News & Blogs Category: Blog

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.

Like all CASJE efforts, this endeavor was applied research, meant to provide knowledge that addresses a specific challenge or issue that leaders and practitioners encounter. Developing a research project in this vein, and of this breadth and depth, is best with multiple perspectives and expertise around a table. Together, researchers and practitioners coalesced around questions that shaped initial working papers and ultimately the agreed-upon focus of the research: Why do people become or not become Jewish educators? What are work environments like for educators, and how does this impact their satisfaction, efficacy and career commitment? What does the labor market for Jewish educators look like? What are employers looking for and how hard is it for various sectors of the field to find Jewish educators? Building on previous studies and existing literature, the CASJE study ultimately asks: How can we get more high-quality candidates into the field, and how can we better support them and their professional growth?

Having research-based evidence that illuminates these questions can lead to actionable and fundable ideas that grow the pipeline of talented, committed Jewish educators with the skills to succeed in Jewish education’s myriad settings. The final strand of this research, An Invitation to Action: Findings and Implications across the Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study, is meant to help leaders and funders in this regard. As the researchers explain, “In this concluding report, we weave together our learnings from these three strands and draw on the learnings produced to address the questions that have animated this work from its start….Here, we bring these findings into conversation with one another.”

Importantly, this “conversation” centers the “front-line” educators—those who work directly with learners—detailing different career stages, work environments, interactions with colleagues and what from their perspective compels them to do this work. By telling the story of Jewish educators across the arc of their careers, this research is positioned to enable policy makers and national umbrella organizations to more strategically plan for and shape the future of Jewish education. Already, Prizmah, Foundation for Jewish Camp, the Association of Directors of Communal Agencies for Jewish Education, JPRO and others are convening their stakeholders to use the data to inform their own work and possible new initiatives.

Additionally, we want other funders to dive into this conversation with us and we have been delighted to share key findings through a series with the Jewish Funders Network. Undoubtedly, thoughtful and substantial action resulting from this research will occur over many years. Yet, at the same time, the data is ready for use now. Our foundation teams are already thinking in new ways about the many sectors  that comprise the larger ecosystem of Jewish education. Recognizing the vast differences between different educational settings—and the educator skill sets needed to succeed in each one—influences our approach to grantmaking. So too does the new data about the number of Jewish educators currently working in the field and the pressing need for educators in a number of settings

The research paints a vivid picture of the dynamic ways and places educator training happens today, and the different ways educators enter the field. More than just taking stock, funders, including the William Davidson Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation, can have grantmaking strategies that reflect the current training ecosystem. Depending on the funder, these strategies can address local or national educator training. Funders with a strong local presence in particular can help elevate Jewish educators to both demonstrate that they are valued and to show future potential educators the many kinds of Jewish educators that exist, the many interests and skills they have, the many settings in which they work, and the support they can receive in their early career development. These signals would help promote a reliable pipeline into the field.

Our foundations learned a lot from each other during this research journey. We each started with different ideas about how the research would progress and the learnings we might uncover. These predictions were clearly products of our respective foundations’ lens of grantmaking—and they were proven to be too narrow. Through collaboration, the perspectives and experiences of the other grantmaker helped shape our own understanding of the research and how the findings could be relevant and usable in our work. Because of the tangible benefits we experienced, we want to continue learning with more funders and practitioners. We want more convenings and communication with other leaders. The challenge of creating a reliable pipeline of Jewish educators demands a response inspired by a larger collective. Collaboration certainly comes with challenges—we experienced those too—but, ultimately, it leads to higher quality research insights that better benefit the field.

We thank everyone who made Career Trajectories possible. And, after learning so much about their aspirations, needs and professional goals, we express sincere thanks to Jewish educators. They deserve an educational system that sustains, enrichens, and empowers their professional growth. By learning and by doing together, we can help create that.

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

originally published 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.

As the foundation stepped back from involvement in the day-to-day operations in 2016, the Collaborative hired an executive director. This gave it more autonomy and space for more honest knowledge sharing among the ten communities. Over these last five years, the initiatives succeeded in critical areas–from professional development of youth professionals, to supporting parents of teens, to offering timely programs around college admissions and more. These and other resources and offerings were increasingly used by communities outside of the Funder Collaborative. We began to recognize the broader impact of this work on the field–and the additional impact the Funder Collaborative could have moving forward if it could find a way to expand and scale effectively.

