​Partnership with Purpose: How our collaboration deepened the outcomes of the Wexner Field Fellowship

For 13 years, our foundations have partnered on the Wexner Field Fellowship (WFF)—designed for high potential young professionals working in the Jewish world. As we sunset the partnership (the fellowship will continue as a Wexner Foundation initiative) it’s worth elevating key learnings from our experience, namely the value of a diverse cohort, the impact of coaching, how a program like this helps retain professionals in the field, and the power of an ongoing funding partnership.

In this “b-mitzvah” year of the program, and as is the custom at a b-mitzvah, we also offer hakarat hatov, gratitude for what this work has taught us. We thank the fellows, educators, faculty, and other leaders who contributed to making the Fellowship into a meaningful, impactful program. They made these key takeaways from this partnership and program possible, which we believe can help our field think further about effective professional development.

The Cohort Grounds the Experience
Through every cohort selection process, we always wanted to reflect the wide range of Jewish professional roles and organizations that make up our field. We also wanted to reflect the diversity of Jews regarding ability, culture, ethnicity, gender, Jewish practice and denominational affiliation, race, sexual orientation, socio-economic class, and more. Pointing to the benefits of a collaborative funding partnership, The Wexner Foundation is grateful that the Jim Joseph Foundation pushed the program in this direction. Repeatedly, Field Fellows share that the cohort–the people–are the most important aspect of this experience. Expanding a Jewish professional’s network at a later stage in their career is highly valuable, as fellows get to practice newly learned leadership skills within a cohort they trust, respect, and by whom they are productively challenged.

Coaching as an Individual Curriculum
The Wexner Foundation has long used cohort-based learning to influence an individual’s leadership trajectory. The Field Fellowship was different, however, as it added one-on-one executive coaching as part of the individual curriculum that happened between cohort gatherings, complemented by Jewish learning and access to optional professional development funds. The WFF Theory of Change, evaluation conducted at the start of the program, and interviews with WFF Classes 1-3 all emphasized that individual coaching is key in helping leaders achieve their professional goals, identify additional growth areas, and develop essential leadership dispositions. After the cohort, fellows cite coaching as the second greatest benefit of the program. A brief testimonial from a recent alumnus captures the impact:

The gift of maintaining a consistent coach for 3 years is really hard to put into words. In my case, my coach supported me through my professional career during the start of parenthood, navigating a number of complex professional challenges and ultimately the transition to a new job. My coach was my constant—there to guide, to push, to question, to give perspective. I am so grateful for the opportunity and for a coach who really got me.

Creating a Lasting Impact
With six classes of WFF Alumni and three current classes (along with the Pilot Field Fellows), we are just starting to see the long-term impact of the Wexner Field Fellowship. As we will soon recruit for the 10^th class this fall, here are a few especially important findings:

• Field Fellows stay connected to one another and the broader Wexner network years after the program ends. Many of them return to The Wexner Foundation’s Professional Leadership Program Alumni Institutes, which bring together Field Fellowship alumni and Graduate Fellowship Network alumni, or other ongoing alumni programming. WFF Alumni lead sessions to teach their peers at Alumni Institutes.
• From a recent survey of WFF alumni, we learned that many still utilize the training they received as Wexner Fellows. One alumnus noted, “The Jewish learning has helped me center Jewish wisdom and ethics in my life and work. This was especially true post-Oct 7th. My rabbi and I still meet monthly and the mussar program is both a bedrock of my spiritual practice and an important resource in my work.”
• About a third of each WFF class changed roles over the three years of the active fellowship, with the vast majority (95 percent of alumni) remaining in the Jewish community. This means the field continues to benefit from the initial investment made toward fellows’ professional development, and some fellows attribute their retention in the field to their Wexner experience.

It’s gratifying to look back and see the impact of the program. We’re able to do this in a substantive way because of rigorous evaluation (a long-time practice of the Jim Joseph Foundation). The WFF evaluations, led by Rosov Consulting, also enabled important program pivots and were integral to its evolution. The evaluation affirmed that the investment in talent working in the field already—which was different from the Wexner Fellowship’s previous model—was the right decision; these professionals needed their own program and different kinds of training and support.

In 2012, when the initial Jim Joseph Foundation grant for the WFF pilot cohort was made, no one was certain what would come of it. It was helpful that the WFF was folded into the Wexner Graduate Fellowship/Davidson Scholars Program, launched in partnership with the William Davidson Foundation in 2006. Taken together, these cohort programs have created an influx of highly trained and networked leaders of the rabbinate, cantorate, Jewish studies, Jewish education, and Jewish professional world. Thankfully, today there are many other such programs—well run and premised on proven methods—than existed 13 years ago. This includes the relatively new Wexner Davidson Fellowship, designed for emerging leaders, created in partnership with The Wexner Foundation and William Davidson Foundation. They will welcome their second class in July. As our mutually beneficial partnership concludes, we again express our deep gratitude to the fellows who made the program what it has become and helped actualize these learnings that will, in turn, inform other professional development programs now and in the future.

Ruthie Warshenbrot is Director of the Wexner Field Fellowship at The Wexner Foundation. Jenna Hanauer is a Senior Program Officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.