The nonprofit world is in the midst of several simultaneous seismic shifts, three of which are the current massive intergenerational transfer of wealth, the push for gender equality and the large number of impending leadership transitions. C-suite changes are times during which organizations often struggle to find effective ways to find the proper balance between their sense of loss on one hand and, on the other, their desire to capitalize on the opportunity to clarify their vision and/or reinvigorate their sense of purpose.

In an effort to pull back the curtain on the many challenges posed by leadership transitions, Leading Edge recently commissioned a series of case studies profiling CEO transitions at six different major Jewish organizations across the country: American Jewish World Service, Bend the Arc, Combined Jewish Philanthropies, a JCC in the Midwest, Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership, and Tufts Hillel. What we learned were valuable lessons about how Jewish organizations can best prepare and position leaders to succeed.

These case studies offer a candid, personal look at the inner workings of a CEO transition process. They are rich with first person accounts from key figures involved – the outgoing and incoming CEOs, board members, search committee members, and others – and address key issues for Jewish organizations today, including gender and generational differences in approach to leadership, organizational culture change, best practices for search committees, and more.

We are sharing these stories now because we are living in a time of great opportunity and great risk for the entire sector. It is critical that each of us do our part to help as many organizations as possible navigate their succession challenges in a way that strengthens their management teams and positions them to thrive in the months and years ahead. The leaders chosen today will set the direction for their organizations and the entire field for years to come; the social fabric of our society will be in their hands.

In the case studies series, three stories highlight internal candidates who were selected as the new CEO and three highlight stories of external candidates who were selected. But they all reflect and articulate the deep level of intentionality, thoughtfulness, and purpose with which the board and search committee approached the process.

The learnings come through in clear, sometimes surprising ways, and can inform other organizations’ approaches to leadership and leadership transitions.

As one example, the case study on Bend the Arc’s transition captures a “breakthrough” moment for new CEO Stosh Cotler. “…a breakthrough came when she spoke with a male CEO who was moving to a larger organization that required experience handling real estate finances, an area of expertise that he didn’t have. Cotler asked him about whether that worried him. He replied, ‘I’ll learn.’

“I realized I didn’t think this way. But there’s no reason that I shouldn’t have the same optimistic view of my ability to learn and grow,” [Cotler] says.

The case study on American Jewish World Service chronicles the give-and-take, and even tension, that can occur between an outgoing CEO and an organization’s board, in this instance led then by Kathleen Levin: “‘Ruth couldn’t understand why we couldn’t just blindly accept her choice [of successor], but from a governance perspective, you really need to be careful,’” Levin says. ‘[The selection] can’t be done by one or two board members, it can’t be done by the outgoing CEO. It has to be done by the full board, and every board member has to buy-in, has to feel heard, and has to have the time to deliberate,’ she says.”

These quotes are indicative of the honesty and vulnerability with which the featured organizations approached the process of being interviewed for these case studies.

When Leading Edge was founded in 2014, many organizations that comprise the Jewish nonprofit sector were on the precipice of a long-predicted, generational leadership transition. Five years later, that very transition is happening. Major Jewish organizations recently completed CEO searches, while others are about to embark on theirs.

Last year, Leading Edge released a CEO Search Committee Guide with best practices for CEO searches and applied them to the Jewish nonprofit sector. Now, we build on that with these fascinating and unique stories of leadership transitions.

The case studies, prepared by Eben Harrell, a senior editor at Harvard Business Review (HBR), are available in both written and audio form at https://leadingedge.org/case-study/. We hope you take time to review them, appreciate the transparency provided by all involved, and gain deeper knowledge about the many elements of effective leadership transitions.

Sandy Cardin is the Chair of Leading Edge, and Gali Cooks is the President and CEO of the organization. It works to influence, inspire, and enables dramatic change in attracting, developing, and retaining top talent for Jewish organizations by creating a forum for the sector to address talent and culture issues. The case study series was funded by the Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation.

