News & Blogs Category: Blog

With information at your fingertips, and distractions only a click away, it is more important than ever to understand the “best” ways to get and hold people’s attention. At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we receive compelling and diverse grantee-partner updates that grab our attention, pull us into their work and impact, openly share challenges and learnings and leave us excited about their future plans. After recently receiving a grantee-partner update – and reflecting on how helpful it was – we realized that there are many other types of updates, utilizing entirely different approaches, that are equally as effective.

Whether via email or Zoom, in large peer funder groups or smaller ones, delivered weekly or quarterly, there is no single “right” way for these updates to occur. There are nuanced differences in each approach that best serve the grantee-partner’s unique circumstances and goals. In fact, as we compiled the examples below, we realized there were even more effective forms of updates than we had initially thought, which is a testament to the professionalism of the partners with whom we work. We think there is value in both grantees and funders considering these various forms — which can all work well depending on the specific organization, its stage of growth, content shared, list of funders and goals of the update itself. We view grantee-partner updates (and our sharing the thought process behind them here) as part of our approach to relational grantmaking, which is both premised on and leads to open and honest communications.

As noted, there are many organizations in our portfolio who share effective updates with their funders; we asked six grantee-partners who each utilize a different form and style to share insights as to why their specific choices work best for them.

Aaron Saxe is a senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. 

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy

The word “innovation” often conjures images of a lightbulb above a head — an instant spark of an idea that has the power to change the world. Yet real progress — forward motion, sustainable change — also requires the effective implementation of bright ideas.

In our experience, scaling means bringing an idea or program model that has worked in one place somewhere new, sometimes adapting the idea to meet local needs. Why doesn’t this happen more often? Understandably, there’s an excitement that comes with something new, and a tendency to focus on igniting our own lightbulb. We know through our experience as funder representatives and leaders that new ideas and innovations are an important part of the social impact equation. But the part of the equation that we want to elevate here is the power of amplifying something borrowed.

With that in mind, along with supporting new light bulbs, what if we widen the aperture and expand our notion of innovation to include concepts like customizing and adapting proven models too, helping existing light bulbs shine even brighter and in more places? With this mindset, we can see how scaling and innovation go hand-in-hand for greater impact.

Sara Allen is executive director of the Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative powered by Jewish Federations of North America. Rachel Shamash Schneider is a program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy

This summer CASJE released its study on the “Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators.” Almost immediately, Jewish leaders and practitioners began to dig into the findings and share initial insights on the data. These field-grounded perspectives, whether from those running educator training programs, in early childhood education, in part-time Jewish education, or other settings, offer an early glimpse into how this research can inform planning and investments in Jewish education and the Jewish education workforce.

Through the “Career Trajectories” study, our foundations sought to create usable knowledge accessible to all in the field. This knowledge can enable more people and organizations to strengthen the pipeline of Jewish educators and better support educators’ professional journeys. As representatives of the research’s funders, we are grateful to the leaders and organizations who have shared insights on the findings. We also are grateful to the many individuals and organizations, from within and outside of the Jewish world, who contributed their time and wisdom that shaped the research over many years. In fact, bringing this project to fruition was an exercise in collaboration. Three years ago CASJE convened a Problem Formulation Convening, a developmental conversation that brought together  practitioners, funders and researchers to ask critical questions related to the recruitment, retention and development of Jewish educators. We all recognized the need to more deeply understand what factors would help to professionalize the field and support educators’ success.

Stacie Cherner is director of learning and evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Menachem “Manny” Menchel is senior program officer, Jewish life at the William Davidson Foundation. To learn more and connect with them, email [email protected] and  [email protected]. Click here to read An Invitation to Action: Findings and Implications across the Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy

In 2013, the Jim Joseph Foundation wanted to understand and address the perpetual problem of teens dropping out of Jewish life following b’nai mitzvah. The Foundation posed some big questions to itself and to researchers it commissioned to understand the challenge. How could the Jewish community engage more — and more diverse — post-b’nai mitzvah teens in Jewish experiences that add meaning and value to their lives? How could we strengthen connections to and among Jewish teens that give them a sense of belonging?

