The other
day, someone asked me regarding a large local synagogue, "They must
never have money problems, right?" He pointed to their busy catering
operation, and their long membership list, as the basis for this assumption.
Without
discussing any particular shul, though, I can say with some confidence that
every shul which attempts to serve its members with more than a simple space
for davening runs a deficit, whether small or great. I have three reasons for
this statement:
1: The staff's goal
is to provide services
As with any
non-profit, the goal is not profit, but rather services. Any money which comes
in, whether budgeted revenue or surprise contribution, is plowed back into the
operation in order to provide more services - which cost money.
[As I noted above, the exception is the synagogue that is just a room in which to daven.]
2:
The budget-setters harbour religious optimism
Many shuls
function with the belief, spoken or unspoken, that "things will work
out", and they will survive, regardless of any immediate crisis. We have a hard time imagining that the shul could collapse. This
leads to a degree of fiscal laxity.
3: The
customers set the price
Manufacturers
determine their prices based upon their own costs, and what they believe the
market will bear. The same is true for service providers. In synagogues,
though, the paying customers – members of the board – are the ones who decide
how much they need to pay in dues. [The same is true for schools with
parent-based finance committees.] The result is that dues are calculated based
on a negotiation between the customers' needs and those of the institution, and
the synagogue will not be able to rely on dues to fund their budgets.
My point is
that a synagogue's financial stability is not dependent on the salaries of the staff,
or the size of the building, or income from a catering operation. Rather, it
depends on the attitude of the people who decide what services to provide, the
people who set the budget, and the people who set the price.
"the exception is the synagogue that is just a room in which to daven"
ReplyDeleteRav Moshe discusses the rebbe who opens a shteibel as a way to make a living; he demands an apology (and funds!) when the local praying population opens a new place down the block instead of his! Okay so he got mad and called the congregation "commies" in some of his sermons ... so what?
Is that a shul in which you'd like to be?
And reason #4: Many heavy users of synagogue facilities don't join or donate.
ReplyDeleteNote that the 'Mi sheberach' distinguishes between 'kol mi shem'yachadim batei knaisiot litfillah" and "u'mi shebaim betocham lehitpallel".
Shalom-
ReplyDeleteNope.
Commentator-
While I agree that that's inappropriate, I'm not sure that it contributes to deficits on a systemic level. Such people don't normally lead to greater expenses.