CASJE-supported research will focus on career trajectories of Jewish educators in eight cities

A multi-year, comprehensive research project addressing the recruitment, retention, and development of educators working in Jewish settings in North America is underway, led by CASJE (Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education) and conducted by Rosov Consulting. The research program consists of three main components that examine the career trajectories and experiences of Jewish educators from multiple vantage points.  On the Journey (OTJ), the first phase of this study, focuses on the career trajectories and lived experiences of educators employed in the field. The research will build on a Working Paper authored by Rosov Consulting that was released earlier this year from CASJE and The George Washington University Graduate School of Education and Human Development (GSEHD). The new study will explore eight yet-to-be-selected communities representing diversity of Jewish population size, geographic region, and Jewish educational infrastructure.

Over the next 18-20 months, OTJ will investigate 1) Jewish educators, 2) the settings and sectors in which they work, 3) the kinds of professional development and other supports available to them (and whether they have taken advantage of these opportunities), and 4) how these interventions contribute to key outcomes that have implications for professional performance: job retention (length of tenure and career commitment), job satisfaction, and a sense of professional self-efficacy.

In parallel with  OTJ, the research project will continue with two additional phases: Preparing for Entry, which will study the career plans of people in the settings from which Jewish educators have tended to come (such as summer camps, longer-term programs in Israel, and college fellowships) to determine the factors that contribute to recruitment into the field; and Mapping the Market (MTM), which will focus on identifying available pre-service training and in-service professional development offerings for Jewish educators, as well as challenges faced by employers and training providers who are coping with personnel shortages and/or saturation.

“Since the overall research program will synthesize data from all three of its strands, the research has the potential to dramatically amplify the field’s understandings of the whole cycle of the recruitment, retention, and development of Jewish educators across multiple sectors,” says Arielle Levites, Managing Director of CASJE.

In order to build on prior studies of Jewish education professionals, the research takes a broad approach in defining who is a “Jewish educator.” Thus, researchers will include a spectrum of professionals involved in designing and delivering experiences for Jewish learning, engagement, connection, and meaning.

“Jewish education policy makers, professional development providers, pre-service training providers, philanthropists and others all stand to benefit from what we learn during this study,” adds Wendy Rosov, Founder and Principal of Rosov Consulting. “We are excited to make a significant contribution to a growing knowledge-base about who Jewish educators are in the U.S. today, how and why they enter into the field (and why some that we might expect to enter don’t), how their careers progress, the market demand for their services, and more.”

OTJ in particular will study professionals who work directly with people of any age who identify as Jews, in settings—whether virtual, brick-and-mortar, or outdoor—that aim to help participants find special meaning in Jewish texts, experiences, and associations.

This includes five primary sectors within which these professionals work: 1) formal Jewish education (day schools, early childhood education centers, supplementary schools); 2) informal/experiential settings including both immersive (e.g., camp) and non-immersive (e.g., youth organizations, JCCs); 3) those involved in engagement, social justice, and innovation; 4) communal organizations that may employ someone in an educational role (e.g., scholars in residence at Federations or Jewish educators at Jewish Family Services); and (5) non-organizational networks and online learning platforms (e.g., independent B’nai mitzvah or Hebrew tutors). By including all these sectors, the researchers’ goal is to not only provide unique insights about the nature of educators and their work, but also to test existing paradigms that see these sectors as distinct from and even exclusive of one another, rather than part of a larger whole.

The multi-year research project is funded with generous grants from the William Davidson Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation.

CASJE is a community of researchers, practitioners, and philanthropic leaders committed to sharing knowledge to improve Jewish education. In addition to the William Davidson Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation, CASJE receives support from The AVI CHAI Foundation and Crown Family Philanthropies, among others. The George Washington University serves as the administrative home for CASJE, enabling the specific goals of CASJE to be enriched by the academic and intellectual resources of a global, comprehensive, research university.  Along with this project, CASJE’s areas of inquiry include Jewish educational leadership, Jewish early childhood education, Hebrew language education, and Israel education.