After uncovering some potential answers, the Foundation began working with 10 local and five national funders to create 10 teen initiatives in communities across the U.S. Together, these funders and initiatives formed the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, with the common goal to develop and invest in local engagement opportunities to create high-quality, relevant and sustainable Jewish education and engagement experiences. Importantly, the early commitment from the Jim Joseph Foundation provided matching funds that local communities used to leverage for fundraising and/or allocating significant funding themselves.

In addition to sharing a common goal, over time the communities would also share learnings, benchmarks, frameworks and measures of success. To varying degrees they each experimented with new approaches to reach diverse new audiences. While each initiative had the autonomy to create initiatives suited for and reflective of their community, undoubtedly they had a larger collective impact than they could through individual action. The Funder Collaborative built a powerful national network with deep cross-community relationships, and found relevant new ways to serve Jewish teens, such as elevating wellness as foundational to achieving teen education and engagement outcomes.

Sara Allen is executive director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative and associate vice president, community and Jewish life at JFNA. Aaron Saxe is a senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy

Funders need to provide grantees with multiyear general operating support in order to help them achieve their missions. This statement is not new. In fact, last year, after the five wealthiest U.S. foundations committed to doing more to help grantees cover their overhead expenses, we called on the Jewish philanthropic world to do the same. Providing general operating support to organizations is one of the strongest levers we have to effect change. We noted then:

Now more than ever, the Jewish philanthropic community expects organizations to look at a complex, evolving world and respond with speed and creativity. We ask our partners and their leaders to perform at a high level in a challenging environment, and we must ensure they have the resources that enable them to be nimble and take risks. We have found that we can best support this agility by standing behind our grantees and not in front of them.

And that was before the pandemic. Today, the importance of general operating support is even more apparent. Beyond allowing organizations crucial time, space, and dollars to innovate during periods of calm, general operating or overhead support also provides organizations with the resources they need to pivot and adapt in times of crisis.

Lisa Eisen is Co-President of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy

Bahya Ibn Pakuda, an eleventh century Spanish Jewish philosopher and rabbi, wrote the first treatise on Jewish ethics called Duties of the Heart (Chovot HaLevavot). His Jewish wisdom has served as inspiration for centuries and his book is often celebrated in the days leading up to Rosh Hashana.  He proposes that the obligations of Torah fall into two categories: those that we perform with our limbs (Hovot HaEvarim) and those that are the realm of the soul/heart/spirit (Hovot HaLev). He points out that the “duties of the heart” are often neglected. Yet, at this moment in particular, we must elevate “duties of the heart,” nurturing people’s spiritual and holistic wellness to build resilience, so they have the strength and skills to adapt to and overcome challenges of today and the future.

One of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s core assumptions is that in a world that is constantly shifting and changing, there remains a strong and persistent human desire for connection, meaning, and purpose. As Jews, we celebrate our people’s history of resilience—an ability to adapt Judaism and Jewish life over thousands of years to meet these needs. Living through today’s great disruption and evolution, our community again has demonstrated dedication and creativity to offer Jewish learning with connection, meaning, and purpose in mind. Our community also has witnessed, and tried to respond, to pressures on our collective mental health and wellbeing.

As always, the High Holidays were an opportunity to start anew. Our preparations and rituals invited us to care not only for our own wellbeing but also for the wellbeing of strangers, our loved ones, and our broader community and world. These annual rituals remind us of the “duties of the heart” and our interdependence. Even amidst social distance, we are all connected and linked in some ways—and building our collective resilience will help us to face challenges ahead.

Opportunity to Elevate Wellness
Unlike more isolated inflection points or personal times of change, we are all facing this reality together. But as we have seen from so many organizations and individuals, this reality also presents opportunities to think about Jewish life in new ways. We have the opportunity to prioritize an upgraded wellness toolkit to strengthen our resilience and to reimagine Jewish community building, meaning-making, engagement, and education.

