idea is to have a written policy, usually in the bylaws, regarding what constitutes a member in good standing, and what rights are reserved for members of good standing.

Secondly, you should send out bills on a regular basis, be it monthly. bi-monthly or quarterly. Generally, people pay their balances more readily, if and when they receive a bill.

The third and most difficult issue is setting and enforcing a policy for collecting balances.
Here are three possible policiies:
1) Enforce a strict policy of removing the member’s rights as specified in the bylaws. This will probably result in better collections, but it’s at the cost of alienating and possibly losing members who have outstanding balances.
2) Enforce a very lenient policy, with little or no removing of member rights. This will result in worse collections, but less people will be offended.
3) Enforce a selective policy, with great leniency in the case of true hardships, and some from of enforcement in other situations.

I’ve always personally advocated a very lenient policy, based on the assumption that Shul members are by and large honest, an assessment that the Shul can afford such a policy, and that nobody wants to be the collection enforcers. Another thing to keep in mind is the increase in Shul choices, for members in mid-size to larger neighborhoods, with many being low or no-cost options.

None of the choices are ideal, so it’s up to the board and/or the kitchen cabinet to set a sensible policy.

Shul Fees – Avoiding Taxation Without Representation

Members Fill the Financial Burden
Achieving a firm financial footing is a hard to achieve objective of any non-profit. In many Shuls it is the board and member’s responsibility to insure that the Shul is solvent and much of the money comes from the membership. This income comes in the form of membership dues, high holiday seats, annual dinner pledges, pledges during Aliyos and general donations.

The Budget Process
Determining what fees to charge starts with the budgeting process. The treasurer, often in collaboration with the president and/or financially astute board members, prepares a spreadsheet of income and expenses using the Shul’s accounting system as the primary source of information. Ideally the income should be greater than the expenses, but in recent times this has become a more difficult feat.

The budget should be presented to the board for approval. If the Shul is balancing its budget, then the process often stops with the board since the bylaws often defer the fiduciary responsibility to the board. When the budget is not being met, and fees have to be raised, then it makes political sense to present the membership with an idea of the financial condition without necessarily handing out the line by line budget.

Raising Membership Fees
Taxing the membership with increased membership fees is always difficult, because the Shul invariably contains members who can not afford to pay or who feel that the services provided aren’t worth the cost. It makes sense to discuss membership fee increases at a public meeting, so the membership understands why the increase is necessary. It seems that increases in dinner ads or high holiday seats are often passed by the board alone, perhaps because those fees are often not required, even if they are usually incurred.

Making Exceptions
Due to increased Shul competition and the desire to keep the membership roles stable, many Shuls are trying to accommodate the varying financial needs of their members. Different membership categories are established and exceptions are made where necessary. It’s important to understand the financial stress of those seeking exceptions and to try to deal with their situations with discretion and kindness.

Summary
Fiduciary responsibility is a Shul necessity and it can’t be ignored. Budgeting and raising dues and fees are a part of the process and they should be done with the consent of the board and/or membership where appropriate. It’s important that the membership fee process is equitable. Finally, a policy of discretion and kindness will greatly benefit the Shul in the long run.