CASJE’s Advisory Board includes co-chairs Dr. Michael Feuer and Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, and members Dr. Rena Dorph (UC Berkeley), Dr. Charles “Chip” Edelsberg, Dr. Sharon Feiman-Nemser (Brandeis University), Dr. Ellen Goldring (Vanderbilt University), Dr. Paul Goren (former superintendent of Evanston/Skokie School District 65), Dr. Ilana Horwitz (Stanford University), Dr. Benjamin Jacobs (The George Washington University), Dr. Susan Kardos (Abraham Joshua Heschel School) and Robert Sherman (formerly of The Jewish Education Project), a well as one emeritus member, Dr. Lee Shulman (Stanford University).

Source: CASJE

One of the roles foundations play in American society is that of “venture capitalists” in the social sector. Bold, creative solutions to social and educational challenges almost always need funding to get started, and many foundations are available to provide the early capital. However, most foundations do not want to become long-term primary supporters of these start-ups because they need to free up their capital to support the next promising innovation. As a result, central to foundations’ visions of success is the sustainability of the new strategy or program through a combination of earned revenue, fundraising, and (where possible) government support. In the case of The AVI CHAI Foundation, which in North America supports Jewish day school education and overnight camping, the push for sustainability of our grantees also comes from our sunset, which prevents us from being perpetual funders. Over time, AVI CHAI, along with partner foundations, employed various strategies to help grantees work toward sustainability. I tell the story here of our work with the Jewish New Teacher Project to illustrate some of these strategies.

Background

When AVI CHAI began its investment in day school education in the mid-1990s, one challenge identified by school leaders was the difficulty in recruiting and then retaining quality teachers. In 2002, we teamed with the New Teacher Center (NTC), based in the University of California Santa Cruz, to take their proven two-year program of training mentors to support novice teachers in public schools and tailor it for Jewish day schools. The resultant “Jewish New Teacher Project” (JNTP) pilot launched in 2003 in the New York/New Jersey region, and early on proved similarly effective in building Jewish day schools’ capacity to help new teachers improve their craft and remain in the field. With the support of other funders, by its fifth year JNTP was training 50 mentors who were working with 100 novice teachers in 42 day schools within the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area.

With its model proven, JNTP then pursued two aims: scalability, first within and then beyond the NY/NJ area, and sustainability, through a realistic business model. Of course, these goals were sometimes in tension, especially when moving into new markets involved taking financial risk. But JNTP’s talented leadership and staff skillfully navigated the balance through both economic downturns and impressive growth. In AVI CHAI’s role of thought partner with JNTP, alongside other funders, sustainability was the northern star that guided our advice and support.

Below are some of the lessons we learned from working with JNTP’s leadership that might be helpful to other foundations looking to help effective programs become sustainable over time:

1) Grow sustainably: secure other funding partners and then expand. Many successful pilots are tempted to expand rapidly with the help of a single funder, and then seek to recruit other donors down the road. That, of course, increases dependency on the major donor. In JNTP’s case, even after the pilot proved effective, AVI CHAI resisted investing in quick expansion. instead, JNTP first recruited other funders or local communities to invest in the work before entering a new locale or type of school. Thus, New York’s UJA Federation and an anonymous donor were early partners to enable JNTP to reach more NY/NJ schools in the initial roll-out; the Jim Joseph Foundation early on supported bringing JNTP to day schools in the Baltimore-Washington corridor; and more recently, Crown Family Philanthropies enabled expansion into Chicago. At the same time, some programmatic elements that were helpful but ultimately unsustainable – such as visiting mentors where schools paid only a small fraction of the actual cost – were discontinued unless a donor explicitly stepped in to cover it. This past year, the program trained 150 mentors (who worked with 173 novice teachers) in 70 schools in 12 states, reaching over 19,000 Jewish day school students. Those figures are now the average annual impact of the program.

Happily, the relationship with the Jim Joseph Foundation around this project blossomed into a deep philanthropic partnership about eight years ago. AVI CHAI and the Jim Joseph Foundation began coordinating more closely, sharing the costs of recruiting new leadership and strategic planning in addition to general operating costs, and coordinating the schedule of reports and payments. Joint calls between the two foundations and JNTP’s leadership began as well, a practice that continues today. Finally, the Jim Joseph Foundation awarded a new grant to support JNTP in the first few years post-AVI CHAI.