Even before the pandemic, teens and young adults faced increasing rates of depression, anxiety, stress, and wellness-related challenges. Research shows teens and young adults today are struggling the most and are actively seeking more connection and support. In a study conducted this summer, 63% of Jewish 18-40 year-olds reported heightened depression or anxiety but only 37% had sought out mental health support or professional counseling. At that time, 70% of young adults responded that it was particularly important for them to connect to their Jewish identity, and 63% had participated in something Jewish virtually since the pandemic began. In another study led by the Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC),  more than 55% of FJC’s teen and young adult survey respondents said they would welcome more mental, emotional, social, and spiritual health support, and 79% cited feeling that their Jewish friends had helped them cope with the pandemic. As a community, we can further elevate access to wellness support. Participants are showing up to programming with high anxiety and stress. Many are choosing to engage as one way to help mitigate and work through these challenges.

As funders and conveners, we have an opportunity to amplify our support of learners and educators. According to a recent study of professional development programs funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation, educators and program leaders reported that supporting emotional well-being is, for many, of equal priority to providing meaningful intellectual experiences. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, states that basic needs (like safety, security, food and water) and psychological needs (like esteem, belongingness, and love), must be met before self-fulfillment needs (like achieving one’s full potential). Thus, we must not only recognize the importance of these foundational needs, but also support them in order to achieve the highest levels of connection, meaning, and purpose. Through this lens, the connection between wellness and education become crystal clear: a learner cannot get the most from a learning experience or a teacher cannot educate with greatest efficacy unless their base needs of wellbeing, feeling safe and secure, and fulfilled. 

Looking to Jewish Sources for Support
Research, particularly from the last ten years, affirms that young people and families look to Jewish sources for connection and support. Thankfully, many Jewish organizations have built their wellness capacity and core competencies during this time too. A number of youth-serving organizations (YSOs) have recognized the importance of supporting and elevating teen and young adult wellness, offering their professionals trainings to serve the holistic needs of young people, addressed them through a Jewish lens. One example of this is the Youth Mental Health First Aid Training curriculum and certification program developed by National Council of Behavioral Health (it’s noteworthy that this is now available online). YSOs recognize that for their participants to meaningfully engage in programming, the wellness of those participants must be addressed. BBYO’s The Center for Adolescent Wellness and Hillel’s HillelWell, for example, support the mental health of their young people. Other organizations rooted in wellness and spirituality since their founding, like Moving Traditions, Institute for Jewish Spirituality, and At The Well, are supporting the field right now by making their trainings and community-building experiences accessible through new partnerships with organizations that want resources to support their constituents. At a time when bandwidth is stretched, these collaborations are critical. The power of the collective shows that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The Path Forward to Meet Wellness Needs of Youth
Today, organizations that serve young people recognize that their staff are on the front lines of support for their young people’s mental health. And while Jewish education has much to offer in the way of this support, many educators and other leaders do not have the appropriate skills and training to do this part of their work. Thankfully, however, the void of expertise in this area is slowly decreasing.

In January 2020, Jewish Teen Education & Engagement Funder Collaborative (the Funder Collaborative), convened a Wellness Gathering with Jewish experts, funders, and practitioners from across the country to make sense of developments in the wellness field. The convening sought to weave together and integrate the fields of wellness, education and engagement in the Jewish community by highlighting effective and meaningful work in this space. In turn, the convening revealed significant gaps in offerings, affordability, and accessibility. Since then, the Funder Collaborative, in partnership with YSO leaders, has led efforts to advance and coordinate the somewhat segmented and siloed Jewish wellness field and to connect engagement and clinical efforts that are underway. These efforts included a second convening of the wellness collective just last month, this time under the name “Resiliency Roundtable,” speaking to the resilience work that must be done to strengthen the social-emotional health of learners and educators. The dozens of participating organizations are working more together to build this field and offer best in class resources to meet the growing need for wellness support in the Jewish education community. If successful, the Resiliency Roundtable will position young people, educators, leaders, and communities writ large to be more resilient not only during this crisis but also into the future.

