JDC Entwine’s Entrepreneurialism is Secret Sauce for Engaging Next Generation

E-Jewish-philanthropyEntwine’s unique combination of service, educational and leadership opportunities is becoming a model for re-charging the Jewish identities of hard-to-reach young adults.

 

“We all have a responsibility for the other. Through JDC Entwine, we are able to live that and inspire other people to be able to do that,” says Perry Teicher, co-chair of the JDC Entwine Steering Committee.

 

“More and more of our generation understands that what’s happening in India can affect me. We understand that we are all interconnected. Entwine is the only Jewish organization that really taps into that concept of a global Jewish community,” says Raquel Benquiat, founder and former co-chair of Entwine’s San Diego planning committee.

A Cornell Hillel student and local Jewish peer help repaint a Hesed social welfare building in Ukraine as part of a JDC Entwine Short Term Service trip; courtesy JDC.

A Cornell Hillel student and local Jewish peer help repaint a Hesed social welfare building in Ukraine as part of a JDC Entwine Short Term Service trip; courtesy JDC.

Benquiat, a 32-year-old San Diego resident originally from Mexico City, says that many of her peers are disconnected from their Jewish identities. But when they leave home and see the global Jewish perspective through Entwine they often connect – Judaism becomes less threatening.

A JDC Entwine service volunteer facilitating activities with villagers in rural Gondar, Ethiopia; courtesy JDC.

A JDC Entwine service volunteer facilitating activities with villagers in rural Gondar, Ethiopia; courtesy JDC.

“You open up to Judaism and that never leaves you. You feel, ‘Oh, God! I am Jewish and there is tradition behind me and all these people around the world are doing similar things that I do, as a Jew. I should do more, make Judaism a stronger part of me,’” says Benquiat.

JDC Entwine – the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee’s young adult engagement platform – has engaged more than 12,000 young Jewish adults, more than 50 percent whom fit the description that Benquiat provides, according to Executive Director Sarah Eisenman. An awardee of Slingshot’s 2014-2015 Washington DC innovator’s guide and a recipient of a $3 million grant from the Jim Joseph Foundation, Entwine is quickly growing. Its unique combination of service, educational and leadership opportunities is becoming a model for re-charging the Jewish identities of hard-to-reach young adults.

Eisenman – who utilized her experience and interests as a passionate, but largely unaffiliated, young Jewish adult to create Entwine – says the organization is “catalyzing a generation of young Jews to live a life of action with global Jewish responsibility at the core.”

Students from Tufts University Hillel on a JDC Entwine trip working on a craft project with Jewish children who attend the Baby Help program in Buenos Aires; courtesy JDC.

Students from Tufts University Hillel on a JDC Entwine trip working on a craft project with Jewish children who attend the Baby Help program in Buenos Aires; courtesy JDC.

Most unique are Entwine’s strategic partnerships, which enable it to collaborate to reach more – and a more diverse group – of future Jewish leaders.

For example, in June 2015, Entwine announced a partnership with Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG), to launch the first global Jewish service program uniquely crafted for Russian-speaking Jewish young people. The cohort, once accepted, travels together on service trips and then return to their communities to plan programs that appeal to a Russian-speaking audience. Eisenman says, “The program has taken off in a significant way.”

Twenty-four-year-old Lizzy Solovey of Baltimore is one of the participants. She recently traveled to Argentina with a group of Russian-speaking peers.

A crowd of young Jewish professionals gather for "Young Jewish Europe: East Meets West," a JDC Entwine Learning Network-Genesis Philanthropy Group event at NYC's City Winery; courtesy JDC.

A crowd of young Jewish professionals gather for “Young Jewish Europe: East Meets West,” a JDC Entwine Learning Network-Genesis Philanthropy Group event at NYC’s City Winery; courtesy JDC.

“It was so amazing to see how resilient the Jewish community is there after the economic crisis. It was even more powerful to go to Argentina with a Russian group, because our story resonates with theirs. They are not immigrants, but they are rebuilding their lives in the same way our parents and we did,” says Solovey, who now works as a Jewish communal professional. “We had wonderful discussions about what it means to be Jewish and Russian. Coming back, I realized how important it is that I stay involved – to be proud of where I come from and of where I am and to keep giving back.”

A second $4 million partnership between Entwine and BBYO – which includes lead funding from the Schusterman and William Davidson Foundations – is enabling young adults who were formerly involved in the BBYO youth movement to take part in service fellowships, using the skills they learned as teen leaders. It is estimated that as many as 80 percent of teens disengage from the Jewish community after their bar/bat mitzvah. Almost as many drop out during the college years.

“This is a unique collaboration because it leverages the best of what Entwine, JDC and BBYO have to offer,” explains Eisenman, who notes the unique nature of Jewish young adults creating pluralistic teen programming through Entwine’s one-year Global Jewish Service Corps in Jewish communities where there is a need to develop teen programming. The volunteers use their preexisting skill sets to work with teens from around the world, which leads to more young adults serving and members of teen movements staying involved, and brings a pluralistic Jewish perspective to more traditionally-minded communities.

Moishe House has also partnered with JDC Entwine for several years. The collaboration has benefitted both organization in a number of ways with residents on service experiences, Moishe Houses serving as platforms for Entwine educational events, and often Entwine participants get involved in Moishe Houses on their return from overseas. This partnership has fostered a larger cooperation between Moishe House and JDC globally, whereby the two organizations develop Moishe Houses in overseas Jewish communities.

While JDC is known for regularly reinventing itself based on historical norms of that time and being able to reorient itself to respond to pressing challenge in the Jewish world – and Entwine is certainly a part of that mindset and mission – Entwine is conversely impacting JDC. For example, JDC changed it bylaws to create a two-year board position for young adults in their 20’s and 30’s, which now bring a new perspective to the organization’s strategy.

“People talk about experiential learning. This will be experiential leadership,” Eisenman quips, noting that among the goals of JDC Board inclusion of young adults is to put them in substantive leadership roles now while also exposes them to high-level learning on global leadership and interventions.

Entwine’s Teicher says he is focused on helping determine in what cities JDC Entwine should have larger networks, new ways to engage people, creative events, and how social media can impact the work JDC and its Entwine initiative do.

“The opportunity to work within such an amazing organization that has done such outstanding work for so long is really meaningful personally,” Teicher explains.

Benquiat expressed similar sentiments, highlighting what she feels is JDC Entwine’s secret sauce: entrepreneurialism.

“Entwine is not a pet project for the larger organization. No one dictates what we can and should do. We own what we do and we feel responsible for our own programs,” Benquiat says.

Will it last? That is something that Eisenman says she is shouldering. As part of the Jim Joseph grant, Entwine will embark on a long-term data mining project to evaluate the short-term and long-term success of its current initiatives and help inform future offerings.

“We care deeply about evaluation and data. We know the model is good; Entwine has done internal surveys,” says Dawne Bear Novicoff, assistant director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. “But Entwine has not had the resources to evaluate it. … Entwine will hire a new staff person to focus on measurement and outcomes to track and analyze the data it is already collecting.”

Powerful. Authentic.

Says Eisenman: “We have built. Now, we are taking everything we built and putting it on a whole new level.”

Source: “JDC Entwine’s Entrepreneurialism is Secret Sauce for Engaging Next Generation,” Maayan Jaffe, eJewishPhilanthropy, October 16, 2015

Holding Yourself to a High Standard of Quality When Using Assessments

RAVSAK logoThere is an unprecedented level of attention being given to the value and applicability of assessment tools, particularly in the field of education. Certainly this positive development is in part a result of the vast amounts of data seemingly at our fingertips. Practitioners, target audiences, funders, local organizations and other key stakeholders recognize that there are ways to measure the programs, initiatives, curricula, or any other intervention in question. And while not every situation lends itself to assessment, the Jim Joseph Foundation has a guiding principle that if the results of an assessment will inform that educational opportunity and others, then, yes, assess!