In sum, even as JNTP was bold in its ambitions to reach as many Jewish day schools in North America as possible, it was also realistic and prepared to maintain managed growth, offering its services only where funding was available.

2) Help build the organization’s capacity and fund its business planning. As interest in JNTP’s services grew, first AVI CHAI, and beginning in 2012 the Jim Joseph Foundation, invested intentionally first in helping JNTP become an institutional presence with an office and address (initially, the program operated in the director’s home) and then in building the organization’s capacity – an area that has generally become a focus of the foundation’s philanthropy (see Yossi Prager’s blogpost). We funded a part-time development professional whose hours grew as the program reached more schools. We also funded program evaluation, including longitudinal research that provided the data showing the program’s impact on teacher retention, as a way of helping JNTP makes its case to other funders. When there was a mid-year change of leadership, AVI CHAI and the Jim Joseph Foundation partnered to pay for a headhunting firm to identify the next director – one with experience in shepherding successful start-ups to sustainability. Part of my work as program officer was to make sure – gently but relentlessly – that the long-term planning and infrastructure issues received the same attention as did the delivery of first-rate teacher support.

Funding for business planning was also a crucial part of capacity-building. JNTP’s rapid growth necessitated this work, though it had to wait until NTC (JNTP’s parent organization) completed its own strategic planning model as it became an independent organization. In 2013, as JNTP was nearing its 10^th anniversary, Jim Joseph Foundation and AVI CHAI funded the development of a thorough 5-year business plan, complete with detailed benchmarks and projected budgets, that formed the basis of our two foundations’ general operating support of JNTP. Consistent with the business plan, our joint support was more robust in the first years of the plan and then tapered off considerably as revenues and other philanthropic support increased. In 2018, as the first business plan was nearing its end, Jim Joseph Foundation, AVI CHAI and JNTP itself shared the cost of developing another (6-year) plan that would chart how JNTP would manage through, and following, AVI CHAI’s sunset.

3) Generate earned revenue and broaden the donor base – gradually. Given the untested nature of this service, it was reasonable in the pilot phase for AVI CHAI and its partners not to ask schools to share in the monetary costs of the program. However, as JNTP began to prove its value, we felt strongly that schools needed to have skin in the game and to pay for the training of its professionals and the support of novice teachers. This “ask” was intentionally done gradually and incrementally, so that schools had time to see JNTP as a service whose fees were worth building into their budgets. To be sure, the 2008-10 economic crisis called for the major funders to step in and cover a shortfall created by schools pulling out or reducing their contributions; as believers in the long-term value proposition, we wanted JNTP to weather the storm. Nevertheless, while philanthropic support is still necessary (especially for smaller or less-resourced schools), revenue from schools – which constituted 18.4% of the $1M budget in 2014-15 and 29% of the $1.2M budget three years later – is a substantial base upon which to build.

Reducing dependence on its primary donors was another facet of the strategic plan. JNTP’s director and development staff were trained in fundraising techniques early on in the first business plan. The kernel of a lay advisory board was planted and has since expanded. In the four years between 2014-15 and 2017-18, the amount of philanthropic funding provided by foundations and donors beyond AVI CHAI and the Jim Joseph Foundation doubled from 15% of the total budget to 30%, bringing AVI CHAI’s and Jim Joseph Foundation’s portion of the budget to under 20% each last year.

4) Know the program and communicate regularly – in a supportive yet candid way. Since 1994, much of AVI CHAI’s day school philanthropy launched innovative programs and start-up organizations to positively impact the field. Rather than merely writing checks, the Foundation’s program officers were charged with learning as much as possible about each program and serving as a supportive thought partner to the grantee. In the case of JNTP, AVI CHAI staff attended JNTP mentor training days and spoke with mentors, novice teachers and even administrators to understand what was working in their schools and what could be improved. Frequent communication between AVI CHAI’s program officer and JNTP’s leadership was conducted in the spirit of Kim Scott’s Radical Candor, pairing encouragement and affirmation with frank communication about current practice and future directions. Such intimate knowledge of the program – vital in the early stages of a program but no less critical as the program matured – helped AVI CHAI staff earn the trust of JNTP’s leadership, as well as the confidence of AVI CHAI’s board that JNTP was indeed worthy of ongoing and deeper investment.

