Culture of Neglect

y neighbor has a special birthday with a celebratory reception.  She identified a special fund at her synagogue to receive donations to honor the occasion, so I accessed their web site to contribute.  Most of my Tzedakah donations are now conveyed electronically, a great convenience for record keeping, though also at the expense of the notes of appreciation I used to insert with many of the written checks.  The organizations get their money faster, also with less bookkeeeping effort, though a small bank processing fee that's really a fundraising cost.  As I accessed her congregation's donor portal seeking her preferred fund, dozens of targeted funds that this synagogue had accumulated over time appeared on the drop-down menu.  I selected the one I wanted, authorized payment, and within minutes, a receipt appeared in my email.  While I knew that this congregation engages its members in all sorts of initiatives, from interfaith outreach to internal education, the extend of the array of donor options, that ability to target what offered them meaning as a contributor surpassed any expectation I might have.  Many of the funds are likely dormant, set up as memorials and in receipt of mainly periodic supplements from those families.  Others probably paint a more accurate portrait of what the congregation values.  Money is collected to create activities that engage its members.  The local Conservative shul has a parallel donation processing system, a less extensive drop down menu of selections, but still with subagencies specific enough to figure out how their congregation tries to capture the interests and talents of its participants.

Ours is much more limited, in many ways a reflection of what has slouched to a culture of neglect.  Online donor choices from the dropdown would include:

1. Operating fund
2. Chapel Fund 
3. Building Maintenance
4. Library
5. Endowment
6. Kesher Committee
7. Kiddush Fund
8. Rabbi Discretionary
9. Sanctuary Flowers
10. Sisterhood
11. Torah Repair

We sold our building with its chapel several years ago, becoming renters.  Essentially purged our library of books, though technically we would have some space for a library if anyone wanted one, haven't seen any flowers in years.  In effect nobody maintains the list.  To the best of my knowledge, no officer has ever reported on activities of these funds in recent memory.  Have no idea what a Kesher or outreach committee did to serve us internally or externally.  We do probably value and use our Torah scrolls more than other synagogues.  In addition to what is really defunct, no initiatives requiring targeted money have been added, perhaps a more pernicious problem.  How you use your money, whether ample or in short supply, says a lot about what you deem important.  We really don't have a presence in the larger community, even though we could be the banner congregation in support of Israel which seems more at our forefront than a priority for others.  We could spend money decorating our rental interior or target funds to expand what can be accomplished in our kitchen.  Organizations raise money for the purposes that they want to pursue.  What I see from our limited options is really organizational languishing, a culture of good enough, and in some way

s neglect.  What escapes uniquely from us as an organization may be that culture of purpose.