In too many instances for too many institutions, however, deciding to assess is the end of the conversation. Yet, a second, equally important, issue needs to be addressed: which assessment tool (or tools) will yield the most useful results? Not every assessment is high quality, and certain assessments are more effective than others for specific classroom settings or other educational environments. Educators and education leaders often focus—on improving learning outcomes or improving the learning experience. This same mindset should be applied to assessments, as there are always ways to improve how we measure our educational efforts and interventions.

At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we are funding the development of an assessment of teen Jewish learning and growth outcomes. This work is part of our Cross Community Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, which is a platform for shared learning and collaboration among grant making professionals at Jewish foundations and federations. All involved parties plan to invest in (and in many cases already have) community-based Jewish teen education initiatives designed to achieve the group’s shared measures of success (for example, engaging Jewish teens, and achieving sustainability).

The Foundation funds this assessment because, along with our partner communities, we want to glean as many learnings as possible from the Collaborative’s efforts. Which grantmaking strategies are most effective in which communities? What program characteristics lead to better learning and growth outcomes for Jewish teens? These are complex questions that require time and resources to answer.

Developing a set of common outcomes for the initiative itself was no small feat. But under the leadership of The Jewish Education Project, the Collaborative came to agreement on what outcomes the various local initiatives would strive to achieve (i.e., Jewish teens establish strong friendships, and Jewish teens feel a sense of pride about being Jewish, to name just two). The evaluation team then developed a teen survey to measure initiatives against those outcomes through a rigorous process of expert interviews, teen focus groups and pilot testing to ensure the survey questions are measuring the intended construct.

The survey was piloted in three communities this summer. Now the evaluation team is analyzing the survey results, seeking input from key stakeholders and experts, and conducting another round of cognitive testing—all in order to revise the survey items to even more effectively measure the impact of Jewish teen initiatives moving forward. Undoubtedly this is a lengthy process. But by “getting it right,” we will improve our assessment ability in this space, benefitting teens and the entire field.

From the Foundation’s perspective, equipping grantees to assess their programs represents sound use of funder assets and grantee time. We welcome the decision of many grantees to contract with independent evaluation firms to help them develop assessment tools tailored to measure their programs and desired outcomes. A truly valuable resource in these efforts is the Jewish Survey Question Bank (JSQB) (funded in part by the Foundation), which gathers survey questions used across the Jewish education field and categorizes them by topic. This vast collection intends to make it easier and more efficient for schools, organizations and individuals to develop their own surveys to assess their efforts.

As we look to further advance the quality of assessment of Jewish education initiatives, the secular education arena is a good model to reference. There, many longstanding assessment tools exist, designed to be used by a range of education programs. From my past experience in this arena, I am aware of key questions asked before deciding whether to begin an assessment and—if so—which assessment to use. Some useful questions for day schools to keep in mind include:

1) Is the administration of the assessment a burden or relatively easy? For example, some schools have unreliable technology or Internet access, so a web-based assessment tool may be too cumbersome to administer. In other schools, a paper-and-pencil version may be better.

2) Does the timing of the assessment sync with our need for information? For example, some classrooms may benefit from an initial assessment at the beginning of the school year so the results can be used for diagnostic purposes. Other classrooms might benefit more greatly from a mid-course assessment. Either way, both assessments could be informative to the entire school, or even the broader field, and should be leveraged appropriately.

3) Does the assessment measure the learning outcomes we are trying to achieve? Naturally, some assessments are more aligned with the actual curriculum being taught than others. It is well worth the time to review multiple assessment frameworks before selecting the appropriate one.

4) Are the results easy to understand and act upon? Some assessment reports are so complicated and data heavy that it becomes impossible to wade through or to glean best practices. The best reports offer clear findings and essentially lay out a road map of small tweaks or large-scale changes to improve the education experience being measured.

5) What is the value of having comparable data from previous years? While seeking the best assessment tool is always a worthy endeavor, there are real benefits, too, to comparing current results with past results or to a wider pool of respondents. If a program has been assessed a certain way for years, or even decades, the best decision may be to stick with that framework.

Whether in Jewish or secular education, assessment is a best practice—and high quality assessment is an even better practice. From Jewish camping initiatives, to teacher training programs and other grants, we at the Jim Joseph Foundation and its more than three dozen major grantees have used assessment to improve existing efforts and to inform new ones. Its value certainly applies to day schools as well.

Stacie Cherner is a program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation, which seeks to foster compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews in the United States. Established in 2006, the Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded more than $350 million in grants to engage, educate, and inspire young Jewish minds to discover the joy of living vibrant Jewish lives. [email protected]

Source: “Holding Yourself to a High Standard of Quality When Using Assessments,” Stacie Cherner, HaYidion The Ravsak Journal, September 24, 2015

Bringing Parents Along – A key to Life Centered Education

“When schools, families, and community groups work together to support learning, children tend to do better in school, stay in school longer, and like school more.[1]” This finding from a 2002 study affirmed a philosophy already held by many that guided significant national education policy and programs. Head Start, a program endorsed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965, incorporated a family component[2]. Today, the idea is widely accepted that parental involvement in students’ educational pursuits provides lasting benefits for the students. Disparate competing programs such as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top[3] incorporate this idea as a cornerstone.

While parental involvement in secular learning is almost a given, this has not been the case in religious education.  Former Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks of Great Britain describes this as sending “mixed messages” to our children about the value of education[4].  He noted that many parents expect their children to place importance on Jewish learning and practice for the sake of tradition even when the parents choose not to engage in particularly Jewish practice.

Strategies for Student Success

The Southwest Education Development laboratory lists the following two items as a subsection of recommended strategies to achieve student success:

  • “Engage [parents] at school so that they understand what their children are doing”
  • “Give [parents] a voice in what happens to their children”

While belonging to a booster club or even a Parent Teacher Association at school provides valuable connections, these affiliations do not offer opportunities for parents’ deep engagement and understanding about a child’s secular education.  Rather, meeting with individual teachers, working through homework problems with students, and even developing formal relationships between families and their schools can achieve more lasting success for the students and understanding for the parents. Moreover, these extra steps also show the value and importance of the education to both children and parents.

In a religious school context, parents might belong to a church or synagogue, but that membership does not inherently lead to their engagement in a child’s spiritual journey and education. Parents, instead, must be proactive and seek opportunities to be deeply involved in this learning.  Engaging children around their education both at the Jewish institution and at home is a core part of this process.

A Case Study on Parental Involvement in Education

In the field of Jewish education, Wilderness Torah—an organization committed to connecting individuals to Judaism through the environment—offers a case study on the importance, evolution, and potential of deep parental-child-teacher engagement in learning. Its B’naiture program for students in grades 6 and 7 was designed as a complement for religious education[5].  The ultimate objectives of Wilderness Torah’s program design and their early adaption to engage parents more deeply, provides profound insight into how parent involvement in children’s learning can entirely transform religious education.

B’naiture 1.0 – Taking Youth on Journey

Wilderness Torah created B’naiture as a response to the call for “life-centered” youth education— experiences that deal with the whole person and her or his set of human concerns, as Jonathan Woocher explained in “Redesigning Jewish Education for the 21st Century” (2008). The desire for these experiences often comes in the early teen years, during that critical phase between childhood and adolescence, when youth need help building confidence in themselves as unique individuals. Wilderness Torah developed B’naiture with this guiding principle and the understanding that focusing on soul-development at this time of passage in life is essential. Thus, the program prioritizes self-awareness, self-responsibility, and the discovery and empowerment of one’s own inherent gifts.