We challenged the initiatives to think about their own sustainability, which helped us to develop a plan for the Collaborative’s sustainability too. Some funder collaboratives rightfully come and go; this one warranted continuing in a permanent institutional home.

With this in mind, the Jewish Teen Funder Collaborative is now entering an important new stage with a permanent home at The Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA). The Collaborative worked closely for three months with Plan A Advisors, a management consulting firm for nonprofits, to find an organization that was a strong fit and that complemented the Funder Collaborative’s mission, vision and culture. In the end, the consultants landed squarely on JFNA, which provides the platform, audience, growth opportunities, commitment, fiscal and organizational stability, infrastructure and leadership the Funder Collaborative needed to expand and thrive.

JFNA and the Funder Collaborative both share a mission to create flourishing communities with meaningful Jewish life. They also had a relationship, as many of the teen initiatives’ local funder partnerships were with each community’s Federation. Moreover, the Funder Collaborative’s cultural identity as an entrepreneurial, transparent, nimble and forward-thinking collective has been critical to its success, and it was thus crucial to find a home that allowed it to preserve this culture within the operational framework of a larger organization.

By setting clear expectations of what constitutes a successful transition, we have ensured that this latest development is a “win” for all involved. The Jewish Federations of North America are enthusiastic about the Collaborative’s work and the opportunity to amplify its impact by offering an immediate national platform for the Funder Collaborative to expand its methodology and platform beyond its current reach. JFNA is committed to preserving the Funder Collaborative’s cultural identity while empowering it through cross-departmental relationships in JFNA and including the Funder Collaborative in senior-level meetings, leadership opportunities and fiscal decision-making. The Funder Collaborative will have access to the many resources, partners and national reach of JFNA–which represents over 300 Jewish communities–enabling it to positively influence communities, youth professionals and families around the country. JFNA will gain access to the Funder Collaborative’s intellectual property, proven models of experimentation, learning and collaboration, as well as the Funder Collaborative’s professional leadership who are being absorbed as well.

Beyond the “wins” for the Funder Collaborative and JFNA, the Jim Joseph Foundation is able to perpetuate impact and outcomes generated from grants awarded nearly a decade ago. A significant multi-year investment produced what is now a sustainable national initiative. The initial ten teen initiatives will live on well past the grant period and learnings about their successes and challenges will be shared widely–both developments that are core principles for the Foundation. Relatedly, the Funder Collaborative housed at JFNA benefits the entire field of Jewish education and engagement, which will gain easy access to the Collaborative’s resources, training initiatives and more.

As just a few examples, as part of JFNA the Funder Collaborative will be able to expand the impact of its efforts with diverse audiences, working to:

• spur a national communal effort to elevate the careers  of youth professionals, improve and make training widely available and provide forums for the dissemination of best practices;
• elevate the central role of parents in Jewish teen education and engagement, and bridge work to organizations that reach parents and connect to college;
• serve as a thought-leader on data collection, analysis, and dissemination, and as a source, aggregator, and interpreter of measurement tools for other organizations;
• be a source of best practices that are applicable across a variety of community types and sizes, including scaling successful models to unique and diverse situations beyond teen programming.

As the Funder Collaborative begins this new era at JFNA, it can thrive and grow as a resource for the entire community. Bringing the Funder Collaborative’s approach, its gathered wisdom and its best practices to inform and spur work across Jewish communities of every size and geography will strengthen all Jewish teen education and engagement efforts. The success of the Funder Collaborative’s original initiative, its expansion and its absorption by JFNA is a model to consider for any initiative in Jewish education and engagement aiming for greater impact and sustainability.

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.

originally posted 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.

The benefits of general operating support are vast and yet the dollars just are not there. As many have noted about a recent report from the Center for Effective Philanthropy, funders are more likely to express their support for providing unrestricted funding than actually follow through on that approach.