5. Be nimble and patient. I mentioned above that AVI CHAI stepped in to cover the budget shortfall created by the 2008-09 financial crisis. There were other times, too, when adjustments to realities were needed. For instance, the first year of JNTP’s first business plan happened to coincide with NTC’s decision to overhaul its curriculum and tools, overly stretching JNTP’s staff who now had to learn and adopt the new content. When we learned of the impact on the staff, we supported a slight increase in staff time to accommodate the new load. On the other side of the ledger, when an unexpected revenue stream materialized, the two foundations encouraged JNTP to bank surplus funds that JNTP could use in leaner times. Lastly, not long into the first business plan, a change in the leadership of NTC, the parent organization, raised the question of whether JNTP would continue to be seen as falling within NTC’s mission. With that question and the evolving landscape of supporting organizations for day schools as a backdrop, JNTP wondered whether it should stay within NTC, branch out on its own, or align with another institution. JNTP’s leadership was right to raise these points. AVI CHAI and Jim Joseph Foundation served as thought partners, hiring a consultant to consider all options for this strategic decision (in the end, NTC’s new leadership was very comfortable with JNTP remaining in their organization, so the status quo remains). Planning is crucial, but flexibility and patience on the part of funders gives competent professionals, such as JNTP’s leaders, the confidence to make strategic, thoughtful decisions.

With just a few months until AVI CHAI ceases its grantmaking, JNTP’s future looks bright. Catalyzing a trend from general education to support novice teachers in Jewish day schools, JNTP – through its compelling induction model, significant impact, and talented staff – has met and even exceeded several programmatic and development benchmarks set forth in the first business plan. Moreover, in anticipation of AVI CHAI’s spenddown, JNTP’s leadership has ably steered the organization towards greater sustainability. We believe the philanthropic approach AVI CHAI and others took contributed to this outcome (a similar story has been told with respect to our work in overnight summer camps). JNTP’s story, told from AVI CHAI’s perspective, is a paradigm of how foundations can help proven programs advance towards sustainability.

Michael S. Berger is a Program Officer at The AVI CHAI Foundation – North America.

Can cultural reinvention galvanize the Jewish world? This year, we will unleash the answer as Reboot rolls out a whole host of new initiatives dedicated to reinvigorating and “rebooting” Jewish life through creative expression.

My entire career has been dedicated to elevating the artistic voice. As a Grammy-nominated producer and former Vice President of A&R at Warner Bros. Records, I had a front row seat watching artists as they wove their ideas into the public consciousness using different platforms and formats. I saw music change our world.

When I encountered Reboot, I saw a model that could be replicated.

Since 2001, Reboot has provided new generations access to unique Jewish moments by investing in successful artists, makers, scholars, and entrepreneurs. These inspiring individuals who comprise our network have prompted the development of many big Jewish ideas and helped usher them into the world. When faced with the challenge of reaching a growing cohort of Jews not actively engaged in Jewish life, we discovered a way to incorporate Jewish traditions and rituals into a familiar language and setting. We created interactive experiences correlating with the digital age.

My unexpected personal journey as a Rebooter – from participant to board member to board president to CEO – continues to energize me. Eighteen years since its founding, the Reboot Network is now over 600 strong. The projects that have come from the network have engaged millions of people, the majority of whom are not the typical Jewish “user.” The individuals we reached have found relevance, reflection, and deep connection through reimagined Jewish rituals, traditions, and culture. You can get on overview of our work and its value through this recently created video.

Several of our defining projects and initiatives continue to have a substantial impact to this day. They include:

• The National Day of Unplugging (NDU): Developed by a group of artists, writers, and filmmakers (originally under a program called The Sabbath Manifesto) the NDU started a movement when it launched 10 years ago. This movement incorporated the weekly celebration of Shabbat as an opportunity to take respite from technology. Since 2009, hundreds of thousands of participants have joined us, including tech elites who are stirring a change in the role of technology in our lives.