This all plays out over the course of the two-year program in—as the name implies—nature. Participants embark on a journey during which they learn hands-on survival skills such as fire-making, and do-it-yourself skills such as making shofars and mezuzahs from raw materials. It also challenges them to face fears, expand their beliefs of what’s possible and share their hearts around the fire with peers and adult mentors. All of this is framed and woven together by designing the experience according to the Hebrew calendar throughout the year and framing all the activities with Jewish stories, teachings from the Torah and Pirkeh Avot, and Jewish prayers and song.

While after seven years, B’naiture’s life-centered model has proven successful—parents consistently report their B’naiture graduate teens demonstrate high levels of newfound confidence, respect, accountability around the house and at school, and self-responsibility—Wilderness Torah faced an unexpected challenge at the program’s inception. Some parents were not ready for the changes their children exhibited during program participation. As a result, over the program’s first two years, B’naiture had nearly a 30% dropout rate, in many cases because of parent resistance.

B’naiture 2.0 – Parents Join the Journey

Wilderness Torah inevitably wanted to know why parents held this sentiment and what, if anything, could be done to overcome the challenge. The answer to both questions affirms the theory that parents and children together are part of the education process.

Historically, in traditional societies “rites of passage” were all-family, often all-community events because the passage out of childhood is not just experienced by the child. It is also experienced by the parents and the community. Parents need to feel that they are supporting the transformation of their child into adolescence. This is part of their process of embracing their own “loss” of their child to adolescence. For a variety of reasons, if parents feel left out of this critical stage, they may unconsciously “sabotage” this life experience for their child process.

After absorbing this information, Wilderness Torah conceptualized its solution—a parent track that takes parents on the B’naiture journey. Now, parents participate in an opening 3-day camping trip where they learn about rites of passage, what changes to expect in their child, learn skills and reflect upon their own experience when they were their child’s age. How were they met or not met at this life transition? What do they need to be able to fully support a healthy transition for their child? Parents form a supportive parent group that meets periodically throughout the year to learn some skills B’naiture teaches their children, to learn Torah relevant to the rite of passage, and to provide on-going parent-group to understand how to support their child.

The creation of this parents’ track has been a game changer. The B’naiture drop-out rate has shrunk to a nominal number each year and parents’ involvement has made this work even more transformative. Children feel fully supported and parents feel a part of this important developmental stage of their children’s lives. As one parent, Jenn Rader, commented:

The parent track was an invaluable part of our family’s experience in B’naiture. At an age when young people’s activities often separate them from their families, the B’naiture program sets out a model for a young person’s development that is closely held in family and community. B’naiture found the sweet spot in their capacity to create an experience that both young people and parents can really own on their own terms and have those experiences infuse a shared family culture and set of values.

 The opportunity to share with and hear from other parents passing through this same portal offered a lot of support and insight to my partner and I as we navigated this stage with our two boys. We also felt a sense of partnership with the Wilderness Torah mentors in supporting our boys, which was powerful.

For Wilderness Torah and the Jim Joseph Foundation (one of its supporters), the evolution of B’naiture has been a learning process offering many insights we believe are helpful to both the secular and Jewish education fields. Incorporating parents into their child’s education in meaningful and substantial ways is an effective strategy for all involved.

[1] A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement A. T. Henderson & K. L. Mapp. (Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, 2002) Report Conclusion.

[2] National Head Start Association http://www.nhsa.org/about-us/mission-vision-history

[3] No Child Left Behind was an initiative introduced by George W. Bush and Race to the Top was introduced by Barack Obama

[4] “Four Ways to Look at the Wicked Child” The Wexner Foundation http://www.wexnerfoundation.org/blog/four-ways-to-look-at-the-wicked-child

[5] Turns out that around 50% of the families engaged chose B’naiture as their primary B’nai Mitzvah experience.

This blog appeared originally in eJewishPhilanthropy. Zelig Golden Is Founding Director of Wilderness Torah, which reawakens and celebrates the earth-based traditions of Judaism, including a focus on life-centered mentorship of youth kindergarten through teen years. Beginning summer of 2016, Wilderness Torah will offer training and consulting in its nature-based curricula and Jewish mentorship model.

A Different Kind of Risk-Taking: Improving Evaluation Practice at the Jim Joseph Foundation

A version of this blog originally ran in Philanthropy News Digest

“We’re in the business of risk-taking,” is a frequent refrain of Chip Edelsberg, Executive Director of the Jim Joseph Foundation. Generally speaking, Edelsberg’s notion of risk-taking refers to the investments the Foundation makes in its grantees and their programs. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a foundation with assets in the range of $1 billion whose mission is to foster compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews.  Between 2006 and June, 2014, the Foundation granted over $300 million to increase the number and quality of Jewish educators, to expand opportunities for Jewish learning, and to build a strong field for Jewish learning (Jim Joseph Foundation, 2014). Rarely is there an established research base for the kinds of initiatives the Foundation supports in Jewish education. In the spring of 2013, though, Edelsberg had another kind of risk in mind.

What might be gained, Edelsberg ventured, if the Foundation staff brought together a group of competing evaluation firms with whom they had worked in the past to consider ways to improve the Foundation’s practice and use of evaluation? The idea had emerged from a study of the history of the Foundation’s evaluation practices from its inception in 2006 through 2012, commissioned by the Foundation and conducted by Lee Shulman, President Emeritus of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education Emeritus at Stanford University. Edelsberg thought it was a risk worth taking, and the board of the Foundation agreed. Edelsberg made another bold decision—to allow a doctoral student in Evaluation Studies from the University of MN to study this experimental venture.

In the winter of 2013, a colleague of mine from the field of Jewish education who was then a staff member of the Foundation heard about my research interest in the role evaluation plays in the work of foundations and their grantees. She offered to connect me with Edelsberg because of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s interest in and commitment to evaluation in their work. Edelsberg described the idea for what became the “Evaluators’ Consortium” and I asked about the possibility of studying the process as a case study for my dissertation. By the time the consortium met for the first time in October of 2013, and with the agreement of the Foundation board and the participating evaluators, I launched the research. The purpose of the study was to explore what occurred when a foundation inaugurated an innovative approach to evaluation practice, examining factors that supported successful implementation of the innovation and the impediments to its success. It sought to provide insights into the elements of organizational culture, practices, circumstances, and structures that can support effective practices of evaluation in the foundation sector. The Foundation gave me access to documents and invited me to observe meetings of the Consortium held both in person and electronically. Over the course of the first year of the Consortium’s operation, I interviewed all Foundation program staff members, Shulman (who served as the facilitator), a member of the board, and each of the participating evaluators.

In the initial stages of the work, the goals for this experiment were general and somewhat vague. The Foundation hoped to establish a more efficient process for selecting evaluators for foundation grants, to stimulate collaboration among the evaluators, to explore possibilities to conduct cluster evaluations or meta-analyses, and to examine ways the foundation could improve its overall program of evaluation.  One hope was that in their coming together, the evaluators would help the Foundation define an agenda for their work together. In spite of the uncertainty of the initiative’s outcomes, all the evaluation firms that were asked accepted Edelsberg’s invitation to participate—a testament to the nature of the relationship they already had with Edelsberg and the Foundation, and an indication of what a deeper relationship with the Foundation meant to the evaluators. The Consortium met for two face-to-face gatherings and two web-based conferences, and there was email communication among the participants between convenings. When the group gathered, members of the Consortium shared samples of their work with one another.

There was some discomfort among participants about the initial lack of clarity about the outcomes and timeline of the Consortium, especially since the evaluators were participating without compensation. Both Foundation staff and evaluators wondered how long they would be able to continue without a clear focus.  An idea that emerged toward the end of the first gathering gained traction in the months leading up to the second meeting—what if the group developed a set of outcomes and measures for Jewishness (or Jewish identity/growth/development) that could be used across organizations, initiatives, and programs? Nothing like this existed in the field of Jewish education. The notion of a tangible product, one that could be used by the evaluators, by the Jim Joseph Foundation, and by the field at large, had broad appeal. There were some concerns about committing to this goal among the evaluators–while worthwhile, such a goal was ambitious, difficult, and time consuming to achieve.