Over the last eight months, many Jewish organizations were able to meet the moment and overcome challenges because of their dedicated, tireless leadership and staff. As we worked alongside them, we also experienced how unrestricted dollars made a crucial difference.

Organizations such as BBYO, Hillel, and Moishe House engaged existing and new audiences in meaningful Jewish learning and engagement, helped program staff adapt to digital platforms, and helped participants stay connected to each other and to community. The general operating funds they had already received meant that they had risk capital, secure funding, and sufficient staffing to be able to apply for PPP loans. They even had the capacity to serve as sources of support for other organizations in the field.

Beyond just surviving, general operating support helped Jewish organizations innovate when our sector needed it most. The trust cultivated from these grants between funder and grantee helped create a culture of experimentation. Grantees felt comfortable trying, “failing,” learning, and trying again with new engagement efforts. What a testament that some of the new virtual efforts created over the last several months will positively influence the field long-term.

In this regard, Repair the World, with the security of multiyear general operating support, brought together more than 40 organizations to launch a major ongoing initiative to engage young adults in meaningful acts of service. Repair had the expertise, credibility, and capacity to pursue this endeavor for Jewish young adults looking to make a difference. This is but one example of unprecedented collaborations and partnerships that unfolded in the initial wake of the pandemic.

Admittedly, general operating support, particularly multiyear funding, requires a big commitment; to do it right, funders need to dive in and trust the process. The Bridgespan Group reports that even when funders do offer general operating support, we often cap overhead expenses to 15%. However, overhead expenses for high-performing nonprofits make up 21-89% of total costs. We need to help fill this gap.

To be clear, there is an important place for restricted funding too. But we should treat program-specific grants as one prong in a strategic two-pronged approach. In supporting our core partners, our foundations prioritize general operating support because it signals our commitment to a more substantive relationship. With so much in flux due to the pandemic, both of our foundations provided more one-year general operating grants to enable our partners to focus on their work. We also remain fully committed in the long term to investing through multiyear grants. When support is multiyear, the relationship between funders and grantees becomes even more substantive over time. We are telling grantees that we believe in their work, in their leadership, and in their ability to effectively use the resources they have at their disposal. We believe that every foundation can work within their theory of change to expand the size and number of general operating grants they make.

The case for providing general operating grants is compelling. Indeed, unrestricted support is useful to organizations as much for what it gives them – dollars, flexibility, capacity, and trust – as for what it saves them from – uncertainty, constraints, and repetitive administrative work. And, most funders say they agree with the approach. But with a world broken open by layers of change and challenges, now is the time for action. Talk to your board, your grantees, your program officers. Look at your grant records. Anticipate the obstacles you may encounter. Then figure out where and how you can incorporate this practice.

An organization’s ability to discover new ways of operating is paramount to its survival. Our field needs to continue offering organizations the leeway and runway they need to best serve their constituents. We need them to take everything they have discovered and learned during this challenging time and apply it to the future. It should not take a pandemic to get our field thinking in this way, and to give grantees the flexibility and risk capital to think more imaginatively about Jewish engagement, learning, and leadership.

From now on, change will be the only constant in our line of work. The best way to prepare our grantees for whatever comes next is by working alongside them, limiting restrictions on our funding, and putting our money where our missions are.

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

originally published 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.

Being counted matters. This emphasis on counting is abundant in our tradition, whether in the Omer or the detailed explanation the Torah gives about the ancient census. And it matters this very day, too, as our country goes through a census that itself has historically undercounted people of color. It matters as we see marginalized communities suffering more from a pandemic because of health data and policy that consistently counted them out.

As funders, it’s our responsibility to understand the numbers so we can invest in and elevate diverse, authentic narratives. Building equitable access to both the tangible, like healthcare, or the intangible, one’s narrative, is part and parcel of our commitment. The myriad diverse Jewish voices and lived experiences in our community are what make us vibrant, resilient, and alive.

We’re as acutely aware of the narratives many of us have inadvertently perpetuated about the lack of diversity in our Jewish community as we are of the countless studies many of us have supported that have upheld those narratives. The implications of this have left Jews of Color excluded, and feeling like they alone are responsible for getting their seats at the table. The buck, quite literally, needs to stop here. We will no longer stand by or be complicit with myopic work and research that causes only harm to a community that historically has been undercounted and whose narratives have been ignored or marginalized.

