A Formula for Dues Relief
March 18, 2011 
11 Comments
by Rob Berkovitz
URJ Congregational Finance Specialist
Has this ever happened to you? Hopefully it hasn’t happened in your synagogue!
Dear prospective congregant,
The Dues Committee of Congregation Aleph Bet has reviewed your dues relief request and your financial data. According to our financial formula, which is based on your annual income and your credit report, you do not qualify for dues relief.
Our decision was made partially from information received from the credit reporting agencies as well as information you furnished to us, such as your tax return and financial statements.
If you have any questions, please contact our financial coordinator at 555.222.1111.Sincerely,
Joe G. Treasurer
The majority of our synagogues do an excellent job of creating a policy stating that no one is denied the chance to belong to the synagogue community because of their financial situation. Many even make a point to add this statement to their website or membership application. This is great, but the important part is the follow through; not just saying it but really meaning it, and letting our actions show it.
We need to work hard sometimes to not judge each other. It can be achallenge for membership or finance chairs when people ask for duesrelief and the chair has a feeling that they have the capability to givemore than they say they can.
However, we don’t always know what is going on in someone’s personallife. A family that looks like they make a reasonable income on papermay have bills they are paying–for whatever reason–that makes paying thesynagogue difficult and they may not want the synagogue to know abouttheir financial struggles. Our energy is better spent on other thingsthan concentrating on who isn’t paying their “fair share.” Identifyingand cultivating members with a capacity to give to the synagogue wouldbe a better way to channel that energy. Also, concentrating onengagement and connection may help to gain more financial commitmentfrom members.
It may be that the member or prospective member doesn’t feel inclined togive because s/he doesn’t feel connected to the synagogue. When someoneasks for dues relief, finance chairs may want to consider ways toengage the member in congregational life. If the congregant feelsconnected to the synagogue, s/he’s more likely to see the value of thecongregation and give accordingly.
In all of this, the important thing is making that statement in yourmembership application a living, breathing policy. As the followingpassage from Mishkan T’filah suggests, no members or prospective members- regardless of their ability or willingness to pay dues – should beturned away from your house of worship.
May the door of this synagogue be wide enough to receive all who hungerfor love, all who are lonely for friendship. May it welcome all who havecares to unburden, thanks to express, hopes to nurture. May the doorof this synagogue be narrow enough to shut out pettiness and pride, envyand enmity. May its threshold be no stumbling block to young orstraying feet. May it be too high to admit complacency, selfishness andharshness. May this synagogue be, for all who enter, the doorway to aricher and more meaningful life.
The prayer highlights the importance of having a dues relief policy inplace that allows for acceptance for all without judgment and with trustand compassion so that all who want to may enter the door of thesynagogue and feel welcome.
Do you have a welcoming dues relief policy? Is it actually practiced? How do congregations balance running the business of the synagogue while remaining a welcoming community?
Spotlight on Welcoming the Stranger: During the month of March, the URJ is highlighting resources that help our congregations with their Outreach and Membership efforts.
Obviously, congregations need a compassionate and equitable way to include those who can’t afford “full dues.”
But the reality is they also need a way to respond to those who don’t plead hardship, only that it’s not worth $3K for an institution they use only on the HHD.
Clearly the conventional dues model isn’t working as once it did; and fee for service may be hazardous. Any other ideas?
That passage from MT is beautiful. Any idea who wrote it?
@ Jordan Friedman
Yes, the prayer is credited to Sydney Greenberg.
@ Mishkan Maven:
Thanks!
Larry –
Re: Other models — at home, we pay dues to 2 synagogues because we believe it’s important to support our community. Ironically, I’m quite sure we contribute even more money to our local Chabad (we are Orthodox, but not Chabad) because they provide the best services to our family — and important services to the community at large.
I’m not recommending that you accept Chabad’s message — I’m only suggesting that they are a non-dues model, and they are clearly doing something right…
Daphne –
Kol hakavod. Of course it’s important to support the community, and if everyone agreed, this discussion would not need to take place. Rob Berkovitz is talking about people who can’t afford to pay the scheduled amount to support the synagogue, and I added to the discussion those who, regardless of their means, don’t find the offerings of the synagogue sufficiently compelling to pay the scheduled amount, and who are not concerned with planting for those who come after them.
I agree that Chabad is proficient at fund-raising, and their particular skill seems to be at getting support from people who who do not themselves live anything like a Chabad lifestyle, but who have bought into the idea that Chabad is a major guarantor of the future of Judaism.