The Consortium’s work on measures of Jewish growth came at a critical time for the Foundation. At about the same time as the Evaluators’ Consortium was launched, the Jim Joseph Foundation had begun work on one of its most large-scale projects to date—the Initiative on Jewish Teen Education and Engagement. The initiative linked directly to the Foundation’s mission to “foster compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences” for teens and young adults. The initiative’s strategy included working in partnership with funders in up to ten local communities in the US to incubate new models of learning and involvement for Jewish teens. It grew out of an understanding of the importance of this stage of the life cycle in human development coupled with a reading of the data on low participation rates of Jewish teens in the Jewish educational experiences available to them in their communities (Informing Change, Jim Joseph Foundation, & Rosov Consulting, March 2013). On the eve of the launch of the Teen Initiative, the Foundation was particularly interested in measures of Jewish growth that could play a role in evaluating the work within and across communities.

Over the course of the first year of work, the Consortium helped the Foundation develop the vision for a cross-community evaluation of the Teen Initiative, including more in-depth work on outcomes and measures of Jewish growth.  In a step unprecedented for the Foundation, the staff asked the members of the Consortium for feedback on a draft of the evaluation RFP, and made changes on the basis of their suggestions. At the end of the year, the Foundation awarded a million dollar, four-year contract to two of the participating firms to conduct the cross-community evaluation. Another member of the Consortium is participating as a consultant on pieces of that work. The fourth member of the Consortium has been contracted by several of the local communities to conduct their community-based evaluations.

In addition to shaping of the cross-community evaluation and taking first steps on the development of outcomes and measures of Jewish growth, the initiative produced several other outcomes for the Foundation and for the participating evaluators. The foundation clarified its ideas about effective evaluation practices.  Foundation staff members developed the capacity to think differently about evaluation. Relationships were strengthened between Foundation staff and evaluators and between individual evaluators and evaluation firms. The initiative created relationships among competitors who entered into collaboration with one another to their own benefit and to the benefit of the Foundation and its grantees. Through its success with the Consortium the Foundation was emboldened to consider other new approaches to evaluation. Finally, as a result of the work done with the Consortium, the Foundation was able to introduce evaluators and high quality evaluation practices to other funders and communities.

The data collection for my dissertation came to a close in August of 2014, nearly a year after the first convening of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s Evaluators’ Consortium. Since then, the Consortium has continued to meet. Their current goals, according to a Foundation blogpost written by Sandy Edwards and Stacie Cherner (2015) of the Foundation staff, include:

  • A plan for researchers, funders and practitioners to agree on common constructs [of Jewish learning and growth];
  • The development of a set of standardized questions that can be utilized across the Foundation’s portfolio of grantees;
  • Field testing of a “universal toolkit” for collecting data on common outcomes and demographics;
  • A plan for longitudinal testing, and recommending resources to disseminate and encourage the use of universal sets of tools.

Various factors supported the success of the Consortium. One was the Foundation’s willingness to take a risk and to anticipate the possibility of failure. A learning culture at the Foundation and a commitment to field building were other contributing factors. Another contributing factor was the Foundation’s ongoing approach to evaluation.  Program officers work in partnership with grantees to develop evaluation RFPs and to hire evaluators; the Foundation then funds the evaluation of their grants. Members of the program staff are engaged in nearly all stages of the evaluations of grants they manage. The staff cultivates relationships with the grantees and evaluators with whom they work. The Foundation is committed to learning from evaluation, not just using it for accountability. They use evaluation for making decisions about grantmaking. The Foundation shares the majority of completed evaluation reports on its website.

To understand the success of the Consortium we also must consider its leaders and its participants. The Foundation’s professional leader, Chip Edelsberg, his commitment to the initiative in particular and to evaluation in general, and his ability to cultivate relationships with others played important roles. Also critical were the intellectual leadership and facilitation of Lee Shulman. For the participating evaluators there were benefits to participating—possibilities of evaluation contracts with the Foundation, enhanced relationships with Foundation staff, and opportunities for professional development and colleagueship. These incentives certainly encouraged participation, and all those invited agreed to participate. It was no small feat, though, that these evaluators agreed to work alongside the organizations with whom they compete for contracts, to share their expertise with one another, to participate without direct compensation, to engage without promises of future work—and to do so with an uncertain timeline and undefined outcomes in the early stages. The small size of the field of Jewish education and the sub-field of evaluation of Jewish education added other facilitating factors—the players were known to one another at least by reputation even if they did not know each other personally and the impact of the work of these participants had the potential to be felt in the field.

Establishing the Evaluators’ Consortium required overcoming a number of challenges.  The logistics involved in scheduling the leadership of the four evaluation firms took much longer than the Foundation anticipated. Some of the evaluators worried that the outcomes were not clear at the beginning, nor was the timeline. Some worried about the scope of the project and the amount of time they had to give. Some were concerned that the competing firms might be reluctant to be fully open and comfortable working with their competitors. While the Foundation worked to create an atmosphere of collegiality among all the participants, the power differential between the Foundation and the others operated beneath the surface.

The model of the Evaluators’ Consortium is worthy of consideration by other foundations engaged in strategic philanthropy. It is likely, however, to demand practices that are a departure from “business as usual.” Strategic philanthropy involves specifying outcomes in advance and looking at progress against those outcomes. When contemplating this type of innovation in the practice of evaluation, a foundation ought to be aware of the need for emergent goals and uncertainty. Not only is it impossible to specify all possible outcomes of an innovation, attempting to define the outcomes may limit the foundation’s consideration of promising courses of action. Working in an emergent way requires some faith in the process, trust in the people promoting the innovation, and some concrete promise of potential benefits. It requires a champion who is willing to take risks and to bring others along an uncharted path. The use of developmental evaluation to document and learn systematically about the work as it progresses could address strategic concerns.

It may be counter-intuitive to bring together competitors to work together on behalf of a foundation’s evaluation program. Convening competitors in a collaborative venture, though, can create capacity, build networks, and magnify potential outcomes. Careful consideration needs to be given to the conditions under which collaboration is done, who facilitates it, and what expectations are established throughout the process. Cultivating relationships is a critical step in introducing and sustaining innovation in evaluation practice.

Innovating in the area of evaluation practice through the convening of evaluators, staff, and outside experts requires a commitment of staff time and attention for a range of tasks from engaging potential participants to defining questions to address to making arrangements. Making staff available for this work may require the shifting of responsibilities and priorities among staff members. Financial resources are another consideration. It may not always be possible to draw on the good will and trust or even the promise of future contracts with a foundation or its grantees to induce evaluators to participate in an undertaking like the Evaluators’ Consortium. Foundations considering the use of this model ought to establish a budget that would allow for compensation of the participants.

The practice of risk-taking is central to the work of foundation leaders as they hone their strategies, strive to make effective investments in organizations and programs, and pursue their missions of social betterment. The model of the Evaluators’ Consortium is a risk worthy of consideration by foundation leaders. Working collaboratively with a diverse group of external evaluators who bring a range of skills, perspectives, and expertise has potential for significant pay-offs for foundations and, ultimately, for the spheres they hope to impact.

Cindy Reich is an evaluator and Jewish educator based in Minneapolis, MN. This article is based on her dissertation, Improving Evaluation Practice in the Foundation Sector: A Case Study of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s Evaluators’ Consortium, scheduled to enter library circulation in spring 2016. She received her Ph.D. in Evaluation Studies from the University of MN in 2015.