Nuance gives birth to narratives and without narratives, we can’t utilize data.

The narratives missing from the 25 studies analyzed were those from Jews living in the both/and, such Jews who identified as multi-racial or didn’t identify as religious. Who weren’t even contacted because they didn’t have a “Jewish last name.” Or who fell between the cracks of flawed data collection methodologies.

There are multiple ways to discuss the diversity in our community. There are the numbers and there are the experiences. As funders, we are committed to the both/and: seeing demographics in consistent and authentic ways and seeing who makes up our community. We are committed to elevating the voices of those who have had restricted access and agency within our communal systems. Furthermore, we are committed to being in alliance with them as they become leaders at decision-making tables through the pipelines that exist today and those that we hope will exist tomorrow. Above all, we remain committed to funding their crucial efforts.

We’re engaging in the necessary improvement to the ways we collect data in order to be sure we see and count everyone. When we invest in this work, we’re investing in the fabric of our future. We’re investing in the nuance and the narratives that arise each day in our community. We invest to learn from our missteps and course correct. Ultimately, we invest to support a community where, without question, we all count.

Jamie Allison is the Executive Director of the Walter and Elise Haas Fund; Lisa Eisen is the Co-President of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation; Jim Farley is the President & CEO of the Leichtag Foundation; Barry Finestone is President & CEO of the Jim Joseph Foundation; Rachel Levin is the Executive Director of the Righteous Persons Foundation; Rachel Garbow Monroe is the President & CEO of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation; Elana Rodan Schuldt is the President & CEO of the Rodan Family Foundation.

originally posted 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.

But the announcement by the five foundations creates a moment of opportunity for funders in the Jewish sector to follow suit. Together with Bridgespan, the foundations put forth a menu of different grantmaking approaches for covering overhead expenses, as well as the indirect costs required to operate specific programs. At each of our foundations, we already see how effective both unrestricted multiyear support and funding essential operating costs are in driving and sustaining progress.

In our experience, general operating support is viewed by grantees as a statement – and source – of trust. When we offer grantees the runway and autonomy they need to invest in their staff, operations and ideas, we send a clear message that we believe in them. We trust and encourage them to think long-term and to execute a strategy that will best achieve programmatic goals and advance our shared missions. We know they need to be healthy, resilient and able to take risks in order to be effective.

In turn, allowing grantees more freedom to achieve their core mission tends to bring us closer. The more confidence we place in an organization and its leadership, the stronger and more productive our relationship becomes. By alleviating the pressure on specific short-term costs and outcomes, we lessen some of the power imbalances inherent in the funder-grantee dynamic. Grantees feel more comfortable speaking openly with us about their vision for greater long-term impact – and the challenges they foresee along the way. With this approach to funding, we begin to rely on each other as partners in pursuit of a common vision.

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. The challenges our community faces require us as funders to look to the experts who lead our partner organizations, who know their constituencies best, and who are on the ground planning, doing and evaluating.

Of course, providing unrestricted grants and overhead funding are not substitutes for other best practices. The more that foundations commit toward general operating support, the more important honest communication and strategic alignment between funder and grantee become. Our role as funders includes working with grantees to help ensure they are financially resilient and operating in the most efficient way possible. At the same time, grantees must be open with us about the true costs of their programs and the resources needed to achieve their goals.

Importantly, unrestricted funding is not about ignoring outcomes. Funders certainly should care about the success metrics of particular programs. We believe, however, that when grantees are able to appropriate their own programmatic funds, or at least cover both the administrative and direct costs of running their programs, they are more likely to make necessary adjustments along the way. Our sector will be stronger when we embrace the idea that investing in an organization’s ability to learn, grow and compete is directly tied to its ability to achieve impact.

To be clear, we do at times make restricted grants because we know their value in piloting new approaches and supporting specific efforts that drive toward new outcomes. But in making restricted grants, it is vital that funders work with grantees to assess accurately – and then support – the full direct and indirect costs of operating a project.

