Every effort is made to include 25 people who represent the diversity of our community, including age, sex, denominational affiliation, areas of residence and levels of giving.

After the budgets are received, by the end of March, supplementary questions are posed to the agencies in a number of instances in order to further clarify their response.

All of the material is placed in a workbook distributed to all members of the Allocations Committee.

Once the committee is organized, sub-committees are established, including Cultural / National / Religious / Jewish Continuity Organizations, and three for local agencies. Their recommendations are made to the full Allocations Committee, which has two plenary sessions. At the first, funding strategies are reviewed and an allowance for pledges that may not be fulfilled is made. The final meeting is where the sub-committee proposals are reviewed, after having first been mailed to all members, and recommendations are made for approval by the Board of Trustees in June. Since, in most instances, these recommendations are not changed, this early process enables the Federation to inform its constituent agencies of their likely allocation so that they can adjust their budgets, accordingly, for the second half of the year. The fiscal year now runs from July 1st to June 30th.

ALLOCATION PHILOSOPHY
Invariably, we have managed to achieve a balance as equitable as possible for all concerned and by meeting the needs of our local agencies through allocations and supplementary grants, where indicated. At the same time, there is a strong commitment to our overseas allocations, which has been an historic factor in our successful campaigns.

Each year the allocations process is reviewed so that changes can be made that are more accommodating to the local agencies, as well as fulfilling our responsibilities for overseas needs.