 

Bibliography

Informing Change, Jim Joseph Foundation, Rosov Consulting (2013, March) Effective Strategies for Educating and Engaging Jewish Teens: What Jewish Communities Can Learn from Programs That Work. Retrieved from https://jimjosephfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Report_and_Appendix_Effective_Strategies_for_Educating_and_Engaging_Jewish_Teens.pdf

Jim Joseph Foundation. (2014). Jim Joseph Foundation 2013-2014 Biennial Report . San Francisco, CA, USA.

S. Edwards & S. Cherner. (2015, April 9). A Behind-the-Scenes Look at an Evaluators’ Consortium (Blogpost). Retrieved from https://jimjosephfoundation.org/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-an-evaluators-consortium/

 

A “Big Bet” Strategy: Large Grants for the Long-Term

The Jim Joseph Foundation is in its tenth year of existence. In a few weeks, we will share an online interactive timeline on the Foundation’s philanthropy, significant grantee outcomes, and lessons learned since its inception. The Foundation website will feature an insightful memoir on our founder thoughtfully crafted by Jim Joseph’s son and Foundation Board member, Josh Joseph. We will also share a microdocumentary on Mr. Joseph, his family history, and his lasting legacy.

As we mark this tenth anniversary, the Foundation continues to be a work in progress. Striving for continuous improvement involves concentrated time and effort among Foundation Directors and professionals. The Board is conducting a search for my successor while also taking steps to plan for transition of its founding Directors. Concurrently, the Foundation has intensified its focus on strategy in its grantmaking, governance practices, and the Foundation’s own financial and staff capacities.

All this activity has created a change management agenda for the Foundation. But the Foundation’s commitment to a founding strategic principle has not wavered: careful consideration of invited grant proposals for significant amounts of funding over four and five year periods.

We are often queried why the Foundation makes such “big bets,” enriching relatively fewer organizations with philanthropic capital when many others might benefit from Foundation grant funding. This question tends especially to surface when the Foundation determines to renew funding to one of its major grantees, often doing so at significant levels of funding support. Two very recent examples of this type of funder/grantee partnership – Hillel International and Moishe house – offer insights regarding how and why the Jim Joseph Foundation chooses to strategically fund well-aligned grantees with large grants and long-term funding.

First, it bears noting that much of the social sector struggles incessantly to achieve organizational stability. Mario Morino posited years ago that:

Non-profit organizations exist in a culture of dysfunction – limited capacity and modest outcomes pervade critical organizational elements such as strategic planning, staffing, training, management, financing and performance measurement. This dysfunction makes success highly improbable and calls into question the sustainability of organizations unable to adequately capitalize future growth (Community Wealth Ventures, Inc., “Venture Philosophy: Landscape and Expectations,” Reston, VA: The Morino Institute, 2000).

In this regard, the Jim Joseph Foundation spends a great deal of time conducting due diligence on potential grantees. For organizations that are mission aligned, potentially scalable with their reach, and critically positioned within the Foundation’s focus on education of Jewish teens, youth, young adults and young families, deep investment is inviting.

Recognizing, for example, that Hillel reaches and engages 400,000 college-age students annually, the Foundation determined early in its existence to explore effective partnership with the organization. We learned quickly that Hillel would require repeated infusions of funding to build capacity in order to most effectively engage as many college students and communities as possible. The Foundation’s grants for the Senior Jewish Educator/Campus Entrepreneur Initiative; evaluation of it; funding for the Heather McLeod Grant and Lindsay Bellows study about Hillel’s effective strategy to leverage social networks for student engagement; resources for business planning; and seed capital for Hillel projects deemed to be of high priority to a new CEO bespeak the Jim Joseph Foundation’s commitment to long-term investment in high performing grantees.

The new $16 million, five year grant the Foundation just awarded to support Hillel in accelerating its ambitious Drive to Excellence campaign affirms this deep commitment.

An organization at an entirely different stage of its development – and one that is distinct in its nature – than Hillel is Moishe House. The Jim Joseph Foundation is a “both/and” funder. This is to say that both new, fledgling organizations and legacy institutions are beneficiaries of Foundation investment. In the case of the former, the Foundation understands keenly that:

Organizations do not emerge full blown and high performing. It takes years of thoughtful design, capacity building, and program implementation for an agency to know its work thoroughly enough, learn from its efforts, understand its strengths and weaknesses, and refine its strategy to the point where it has a robust framework and platform for managing its performance (Hunter, David. Working Hard and Working Well. Hunter Consulting LLC, 2003).

Repeated Jim Joseph Foundation funding of Moishe House, totaling $8,230,000 over nine years, has been awarded with intent to steadily build the organization’s capacity and to help it become more proficient at monitoring its performance and measuring achievement of targeted outcomes. Jen Rosen, Moishe House’s chief operating officer, reflects this interest in commenting that Moishe House “needs to assess the longer term impact on residents and participants. As a relatively new organization, the data we have collected has been helpful, but as we near our 10 year anniversary, it’s time to begin assessing the longer term implications of involvement in Moishe House. During the recent study, roughly 900 respondents agreed to be contacted for follow up within three years in order to begin a longitudinal study” (Rosen, Jen,  August 26, 2015. “How Moishe House Looks Different Post Evaluation,” eJewish Philanthropy).

Numerous Moishe House accomplishments, all well documented, encouraged the Jim Joseph Foundation to extend grant application renewal invitations to Moishe House several times. The Foundation relies on Moishe House to execute smartly on its objectives and goals, thereby helping the Foundation realize its vision of “ever increasing numbers of young Jews engaged in ongoing Jewish living and choosing to live vibrant Jewish lives.”

There are clearly forces at work bringing pressure to bear on not-for-profits for improved efficiency, performance, and results. The steady proliferation of 501c3s—“the number of non-profits in the United States has nearly doubled since 1995, from 518,000 to more than 1 million today” (Stoolmacher, Irwin. 2015, September. “With Money So Tight, We Need to Get Rid of Poor-Performing Charities,” The Chronicle of Philanthropy, page 29.)—leads many to contend the sector is riddled with duplication, redundancy, and inefficiency. Moreover, given that systematic, right-sized evaluation of Jewish education funded programs and projects is still not normative, it is extremely difficult to find credible comparative data for philanthropic decision making.

In this environment, programs that effectively prepare and professionally develop Jewish educators are not readily identifiable. The Foundation candidly could not project with any certainty if its $45 million Education Initiative grants—$15 million each over seven years to HUC-JIR, JTS, and YU—would produce outcomes ultimately worthy of the investment. Yet, the Foundation decided to not only award the grants for credential and degree granting courses and programs, faculty, and instructional technology, but also to avail the institutions of exceptional technical assistance as a means to augment the funding. This contract expertise included the American Institutes for Research (AIR), which is conducting the Education Initiative’s formal evaluation. The Parthenon Group provided upfront analysis and guidance on each institution’s structures for project management and administration. A premier college enrollment firm, Noel Levitz, offered much needed counsel on marketing and recruiting, enrollment trends, and setting of tuition rates. The Foundation’s funding made it possible for the institutions to contract with Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning for a cross-institutional technology fellowship. Now, with four comprehensive formative evaluations completed, findings reveal the following:

  • 1,412 educators have received certificates or degrees from one of the three participating institutions.
  • The degree and professional development programs under the Education Initiative promoted leadership development through improved management skills and content knowledge.
  • The degree programs supported entry into Jewish day school teaching and the professional growth of experienced Jewish day school teachers and school leaders.

AIR will produce a fifth and final evaluation next year. At the Foundation’s upcoming October Board meeting, Foundation Directors will discuss with AIR Vice President Dr. Mark Schneider and the evaluator’s project director, Dr. Yael Kidron, a discrete set of questions to be addressed in this summative evaluation report. The Foundation’s learning over seven years of this initiative will hopefully be captured in the 2016 report and disseminated to the field. Already—as we anticipated—it is clear that improving the quality, breadth, and depth of education training in institutions of higher education necessitates a long-term strategy to achieve results premised on extended, multi-year commitments of funding.