Regardless of a funder’s grantmaking strategy, the true price of an organization’s work is always the same: the sum of programmatic, administrative and overhead costs. We know it is possible for nonprofits to deliver results on malnourished and even starving overhead budgets. But our work as funders is not about seeing what comes from a shoestring. Our work is about leveraging our resources to help grantees positively influence people and create the most possible good in the world.

At a time when the Jewish community is hungry for change, let’s ensure that organizations can attract and retain talented professionals. Let’s ensure they can be healthy, resilient and able to integrate the best tools and technology into their work. Let’s ensure they can cover the real cost of their mission-driven work. Let’s ensure they feel empowered to try, fail, learn and succeed in their quest to shape a vibrant Jewish future.

After all, as BBYO’s Matt Grossman puts it, “the most effective way to inspire innovation and bring to life new initiatives is through an ecosystem of healthy, well-funded organizations that are encouraged to dream together with their philanthropic partners.”

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.

originally published 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.

“This is the single most impactful Jewish experience of my life … I have probably never felt more empowered to go and help build the world we want to see.”
Henry Schmidt, Cohort 3, Shalom Institute

Three years ago, Rachel Binstock was ready for a change after close to two years at Eden Village Camp – a Jewish summer camp focused on nature experience and organic farm to table community – first as a farm apprentice and educator, then as assistant farm director. Wanting to continue growing her skills as a Jewish educator and professional, to move forward in her career, and to deepen her roots in community building and organizing, Rachel applied to the first cohort of the JOFEE Fellowship – an 11-month cohort-based certification and work-placement program bolstered by four weeks of intensive training throughout the year, with mentorship and peer support.

Rachel was the kind of young adult we had in mind in 2015 when we (representatives from Jim Joseph Foundation, Hazon, Pearlstone Center, Urban Adamah, and Wilderness Torah) created the JOFEE Fellowship in response to growing communal demand and an ever-larger crop of ambitious and talented early-career Jewish Outdoor, Food, Farming & Environmental Education (JOFEE) professionals. Rachel had experience in secular outdoor and environmental education, a strong Jewish background, and a series of immersive and inspiring JOFEE experiences at Eden Village and also at Hazon’s Food Conference and Teva Seminar programs. As she wrote in her JOFEE Fellowship application, Rachel hoped to expand her JOFEE skillset and “to bring the beauty and power of Eden’s experiential education into a community more directly … My dream is to build community around growing food.”

Full-time work experience at her JOFEE Fellowship placement at Urban Adamah in Berkeley, CA allowed Rachel to do exactly that. She was hired to stay on as full-time staff after the Fellowship and now, two years after beginning the Fellowship in May 2016, Rachel has just launched the Summer 2018 cohort of Urban Adamah‘s own three-month Fellowship in her new role as Fellowship Director.

Rachel’s JOFEE story is one of many. At just one year out from graduation of the first cohort, we see impact on the JOFEE field, and in communities, organizations, and fellows themselves. Here’s what Rachel Binstock and other JOFEE Fellows say about their experience in the program and the influence it has on their Jewish learning, engagement, and career ambitions.

A Field Evolving and Scaling

When we created this Fellowship the goals were around recruitment, field-wide growth, complementary fundraising, and low attrition. Hazon has been effective in accomplishing each of these. Through the completion of two full cohorts, only one person has fully left the Jewish and environmental fields and more than 70 percent remain fully employed to implement JOFEE programming. JOFEE programming also is now sustained at 90 percent of the host institutions, and more than 95 percent of organizations plan to continue or expand their JOFEE programming post-Fellowship. Several organizations have subsequently hired these educators as full-time professionals. Critically, built into the Fellowship model is a combination of funding support both through the Foundation and through local funders who provide support for Fellows’ salaries and to supplement Fellowship program costs.