We know that Judaism has much to offer people searching for connection, meaning, and purpose in times of joy and sorrow. Tikkun olam, repairing world, is a familiar framing in the Jewish educational world. It is embraced by many Jewish learners and has inspired generations of Jews to collective action. This year, it feels important that we elevate the lesser-known notion of tikkun hanefesh, repair of the soul, and to recognize how it connects to the much-needed work of repairing the world. The idea of tikkun (repair) doesn’t imply inner brokenness; it is a recognition of a lack of balance.  Jewish education that prioritizes the importance of holistic wellbeing must provide a pathway for this tikkun hanefesh—for this rebalancing. Jewish wisdom and elevating “duties of the heart” will enable us to better repair ourselves and build our resilience so that we can care for others and our collective community.

Rachel Shamash Schneider is a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Sara Allen is Executive Director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.

We are in the midst of the Omer, the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuot. Counting is important during this time. Indeed, we mark each day of the Omer with blessing and reflection. Our Sages teach that the Omer mirrors the journey the Israelites took between the miracle of the Exodus and the giving of the Torah. Then, it was a physical journey. Today it is a spiritual journey, a process of introspection with each day and week of the Omer offering another opportunity for growth, learning and improvement. Counting and betterment go hand in hand.

What better time then to reflect on the findings of Counting Inconsistencies: An Analysis of American Jewish Population Studies with an Emphasis on Jews of Color, a report co-authored by a team from Stanford University and the University of San Francisco, led by Dr. Ari Kelman that we supported last year, in order to give an approximate estimation of Jews of Color in the United States.

Counting Inconsistencies is a meta-analysis of 25 prior demographic and population surveys, which some of us have funded. The report sheds light on the numerous inconsistencies these studies have had in collecting data and identified four ways in which demographic reports – both secular and Jewish – undercount people of color.

Read the full blog in eJewish Philanthropy

Recently, five of the wealthiest foundations in America announced that they will do more to help their grantees cover overhead expenses.

This commitment reflects an essential best practice in philanthropy: ensuring grantees have the unrestricted capital they need to achieve their missions, sustain healthy organizations and grow their impact. This practice stems from the business world where investors know that great outcomes require both risk and risk capital.

And yet, the Jewish sector seems to be hesitating in adopting this approach. At a time when organizations are eager to dream big, tackle community challenges and strengthen their operations, many funders continue to direct their grants to a narrow set of programmatic goals. And all too often, these grants do not cover the true cost of the work.

Lisa Eisen is President of the U.S. Jewish Portfolio of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. Barry Finestone is President and CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Read the full article in eJewish Philanthropy 

More than two years ago, the Machar Fellowship launched as an opportunity for recent college graduates to gain leadership skills by working at Jewish day schools. Gann Academy, the grantee-partner, designed this leadership development program to engage individuals on the precipice of choosing a career path, to provide them with a strong foundation in their early career years in Jewish education, and ideally to propel them into the future of Jewish organizational leadership.

Comparing the field now to early 2017, there are significantly more professional development programs for those working in Jewish organizations. Machar’s model with three Jewish High Schools— Gann Academy in Boston, Abraham Joshua Heschel High School in Manhattan, and deToledo High School in Los Angeles—hosting six fellows in full-time positions, accepted through a competitive application process, was a unique offering of real-world experience combined with ongoing professional development that included mentorship, reflective practice, training in management and education theory, and retreat intensives. Fellows worked in a variety of capacities, from experiential education and classroom teaching to marketing and admissions.

