Temple Emanuel shifts to voluntary giving: A bold new era for membership and governance
Temple Emanuel is hoping to grow its community by emphasizing engagement over formal affiliation.
Some big changes are coming to Temple Emanuel of South Hills.
The Mt. Lebanon congregation voted last month to amend its bylaws, redefining “membership” and placing all formal decision-making in the hands of 10 to 12 board members.
The changes to the bylaws, which include welcoming non-Jews onto the congregation’s board, passed with 85% of the vote.
The new bylaws will take effect on July 25, along with a new financial giving model that upends traditional notions of dues.
The changes are the outcome of a three-year strategic planning process “looking at both the needs of our community and how to address the needs we see in the future,” Temple Emanuel’s Senior Rabbi Aaron Meyer said.
As part of that strategic planning process — which included the input of congregants as well as professional external consultants — the congregation identified two central objectives: “continuing and enhancing the vibrancy of the community,” and ensuring Temple Emanuel’s financial sustainability into the future, Meyer said.
The Reform congregation of 475 families, founded in 1951, Meyer said, is investing in “three different pillars” moving forward.
“The first one is changing the traditional definitions of membership to make involvement in the community even more accessible,” he said. “The second one is positioning Temple to operate a bit more nimbly and responsively, changing the governance structure to being a staff-led model, with continued board governance and congregational input through the traditional channels of synagogue life. And then inviting individuals who are part of the community and friends of the community to continue to support us financially in ways that make sense for them and for us.”
“Membership” of Temple Emanuel is formally defined in the amended bylaws as the 10 to 12 people on the Board of Trustees. They will be the only congregants voting on issues of governance. The congregation at large can participate in decision-making by sharing input and feedback, but the days of large congregational meetings in which everyone has a vote on matters of governance will be gone.
“The best ways to show your support for something or express your disagreement with something is to continue to be involved, to speak to members of the Board of Trustees, to speak to members of the staff and to start living that change you want to see through your volunteer time. And that remains true now,” Meyer said.
While congregants will no longer be “members” as defined by the bylaws, Temple Emanuel is hoping to grow its community by emphasizing engagement over formal affiliation, according to Temple Emanuel’s President Beth Schwartz.
“We are inviting people to come into our community and check out our community, rather than handing them a membership application right away,” she said. Temple Emanuel is “opening our doors wide to anybody who identifies with our mission and vision.”
Once a person becomes part of the Temple community, financial support will be discussed, as the congregation shifts to an “individualized giving” model, as opposed to a traditional dues structure, Meyer said.
“Our plan of individualized giving is designed to help people think about their values in supporting a Jewish organization — the value they receive from being part of the Temple community — and helps us to meet our needs as a synagogue to be financially sustainable,” he said.
To that end, conversations will be held with everyone affiliated with the congregation. For longtime congregants, that conversation “will be based on their giving history and conversations about what’s important to them.”
For people newer to the community, Meyer said, the conversation “will be a transparent look at Temple’s finances — where their dollars are needed — and a conversation about how they align with the organization to help us meet that future.”
Temple Emanuel, the rabbi said, has been experiencing a period of “growth and success that we look forward to sustaining as we enter into this new model.”
“The advantage of the individualized giving model is we can really tailor the conversation to you,” he said. “If you would like to pay us something you know as dues on July 1 of every year, we will send you a bill on July 1 every year. If you would rather align your philanthropic contributions with end-of-year giving when you’re meeting with your tax professionals and would rather have the conversation in November and December, we can do that as well.”
While several other congregations have moved to a nontraditional dues model, Temple Emanuel’s plan is different, Schwartz said, “because we are not creating preset categories.”
Over the past five years, Temple Emanuel’s dues collections have declined, Meyer said, “while our overall philanthropic giving has increased. Which means to say we understand from this that people are reluctant to continue to offer their philanthropic dollars in the way they traditionally have, but when there is cause or proven values alignment, the community has been very generous.”
Another change to bylaws allows non-Jews to serve on the Board of Trustees, with the stipulation that 51% of the board remains Jewish.
Non-Jews have become increasingly active in synagogue life across the United States, as more and more non-Orthodox congregations encourage them to participate, including in board governance. More than 61% of Jews who’ve married since 2010 have non-Jewish spouses, according to a 2020 Pew Research Center study, as compared to only 9% of Jews before 1965. As the proportion of interfaith couples rises, so have the contributions of non-Jewish spouses.
Temple Emanuel, looking to continue its trend of growth and engagement, is adapting to be “responsive to the changing needs of the Jewish community,” Meyer said. “For too long, synagogues have pointed the finger at those not involved and assumed that the challenge was their relationship with Judaism. We’re now pointing the fingers back at ourselves to ask how we can better meet the community where it is.”
The congregation has been “doing a lot of different programmatic change that we anticipate to continue,” Schwartz added. “A lot of what sounds like big change is, in a way, continuing what we’re doing, and just kind of codifying it, saying this is what we’re going to keep on doing in terms of connecting with people, connecting on the street, asking people to come on in before encouraging them to become members and talking to people about their giving.”
An analogous model, Meyer said, may be “how NPR raises funds. They say ‘You have been listening to us. You want to support this quality of programming on the radio, now offer us your financial contribution to continue the work,’ rather than asking for those dollars in a subscription model right up front.” PJC
Toby Tabachnick can be reached at ttabachnick@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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