As one last example of more than a dozen of these relatively large, long-term grants, consider the Foundation’s award in its early years to BBYO for BBYO’s Professional Development Initiative (PDI). This grant for continuing nonprofit management and Jewish education was awarded again without much relevant data on similar professional development efforts to inform the Foundation’s grantmaking. Yet BBYO’s mission alignment with the Foundation, its growth trajectory of Jewish teen membership and engagement, its effective organizational management and controls, and an active, diligent Board of Directors governance made PDI an attractive investment opportunity for the Foundation.

Jim Joseph Foundation professionals interacted routinely with BBYO leadership and key PDI personnel over eight years of grant implementation in a project the Foundation generously funded. This shared persistence by BBYO and the Foundation is a recognition that success, or lack of it, in improving education of young Jews is neither a simple nor necessarily short-term proposition.

To that end, Informing Change just completed Briefing papers and evaluation on BBYO’s PDI. The ten lessons Informing Change describes in the report suggest ways the Foundation could have more effectively supported BBYO in its implementation of PDI. The evaluation also points out a few shortcomings in PDI’s program design. Overall, what is noteworthy is that the amount of funding awarded and the duration of time afforded to BBYO in its PDI experimentation allowed the organization to learn. Additional investment of time and money produced an evaluation, as the Briefing papers note, that responds to a human resource talent issue that is fundamental to the field:

Leaders across the Jewish communal sector have a number of strategic questions to consider related to developing talent. These questions range from considering what types of education are most beneficial in which circumstances (e.g., considering a generalist degree or a credential offered through a Jewish institution), to the role of personal learning, to the tension of helping professionals do their jobs better today while also preparing them for the future.

PDI has contributed to these discussions by testing new approaches to professional development. As the program comes to a close, it surfaces the lessons shared in this brief and provides a case study of Jewish community practitioners and employers to look to when building future endeavors. As the discussion of professional development continues in the Jewish communal sector, the considerations and practices that emerged through the PDI experience can hopefully strengthen development opportunities going forward (Advancing Early-Stage Jewish Careers: Lessons from BBYO’s Professional Development Institute, Informing Change, July 2015).

The Jewish high holy days enjoin us to personally reflect and repent, atone and account—to recommit to principled, purposeful lives reflecting time honored Jewish values.  Describing above one important aspect of Jim Joseph Foundation philanthropy is an effort to be professionally reflective and accountable, with the hope that valuable lessons the Jim Joseph Foundation has learned will contribute to your practice.

Local Jewish day schools continuing to integrate Israel education through iNfuse

Florida Sun SentinelThree local Jewish day schools have started the second year of an initiative that aims to improve Israel experiences and education in Jewish day schools.

Last year, the iCenter, a national Israel education organization, launched “iNfuse: Israel Education in Day Schools,” at six day schools from across North America. The local schools are Donna Klein Jewish Academy in Boca Raton and Jacobson Sinai Academy and Hochberg Preparatory School, both in North Miami Beach. The purpose of this initiative has been for each school to create a plan to make Israel education and experiences a more significant part of all aspects of school life.

The IDF visited Jacobson Sinai Academy, one of the local schools that was selected for “iNfuse: Israel Education in Day Schools.” (Submitted photo)

Lesley Litman, one of the initiative’s designers and iCenter educational consultant, said that all the schools are moving forward. She noted that there are three phases to the program.

“Our plan was that in the first year, the schools would do the first two phases and in the second year they would do the third phase, which is designing and implementing curriculum projects,” Litman said. “The schools are all more or less on track, which is really pretty remarkable because they each went through the first year, through phases 1 and 2, in their own unique ways. We provided them with tools and they navigated it in a way that was unique to them.”

Litman also said “We have a set of online tools for every phase that will enable the schools to actually design curricula online and access resources for teachers and students from the iCenter and other Israel education sources. In turn, they will be able to implement the curriculum that they’re designing as a result of their work with iNfuse.”

In the first year of the program, Donna Klein Jewish Academy created a survey monkey.

“The survey included questions that required a little bit of looking at the curriculum and finding out in each discipline where there is or where there is not any relation to Israel education,” said Sammy Chukran-Lontok, the school’s director of Middle School Judaic Studies and director of Middle and High School Hebrew Studies. “We took this information and we summarized it and with that we came out up with our standards, mission statement, core assumption and vision.”

Jacobson Sinai Academy developed a mission statement as part of iNfuse that states, “The relationship of our learners with Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael and Medinat Yisrael is a priority for the JSA community. JSA promotes knowledge and appreciation of Israel through academic studies and cultural experiences. This learning enhances students’ connection to and knowledge of Israel and strengthens their Jewish identity.”

Laura Pachter, a co-chair for inFuse at JSA, said “I think everyone embraced the idea of focusing more on Israel’s geography, history, innovation and diversity and we’ve been addressing the Jewish connection all along.”

Pachter also mentioned that through this program, everyone in the school is starting to make their own connections in their subject areas.

Dayna Wald, principal of Judaics at Hochberg Preparatory School, said that over the summer, the school worked on connecting the standards it identified in the program’s first year to things it was already doing and developed connections between its existing curriculum and its newly identified Israel education standards.

“I met with our curriculum director to review the standards and identify areas for cross-curricular collaboration,” Wald added. “Our next step is to identify areas of focus for the first half of the year and provide our teachers with resources to make these connections in the classrooms with their students.”

Wald added “We are focusing first on the standard of People, Nation, State and Land of Israel. Teachers are working on aligning their current curriculum to this theme and identifying areas for integration.”

Source: “Local Jewish day schools continuing to integrate Israel education through iNfuse,” Florida Sun-Sentinel, September 8, 2015

What We Learned During Our Time in Israel – Part 2  

Editor’s Note: As we shared previously, the Jim Joseph Foundation Board and professional team traveled to Israel this summer for a week of special immersion activities and our regular quarterly board meeting. Conducting a Board meeting in Israel was part of the Foundation’s ten-year anniversary and an important opportunity for the Foundation to pay respect to Jim Joseph, z”l.

Upon returning, each member of the professional team was asked to share reflections on their time in Israel and visits with grantees. Sharing excerpts with you, we believe, offers insights to the field about the place of Israel in the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy; the knowledge gained from site visits; and the benefits of Board and staff engaging in an immersive experience together. Below is part two of a two-part blog series of reflections from the professional team:

There is no question that an immersive trip to Israel provides an exceptional opportunity for participants to deepen their relations with one another and bond as a group. This was certainly my experience from nine intense days with staff and Board colleagues at the Jim Joseph Foundation. I am deeply grateful we were able to travel together and learn as a team. l am already seeing ways in which these deepened relationships are strengthening our ability to advance our work together.

While in Tel Aviv, with the help of a colleague from The AVI CHAI Foundation, I had a chance to visit with a select group of Israeli entrepreneurs working to advance the field of educational technology, including Avi Warshavsy from MindCET, and Gil Ilutowich from Compedia. There is no question that Israel is home to world-class talent in this area, and the infrastructure these industry leaders are building is a resource that has yet to be fully tapped. Israel is an important place for American Jewish leaders to turn when seeking partners to help understand how to apply cutting edge technology tools to improve Jewish education or to implement technology initiatives that require developers with Jewish expertise.

The talent, the vibrancy, and the thoughtfulness of everyone with whom we met—these are the sentiments I take away from our trip to Israel. They provide the foundation for important new knowledge that informs my work with grantees to foster even more Jewish learning experiences.

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I have traveled to Israel multiple times while employed within the Jewish community.  I lived in Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, and Arad for a year.  Still, I had never experienced Israel quite like this.