• 10Q: Born from a conversation between writer Ben Greenman and wellness guru Nicola Berman, 10Q offers a new High Holiday experience for the increasing thousands who want to draw on the Jewish commitment for reflection, gratitude and personal responsibility while taking themselves out of the pews (note: many in the pews love it as well!).

• Sukkah City: This international architectural design competition and art installation, created by journalist and best-selling author Joshua Foer, launched in the fall of 2010. Sukkah City re-imagined the sukkah in contemporary design. A committee of distinguished art critics and leading architects selected 12 winners from a field of over 600 submissions. The winning entries were displayed in New York’s Union Square Park and drew an audience of over 250,000 attendees.

• Black Sabbath – The Secret Musical History of Black-Jewish Relations: Premiering at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in 2010, the exhibit drew over 200,000 people and shared the Black-Jewish musical encounter from the 1930s to the 1960s. We have plans to refresh this project, with the unique local context of Detroit, in 2021.

In celebration of our Chai year, we have launched a new strategic plan designed to take Reboot into the future. We are grateful for the generous support that the Jim Joseph Foundation and the Righteous Persons Foundation provided for the planning process. We are refining our focus, doubling down on supporting artists who encourage challenging questions, and reimagining Judaism. An executive summary of this new plan is available here.

We will continue to do what we do best: own the Jewish R&D space by using the power of arts and culture to elevate the Jewish conversation and connect with the Jews on the margins. Moving forward. we’ll be putting more energy into engaging and empowering our network. We know the Jewish world is ever changing and Reboot is positioned at the intersection of our community’s diverse history, culture, identity, and creativity.

Our new Mission statement: Reboot reimagines, reinvents and reinforces Jewish culture and traditions for wandering Jews and the world we live in.

Coming soon:

• The Reboot Network – We will continue to grow an influential group of individuals steeped in cultural frontiers across the U.S. and around the world.

• The Reboot Ideas Festival – The first public embodiment of Reboot’s audacious, heart-felt and uncensored conversations and experiences. This is a weekend experience in San Francisco (March 27th-28th, 2020) focused on remixing, rethinking, and reimagining Judaism’s past, present, and future. We have invited creators, strategists, writers, thinkers, makers and artists, to propel, amplify, and evolve the Jewish conversation.

• Reboot Studios – The stand-out ideas that emerge from the Ideas Festival and other areas of our network will be developed and implemented through our recently formed studio. This studio will test programs and products to assess their impact and growth.

• My Fiddler Story, a project that explores the current refugee crisis through the prism of the acclaimed musical, Fiddler on the Roof.

• Silver Screen Studios, an intergenerational celebration of mini-documentaries that teaches and exposes young people to the wisdom of the Jewish community’s elders.

• Reboot Fellowships – Reboot will expand thanks to the generosity of the Covenant Foundation by bringing members of our network to Jewish institutions and collections, remixing their holdings for new generations.

We know that the Jewish world is ever changing, and arts and culture drive our changing world. Reboot is at the intersection of Jewish change and arts and culture.

For 18 years, Reboot has curated its growing network of creative and thoughtful leaders to develop and execute impactful projects relevant to today’s ideologies. We have inspired our community members to apply their unique and formidable talents to reimagine and reinvent Judaism. We ask that they share their discoveries with all of us, wandering Jews, and the world. With our new strategic plan, we are streamlining our historic model to ensure optimal success into the next decade and beyond.

More Sukkah Cities. More NDUs and 10Qs. More remixing of rituals, traditions, and new ways of plugging into the source of Jewish ideas by enlisting the greatest artists of our day to create game-changing opportunities. We are excited about where we are headed. WILL WE SEE YOU THERE?

David Katznelson is CEO at Reboot.

Source: “An Audacious Roadmap: Reboot at 18,” David Katznelson, eJewishPhilanthropy, September 3, 2019