Moreover, after two completed cohorts and a third launched in March 2018, the program’s impact is seen both in breadth and depth:

• More than 50 aspiring educators have been trained in the Fellowship, led by Hazon’s hallmark Teva (nature) program; Camp Tawonga’s Jewish Outdoor Leadership Training (JOLT); Outward Bound; BEETLES: Better Environmental Education, Teaching, Learning, Expertise, and Sharing; and Laurie M. Tisch Center for Food, Education & Policy.
• Fellows have worked in 33 organizations around the country and have reached over 58,000 participants (and counting).
• While 75 percent of the participants have been placed in JOFEE specific organizations (i.e. Hazon, Urban Adamah, Wilderness Torah) many have brought their learnings to more mainstream Jewish community organizations (Federations, JCCs, etc.).

In advance of the launch of the fourth cohort in late winter 2019 – host applications are currently open (through August 15) and Fellow applications will open in mid-August – we are reflecting on takeaways through both internal learning and external evaluation with consulting firm Informing Change. Their findings continue to inform the growth and evolution of the JOFEE field. As we reflect on strengths of the current model and opportunities for continued growth and evolution, we also hope to provide useful application for the broader field of Jewish education and communal engagement. Here’s what we’re seeing:

• Career pathway found when Fellows align their interests and passions with their work

In all cases, fellows had personal passions for nature, outdoor pursuits, sustainability, and food and/or farming. The fellowship enabled them to integrate these passions with Jewish practice and offered tools, mentorship, and experience for Fellows to effectively lead JOFEE experiences for youth and young children. Blending their passions with space to practice as educators led to significant professional growth and helped Fellows envision a career pathway.

• The most successful programs create hands–on opportunities to connect Jewish tradition to the outdoors, food, farming, and environment education

Jewish tradition is rooted in a collective relationship to nature, food, and soil. JOFEE Fellows developed vibrant new programs such as Torah Theater: Ancestral Wisdom in the Wilderness (Becca Heisler, Wilderness Torah); Shofar Stalk: Wandering to Freedom (Miki Levran, Pearlstone Center); and Shrinking Our Waste: Solar-Powered Shrinky Dinks (Margot Sands, Ekar Farm), among others.

• Role of mentorship

Similarly, support from mentors with extensive experience in JOFEE and Jewish communal engagement was important for Fellows. Mentors provided both programmatic expertise and professional support in navigating the complexities of nonprofit workplaces. Mentors also benefited from seeing themselves as part of the larger field of JOFEE and broadening their exposure to JOFEE work happening around the country through interactions with fellows and through mentor training and collaboration opportunities both online and in-person at the annual JOFEE Network Gathering.

• Length of Fellow’s time in the host organizations

Fellows spend the vast majority of their time directly working in the organization over an 11 month period. This added critical staff capacity which was vital to expanding the programming and the reach of host organizations. Even in large institutions, Fellows created opportunities to reach new demographics through fresh JOFEE programming and content. Many host organizations were able to hire fellows to continue post-fellowship as full-time salaried staff by leveraging the programmatic impact of the fellowship year.

Informing Change’s quantitative findings support the Fellowship’s model detailed above, and demonstrate genuine growth among professionals in the field:

• 100% of Fellows found the orientation and training valuable
• 90% of Fellows and nearly 90% of supervisors report Fellows are well-prepared or extremely well-prepared for JOFEE engagement according to core Fellowship metrics
• 88% of participants completing the Fellowship now describe themselves as JOFEE professionals (45% described themselves as JOFEE professionals beforehand)
• 88% of Fellows found the mentorship experience valuable
• 75% of supervisors felt that Hazon’s professional development opportunities for Fellows helped their organizations.

Opportunities and the Future

We are eager to see how this emerging crop of professionals will grow and evolve not only JOFEE but the work of Jewish education broadly as they continue to actualize their personal passions into meaningful professional work. At the same time, we see opportunities to increase the diversity of Fellowship participants (who are disproportionately white and female), to broaden funding for JOFEE professionals at the local level, and to create an effective “transition year” model for both fellows and host organizations that seek to continue their efforts in the field. Addressing these and other opportunities are part of JOFEE’s story as the field evolves to encompass more professionals and more programs engaging people in Jewish life and learning in deeply meaningful ways.

Judith Belasco is Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer at Hazon.
Yoshi Silverstein is Director of the JOFEE Fellowship at Hazon.
Steven Green is Senior Director, Grants Management and Compliance for the Jim Joseph Foundation.