Throughout the trip, there remained a tenor of humility.  Only one educational building in the world bears the name of the Foundation’s benefactor.  The gravesite of Jim Joseph (Shimon ben Yosef z’’l) is lovely yet unassuming. This attitude of humble reflection and introspection made this experience what it was meant to be, a tribute to a man who achieved greatness in quiet benevolence.

This visit afforded the professional team the opportunity to further our efforts in relational grantmaking by finally putting a face together with a name for many of our international grantees at Taglit Birthright Israel, Pardes, the Shalom Hartman Institute, the Israel Museum, and Bar Ilan University. It is rare to have the opportunity to participate in discussions and attend site visits with Foundation Directors.  We were able to hear the questions asked by Directors of our grantees and vice versa and to learn firsthand from the discourse among veteran and newer members of the Foundation’s Board.

Camp, to Last a Lifetime

Reshet Ramah, Camp Ramah’s alumni and community engagement network, is poised to expand the role that camp playsCJ Voices in building Jewish community.

When Gabe Scott-Dicker, 30, lost his mother last year, he found him-self wondering where he was going to say Kaddish.

Like most in his generation, he does not belong to a synagogue. Raised in West Caldwell, New Jersey, and now living in Manhattan, he visited many and felt welcomed by all. But none of them felt quite right. “What I really wanted was that feeling you get at camp,” he realized. “I wanted that Friday night Camp Ramah experience again.” Out of that realization was born the Ramah Minyan, started by Gabe and fellow Camp Ramah in New England alumni Jenna Silverman and Allison Moser. They reached out to friends hailing from all the Ramah camps, and held their first service last February in a space provided by Park Avenue Synagogue. That Shabbat, 165 young adults in their 20s and 30s attended; on weeks when dinner is served, more than 200 come. While a core of regulars is emerging, the number of newcomers continues to climb as the Ramah Minyan meets every other Friday night.

“What’s amazing is that many of these are not people you’d ever see going to Shabbat services otherwise,” said Rabbi Ed Gelb, director of Camp Ramah in New England, looking at the list of his former campers on the Ramah Minyan roster.

Meanwhile, 23- year old Talia Spitzer moved to Dallas for a new job. She knew no one, but soon discovered that as she met new people, the ones she felt the most immediate connection to all had one thing in common: Ramah. An alumna of Camp Ramah in California, she organized an after work evening at a lounge for young adult Ramah alumni and their friends. “I hope that Ramah alumni know that now there is a community for them in Dallas,” she said. “And that if you ever end up in a city in which you have never stepped foot, as I did, chances are there will be a Ramah network there to support you.”

That is Reshet Ramah’s mission: to use the power and passion of the existing Ramah alumni network to increase adult Jewish engagement and create stronger, more vibrant Jewish communities. (Reshet in Hebrew means “network.”) Funded by a grant from The AVI CHAI Foundation and the Maimonides Fund, with additional sup-port from the Jim Joseph Foundation and a number of local funders in various cities, it is a grand experiment, one that stands to make a real impact on the fabric of the Conservative movement and the North American Jewish community as a whole.

 

Reshet Ramah - Hanukkah 2

More than 270 alumni of Ramah, USY, JTS and Schechter students filled a New York nightclub to celebrate Chanukah last December.

It is a bold step for the 68 -year-old Ramah system. Ramah, the camping arm of Conservative Judaism, boasts eight overnight camps, five day camps, the Tichon Ramah Yerushalayim (TRY) high school semester in Israel, the Ramah Seminar summer experience in Israel, and the Ramah Israel Institute travel program for schools, synagogues and family groups. Last summer more than 10,500 individuals (counting both campers and staff) participated in Ramah programs. This number is on the upswing: Camp Ramah in New England recently added two new bunks to accommodate increased demand, Camp Ramah in California will add a new edah (age division) next summer, Camp Ramah in the Rockies has grown to full capacity after only five years of operation, and the newest Ramah overnight camp is set to open next summer in northern California.

Clearly Ramah knows how to run great camps. But what does that have to do with stepping into the current trend of Jewish engagement work?

We estimate that there are approximately 250,000 “Ramahniks,” as alumni like to call themselves. When the 2013 Pew Survey of Jewish Americans was published and quantified what every rabbi and Jewish educator could have told you – that affiliation rates are plummeting, that millennials don’t want to belong to institutions built by previous generations, that only 33 percent of American Jews between the ages of 18 to 29 state that being Jewish is “very important” to them – the time seemed ripe for Ramah to leverage the positive emotional impact of its brand and augment the good work being done by synagogues and so many in the community.

To be sure, Reshet Ramah is still in the entrepreneurial, experimental stage, and its mission is not limited solely to millen-nials. As Joel Einleger, Director of Strat-egy, Camp Programs, at The AVI CHAI Foundation observed when the project was announced, “Reshet Ramah will seize the opportunity to build a stronger movement from the huge numbers of alumni of the Ramah camps across North America…that will in effect extend the experience begun in a Ramah camp years or even decades earlier.” In other words, the bonds built at camp really do last a lifetime, and the hope is that through Reshet Ramah those bonds will be nur-tured at various stages of life beyond the camper years.

The initial start-up phase was about building infrastructure, such as the creation of the Find Alumni Directory, and the Reshet Ramah website, www.reshetramah.org with stories of alumni marriages, reflections, accounts from olim, and news of upcoming events. The camps needed time to think through the impact of a national-level alumni initiative and how their own individual alumni associations would connect to that. And then there were people to galvanize, a board to establish, and programs to begin to imagine and build. Two years into the endeavor, we feel that Reshet Ramah is starting to see real traction.

What we are finding is that there is nothing cookie-cutter about this work. As we seed garinim, councils of alumni in cities across North America and Israel, each group is empowered to create its own programs with its own ideas. In San Francisco, the garin has leaned toward “boutique” events: Shabbat dinner at an art gallery, a kosher wine tour. In Washington, DC, the kick-off was a Chanukah party at someone’s home. In New York, the garin has created a mix of social and religious programming. For example, last Purim, 120 people attended a Reshet Ramah megillah reading and open mic night at a stand-up comedy club, and the following Saturday night 240 turned out for a Purim-themed costume party at a club downtown.

Other initiatives, like the launch last spring of RamahDate in partnership with JDate, Reshet Ramah trips to Poland for adults or the Israel Bike Ride and Hiking Trip to support special needs programs at Ramah, are staff-driven and marketed to the Ramah alumni community. Partnerships are crucial, especially with synagogues and other community organizations also involved in this work. Since its launch, Reshet Ramah has sponsored more than 70 events in 30 cities involving nearly 2,000 unique individuals.

“One of the real gems of the Conservative movement is our camps,” said Sheldon Disenhouse, president of the National Ramah Commission and a member of the Reshet Ramah board. “Ramah is well-poised to harness the Jewish joy and connection that comes from camp and can bring it back to people well after the camp years.”

“If we are successful,” added Rabbi Mitchell Cohen, National Ramah Director, “we will have changed the fabric of the community, offering another layer of options for Jews, young and old, looking for meaningful Jewish connection at various stages of their lives.”

Rabbi Abigail Treu is Director of Community Outreach and Young Adult Engagement at the National Ramah Commission. She previously served as a Rabbinic Fellow and National Director of the Women’s League Torah Fund Campaign at The Jewish Theological Seminary.

Source: CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism, September 1, 2015

What We Learned During Our Time in Israel

Editor’s Note: As we shared previously, the Jim Joseph Foundation Board and professional team traveled to Israel earlier this summer for a week of special immersion activities and our regular quarterly board meeting. Conducting a Board meeting in Israel was part of the Foundation’s ten-year anniversary and an important opportunity for the Foundation to pay respect to Jim Joseph, z”l.