Personally, I believe that, were it not for Reform Judaism, Judaism in America would have withered away, but we haven’t been able to sell that message broadly. Rightly or wrongly, we in the Reform community seek to have our synagogues supported by those who “belong” to them. (When we go outside — to local merchants for an ad in the bulletin or the member directory, to non-member friends to patronize the bake sale — we are raising petty cash.)
Chabad’s other strength is that it works on an entrepreneurial model, where the local shluchim are totally responsible for funding their own operations. While our local synagogues are also responsible for funding themselves, the responsibility is diffuse — and anything that is everyone’s responsibility soon becomes no-one’s responsibility.
Larry — First off — My apologies — I didn’t mean to turn this into a “patting myself on the back” moment. And let’s agree (or maybe you will disagree) that there is room and value in the American Jewish experience for both Reform and Chabad expressions of Judaism.
Rob — Let me go back to your closing lines:
“The prayer highlights the importance of having a dues relief policy in place that allows for acceptance for all without judgment and with trust and compassion so that all who want to may enter the door of the synagogue and feel welcome.”
Some years ago, I interviewed to be executive director of a local Reform Temple. Because of my style of observance, they were willing to work with/around my needs — e.g. I couldn’t be the one to call the snow plowing service on a Saturday and the like. Where I couldn’t come to terms with their requirements was when they said the temple policy indicated that if someone’s dues were not fully paid, they would not be allowed entry/seating during High Holiday services. I told them that regardless of why someone hadn’t paid, I didn’t feel at all comfortable turning anyone away — especially on the High Holidays — and that I’d prefer to let them attend services and hope to work something out afterwards.
We reached an impasse on the arrangement — which is totally fine — I’m not sorry about the way things work out. On the one hand, I understand that synagogues have expenses and payroll to meet and so they have to run like a business… So maybe I’m a sucker, but I think that like the Chabad model, if Synagogues/Temples could/would show flexibility, people would eventually see the value in the service they were getting and provide compensation/contributions as thanks in return.
Daphne — first, I did not for a moment think that you were patting yourself on the back, merely expressing the idea that a Jew has an obligation to support the community.
Re Chabad — I absolutely accept that there is value in a variety of approaches to Judaism, including Chabad. I would feel better about them if they conceded a similar value to Reform.
Re flexibility on HHD service attendance by the unticketed — I stopped ushering because I was uncomfortable turning folks away when there were only 900 occupied seats in a sanctuary that can accommodate 1400. But I recognized that some of the people who wanted to pray with no pay were pure and simple free-loaders.
And we all know the story about the guy who showed up at the shul without a ticket, and told the usher he had to get in to deliver an urgent message to his father — to which the usher replied, OK, I’ll let you in, but don’t let me catch you davening.
We err on the other side of accepting whatever a member tells us. When approached for relief, we ask, “What do you feel you can pay?” and then we consider that their full dues. Do we have free-loaders? Yep! Would we rather have them unaffiliated(we are the only synagogue in town)? Nope! We also admit all to HHD services, giving ticket holders priority seating. Do we leave money on the table? No doubt! Do we feel we are truly open to all comers? No doubt!
I am interested in learning more about how you approach HHD seating. Who gets tickets? Only members or can non-members “purchase” them? How does priority seating work? If a members with a ticket comes in late and can’t get a seat – what happens? How do those members respond to the situation?
@Gordon Manning
Answering your questions intelligently is almost impossible without knowing first how many members you have and how many seats you have. As an example, if there is any risk of a member not finding a seat, it would seem unconscionable to have sold seats to non-members.
At one synagogue I belonged to, the culture was based on the affiliation principle, and it was felt that selling HHD seats would discourage affiliation. Fact was, that the folks who only wanted HHD seats were going to find them somewhere; and since the sanctuary was plenty big enough for all the members, and then some, these unaffiliated buyers represented an opportunity for additional revenue without additional cost.
The other thing to remember is that if you change your HHD policies in any way that directly affects members, you will get a little bit of static, although less than many of your super-cautious board members will have predicted. And most of that will blow over by the second year.
And one more point — certainly a consideration in policy-setting for a high profile, urban congregation: security. Following guidance from the local police department, and having been vandalized more than once, one congregation I know has off-duty, non-uniformed police at the door, checking tickets against photo ID.