UpStart – Bringing Bold Jewish Ideas to Light

For nearly two decades, UpStart’s team has been facilitating programs for bold leaders from all areas of Jewish life who, now more than ever, need to bring an entrepreneurial spirit to their work. When COVID hit, UpStart saw these leaders try to adapt programs from in-person to virtual and developed a new Virtual Facilitation Guide to raise the bar for digital gathering. The guide is filled with interactive exercises designed to engage people with different learning styles, in varied locations, and with different access needs. Beyond simply transitioning an in-person program to be online, the UpStart guide helps organizations to think creatively about designing a digital environment that is fresh and has real impact with participants. 

UpStart’s virtual facilitation guide looks stunning! But, more importantly – UpStart created a tool that is so necessary in this new digital space, that helps facilitators to think about their outcomes first and then select the appropriate tool. As I am working with more and more clients in this virtual realm, I will be using this guide as a reference and a roadmap.
– Dana Prottas, Instructional Designer and Educational Consultant

Just as UpStart always works to expand how Jews find meaning and come together, the guide offers an expansive array of facilitation exercises divided into Reflections, Inquiry, and Application. People in different stages of their learning journeys or facilitating for different audiences can elevate their virtual engagement—whether they’re an entrepreneurial rabbi facilitating a program for their community, an institutional leader navigating a team meeting, or a funder conducting a small group conversation with key stakeholders.

UpStart is also taking a holistic look at the larger Jewish innovation field in order to support new collaborations. Organizations are simultaneously facing new challenges and recognizing that the virtual world opens up new opportunities. By building strategic partnerships and alliances, organizations can increase stability, create deeper impact, and build more efficient structures that will meet the evolving needs of the Jewish community. UpStart is working with La Piana Consulting, an authority on strategic partnerships, to help more organizations gain the tools, knowledge, and insights to effectively embark on these critical alliances so that the entrepreneurial ideas, talent, and progress of the past two decades will inform the Jewish future.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of UpStart. Access the Virtual Facilitation Guide here.