Upon returning, each member of the professional team was asked to share reflections on their time in Israel and visits with grantees. Sharing excerpts with you, we believe, offers insights to the field about the place of Israel in the Foundation’s grantmaking strategy; the knowledge gained from site visits; and the benefits of Board and staff engaging in an immersive experience together. Below is part one of a two-part blog series of reflections from the professional team:

Narrowing down a week full of highlights is a difficult task but a few stick out as examples of how this experience put me in a better position to thrive in my role at the foundation. First, our time in Israel provided an opportunity to better familiarize myself with the history of the foundation, notably its founder, Jim Joseph. Visiting his gravesite was by far the most moving experience of the trip. It was accompanied by a group lunch with members of his family who shared stories about who he was as a person and what motivated his philanthropy. Never having the chance to meet him, my relationship is through these stories and upon hearing so many touching reflections, I immediately felt a deeper connection to Jim and the mission of the foundation that he so generously funded.

The trip also provided the unique opportunity to see in operation many programs that offer Israel experiences for youth and young adults. These visits not only demonstrated the growing number of immersive Israel programs that exist but brought them to life more than any story, website, or picture could. We spoke directly with the participants and providers. We heard their stories and motivations. We felt their passion. An evening with participants from Birthright Israel Excel and TAMID, programs that feature high-level summer internship opportunities in Israel, was particularly inspirational. To a person, the participants exuded nothing but positivity, to both the programs and their time in Israel. They gained a new appreciation for the country, its culture, people, and innovation, while receiving invaluable experience working for some of Israel’s most reputable businesses. To me, speaking with these participants during their experiences in Israel demonstrated how important it is to provide opportunities like these to as many people as possible.

We met with the leadership and participants at Birthright Israel, the iCenter, Moishe House, the Israel Museum, Bar Ilan University, and more. Each meeting provided greater insight into the important work of these grantees and offered firsthand insight into the outcomes each are achieving. For me, spending a morning at Pardes, a grantee in my portfolio, was particularly beneficial. In my first few months I have been on calls with Pardes, read their reports, and familiarized myself with their work, but seeing it in person provided an understanding that is difficult to gain from afar. We met with a variety key stakeholders including the CEO, program staff, teachers, and participants. These face to face meetings will only help future discussions and collaboration. Pardes is known for its open beit midrash, something I’ve heard and read about but never fully understood. Upon seeing it in action I was left thinking to myself, “yes, I get it now.”

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The central theme of my experience, both in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, was one of exploration and meaning-making. Tal Becker helped frame our time in country by speaking to the complexity that is Israel in 2015. He spoke with humor and wisdom. His quip, that Judaism is not a twitterable religion, speaks to how we make the old new and use the new to facilitate the old. It’s clear to me that young adults are searching for meaning in their lives. Beyond Judaism. They are searching for successful models in which to live their lives. Models laden with value and purpose. What they are finding is that their ancestors struggled with the same questions, the same eternal truths that they struggle with today. How to live a life of significance and meaning? How to live a life of lasting impact? How to live a life of value to others? How to remain steadfast and true to oneself? Judaism has something to say about these questions. It has text and discussion which to offer. And teens, I believe, understand this more than we know and are willing to drink from the fountain so long as they are allowed an unadulterated drink.

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This whole experience made me recognize the productive intersection of the heart and the head.  As a grantmaker, I believe it is important to balance both the experience of seeing and “feeling” a program’s impact first hand with the intellectual pursuit of closely analyzing what the data indicate as impact and lessons learned.

It is important as a grantmaker to really struggle with understanding an issue or problem in order to develop effective strategies.  Recognize the time and effort required to logically develop an intervention and an appropriate funding model.  Despite the excitement at being immersed in the setting, use that experience to inform, but not to solely drive, your grantmaking strategy.

Finally, I was reminded to constantly gauge the willingness of grantees and potential grantees to collect and analyze data, to use evaluation data to improve their programs and attain desired outcomes.

Please check back soon for part 2 of this blog featuring more reflections from the professional team.

PJ Library for children grows in Colorado

Intermountain Jewish NewsFamilies in Colorado raising Jewish children have more opportunities to participate in Jewish life due to the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.

The foundation created PJ Library, which offers Jewish themed books, music and programing to families around the globe.

JEWISHcolorado received a grant to expand PJ Library engagement in collaboration with its 22 partner agencies in the greater Denver metro area that serve children between the ages of 6 months and 8 years.

The winning initiatives emphasize building social connections among families as well as engaging them in Jewish life, programming or learning.

They range from creative holiday festivals, PJ Library stories in the park and neighborhood gatherings for families to enjoy PJ Library books and get to know one another.

“JEWISHcolorado is honored to receive this grant and thrilled to be part of the global PJ Library community reaching tens of thousands of families,” said Doug Seserman, president and CEO of JEWISHcolorado.

“PJ Library’s innovative strategy for engaging both interfaith and unaffiliated Jewish families is paramount in this community.”

 

The grant proposals were chosen through a competitive process open to local organizations implementing PJ Library across North America.

The 15 winners were selected from among 55 applicants after they were considered by both PJ Library staff and external reviewers.

“PJ Library’s impact goes well beyond the more than 144,000 books we send out each month,” said Judi Wisch, director of community engagement for PJ Library.

“We have worked closely with our local partners for years to help advance Jewish family engagement, and this is the first time we are able to add financial support to great initiatives to help ensure their success.”

These grants are the first stage in a five-year strategy to extend Jewish engagement in North America through the support of the newly formed PJ Library Alliance.

Partners in the alliance are the William Davidson Foundation; Jim Joseph Foundation; William and Audrey Farber Philanthropic Fund; Howard and Geraldine Polinger Family Foundation; Walter, Arnee, Sarah and Aaron Winshall; Susser Family Trust; and an anonymous partner.

Source: “PJ Library for Children Grows in Colorado,” Intermountain Jewish News, August 6, 2015

Ruderman Inclusion Summit

The Ruderman Family is pleased to invite the entire community to the inaugural Ruderman Inclusion Summit which will be held in Boston on November 1-2Ruderman-InclusionSummit_Logo, 2015 at the Seaport World Trade Center.

This convening will bring together all stakeholders in the disability and inclusion community in order to foster strategic advocacy and awareness, peer to peer learning, best practice, networking and more. The Ruderman Inclusion Summit will feature nationally recognized leaders in the field, speaking and engaging with attendees on the critical issues of education, housing, employment, community and religious life.

Registration is now open. Summit schedule, workshops, presentations, speakers, and additional details will be posted there in the coming weeks.

CASJE’s Brand New Website

featured_grantee_300x200CASJE, the Consortium for Applied Studies in Jewish Education, has rapidly evolved into a dynamic community of researchers, practitioners, and philanthropic leaders dedicated to improving the quality of knowledge to guide the work of Jewish Education.

CASJE’s new website—www.casje.org—is part of this exciting evolution.

Casje.org is an integral part of CASJE’s commitment to discovering, generating, and sharing useable knowledge about significant issues in Jewish education. Visit the site to learn about CASJE’s work, current areas of focus, and collaborative communities. Casje.org is now a hub for news and events about Jewish education in general — with a focus on applied research.

Over the next five years, CASJE will offer an environment for scholars—new and veteran alike—to think creatively about questions and topics that can help shape Jewish education. CASJE provides the structure to not only search for the answers, but to disseminate this critical learning to the entire field.

The purpose of CASJE is to connect Jewish education researchers, practitioners, and funders. In fields like law and medicine, research informs and improves practice. We believe that research in Jewish education can and should do the same, by better drawing on what we already know about Jewish education and being more thoughtful about what we might learn.

-Lee Shulman, Stanford University

The Jim Joseph Foundation has awarded three grants for CASJE totaling more than $1.7 million. Please see Chip Edelsberg’s guest blog about CASJE’s contributions to the field of Jewish education.