Like other programs that launched in recent years, Machar was a response to the urgent need to develop talented young leaders. Together, as funder and grantee-partner, we wanted to develop emerging leaders with skills to deliver excellent Jewish education in a variety of settings and to fill a gap in training programs for administrative roles. While we did in fact succeed with this cohort, the program is ending two years earlier than planned and with one cohort rather than two. As we reflect on the pilot program—and recognize the marketplace of PD programs is more crowded than before—we want to share learnings from the successes and mistakes we made along the way, which we believe will help the entire field design and implement new professional development opportunities. These learnings are real and reflect real challenges. Here are some areas of the project that we have reflected on and seem particularly relevant to future grant partners:

Project Management
While Gann Academy demonstrated strong leadership and vision in designing and implementing the Fellowship, there are inherent limitations when one school oversees a program as compared to a national organization doing so. As a grantee-partner, Gann was in a difficult position balancing its roles as fund raiser, grant manager and participating school. On the other hand, one of the great programmatic strengths of the program was precisely the fact that the project was being managed in one of the schools and was therefore able to remain relevant and connected to the individual needs of the individual schools. A common difficulty with cohort programs run by outside organizations is that they feel disconnected from the reality on the ground of the participants working in their fields. The way we established the program made it nearly impossible to bring this to scale across the country, and funder colleagues told us as much. How would Machar look different if an organization like Prizmah or others managed it? What could we learn from the successful rollout of Hillel’s Springboard fellowship?

Stakeholder Conversations
Machar involved the participation of fellows, schools (and their school families and administration), a grantee-partner, and national funder.  All needed to “row the same way.” While the national management model did build dialogue among the stakeholders, more could have been done earlier. If we were to replicate the model, we would recommend more deliberate sharing of MOUs between organizations, and establishment of routines and check-ins to align goals, outcomes, culture, and more. The clearer one can be about roles and responsibilities in a multi-stakeholder collaboration, including frequent follow-up to ensure culture formation and project management across different sites, the better.

Budgeting and Matching Fund Requirements
In hindsight, we—as funder and grantee, together—were optimistic about matching funds.  As local schools, neither Gann Academy nor the other program participants had the resources or reach to raise funds for a national educational program. Perhaps in hindsight, the grantee-partners would have thought more critically about whether to sign up for the matching grant requirements.  Additionally, this fellowship, with full-time competitive salaries and benefits for fellows, was not cheap. This exacerbated the funding problem: since the program was never fully paid for in advance of launching, other funders were hesitant to join without a clear way to scale the program.

Looking back, the Fellowship was a success in that it developed six talented Jewish educators who now have more skills, experiences, and approaches to enable them to be effective leaders in the Jewish education field for years to come. We succeeded in using the Day School setting as a leadership laboratory, to foster Jewish learning and education for young leaders. But we also recognize the limitations of Machar and some questions we pose to ourselves: What was the long-term plan? What was the benefit—or challenge—of creating a new position in these schools? How do you manage different goals (both short-term and long-term) of the school-partners? What would Gann Academy, as the grantee, ask for up front if it had to do it all over again? Would Gann Academy do it all over again, or would Gann encourage a national organization to do it? Some of these questions will be illuminated in the evaluation report, by GRG in August of 2019.  We look forward to sharing those results.

We also think about how the field of Jewish education has evolved over the last two years, with a much stronger recognition of the need for and importance of meaningful professional development. Machar benefited from the popularity of PD as the program launched. Machar also was challenged by a more crowded field in this space. Thankfully, while the Machar fellowship will cease, the opportunities out there for early career professionals (including those from Foundation for Jewish Camp, Avodah, JDC, and others) is stronger than ever.

In the end, we hope Machar was impactful not only for the fellows and schools, but for the broader field of Jewish educators. We hope our learnings shared here prove to be a useful resource and learning opportunity for funders, nonprofits and emerging professionals who are committed to developing more excellent Jewish educators and leaders.

Aki Yonekawa is the Machar Fellowship National Manager. Seth Linden was a Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation for 3.5 years. He is now a philanthropy consultant focusing on board culture and governance, leadership and talent development, and designing and facilitating learning retreats.