Research and Evaluation on Educator Professional Development Initiatives

Educator professional development initiatives are an integral part of the Jim Joseph Foundation’s strategic philanthropy. Following an open RFP in 2017 to create more professional development opportunities for educators, the Foundation invested in ten new programs. Since that initial investment, the Foundation has commissioned extensive research and evaluation conducted by Rosov Consulting to learn about these specific educator training programs and to more deeply understand other programs across the Foundation’s professional development initiatives portfolio.

Stacie Cherner, Director of Learning and Evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation, and Alex Pomson, Principal and Managing Director at Rosov Consulting, shared key learnings in eJewish Philanthropy on designing and measuring high-quality educator training programs. On the Foundation’s blog, Kiva Rabinsky, Chief Program Officer at M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education, shared how learnings from the report influence how M² balances work and play in their design of professional development experiences. And, Robbie Gringras and Abi Dauber Sterne, both formerly of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Makom, shared how a new Israel education initiative came out of the PDI. 

Jim Joseph Foundation Professional Development Initiative

Taking Stock and Offering Thanks: Year 4 Learnings (full report) This report shows that the PDI programs fulfilled their core goals:

  • Shared Outcomes Survey data indicate that, overall, the programs helped participants become much more knowledge about and more accomplished in performing the professional tasks for which they are responsible, what we called “ways of thinking and doing.”
  • Clinical interview data indicate that these professional outcomes have been quite durable, although with the passage of time interviewees found it increasingly difficult to draw causal links between what they know and can do today and what they gained from their programs.
  • Survey data also show that, taken together, the programs have socialized participants into professional communities that the participants very much value. Again, interview data depict how important these communities have been, especially since the start of the pandemic, and how, in the words of one interviewee, “relationships have become partnerships.”
  • Finally, survey data reveal the degree to which those program participants who started out with less intensive Jewish backgrounds have had an opportunity to grow and feel more confident as Jewish educators.

A Picture of Learning Coming Together: Year 3 Learnings (full report) This report includes the following sections:

Case Studies on Peak Moments of Educator Professional Development Programs  

How Educator Professional Development Programs Pivoted During the Pandemic

Research Supported by CASJE on the Career Arc of Jewish Educators

 

How UpStart is Centering Social Entrepreneurship in Our New Strategic Plan

As a social entrepreneur support organization, how will we better define and measure our success and our direct and indirect impact? How can we inspire and incubate more social enterprises and/or nonprofits with more promising and robust earned revenue streams? How will we build diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) into our strategy, metrics, culture and operations as we grow?

These were just some of the questions we asked ourselves as we launched a new strategic planning process nearly a year ago. As our previous strategic plan came to a close, UpStart’s future was becoming clearer than ever before. At its heart, UpStart is a learning organization, and we always find it clarifying to reflect on the past to see how far we’ve come and how far we’re poised to go.

Looking back to look forward

More than five years ago, four organizations merged to create a one-stop shop to support the needs of the organizations and individuals driving Jewish social innovation and engagement. Under the UpStart umbrella, our vision has been to deliver a comprehensive, streamlined suite of high-quality services to those making change within North American Jewish communities and all those pursuing Jewish innovation.

At the center of UpStart’s model was an implicit mandate for growth. Our strategies were aimed at helping to solve all the problems — from helping communal leaders navigate resistance to change to getting early-stage ventures off the ground — not just the problems within our historic areas of expertise.

But as the merger itself moved further in the rear-view mirror — and the field of “Jewish entrepreneurship” continued to evolve — we recognized a need to evolve as well. UpStart needed to align and clarify the strategies that would allow us to stay agile and have the most impact. In short, we needed a new plan forward.

We knew that the way we created the new plan would be just as important as the end result. In keeping with our growing commitments to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice, we wanted to develop our plan with a collaborative, inclusive process that reflected input from all of our stakeholders: program and grantee alumni, funders, organizational partners and others.

The process wasn’t easy. The consultant we hired was unafraid to expose our blind spots and biases; conducting the interviews and meetings over Zoom with new staff created a steep learning curve; and asking the hard questions and making tough decisions required deep trust and careful communication.

Centering the work of social entrepreneurs

Now, after a nine-month process that engaged our staff, board and stakeholders, we’ve shared our plan publicly. Building on our past success and learning, the plan affirms some of what we knew and charts a bold path forward with the focus and urgency this moment demands.

This new plan crystalizes our central mandate: to put social entrepreneurs at the center of our work. From now on, everything we do will be in service of sourcing, seeding and supporting existing and emerging leaders and ventures focused on designing the future of Jewish life.

This strategy centers and elevates the greatest lever for change for the Jewish future — Jewish social entrepreneurship. We will do this by:

  • Sourcing and catalyzing support for high-impact Jewish social entrepreneurship
  • Redefining and amplifying the impact of our network
  • Measuring and telling a clear story of our impact and that of our network
  • Building an enabling environment for Jewish social entrepreneurship to thrive
  • Advancing experimentation with new models for the sector, including adapting revenue models and legal structures from the for-profit/social enterprise sector.

Just as we’ve clarified what strategies we’re elevating in the plan, we’ve also honed in on what work we will phase out and ultimately eliminate: consulting engagements and intrapreneur programming. By focusing more of our attention on what we do best, we can grant more attention, resources and funding to our network and adapt our work to better meet their needs.

Bittersweet transitions

For our team at UpStart, it wasn’t easy to arrive at a decision point that led to cutting certain programs and services. The decisions resulted in a reallocation of existing resources, sacrificing 10% of our current revenue and restructuring our organizational chart. As an organization built on helping others to be agile, innovative and impact-oriented, we knew that this was a moment for us to take our own advice.

Organizational growth done right can include minimizing or even eliminating certain areas of focus to instead put more resources into what the organization does best and yields the most impact. This was something that we, our board and other stakeholders had to digest and ultimately we’ve come to celebrate.

The new plan offers concrete ways to pursue this more focused strategy, and will serve as our strategic compass for the next five years. A compass, importantly, is not a roadmap. Part of what makes UpStart unique is our agility to engage entrepreneurs and support them in specific contexts and moments, including those that unexpectedly arise.

We are more nimble when we’re not spreading ourselves and our services too thin. By design, our emphasis on agility positions us to support the solutions to the big and urgent problems. The largest of those problems is what drives us every day: that too many people still opt out of Jewish life and are unable to find a community that reflects who they are or who they want to be.

Moving forward with a solid foundation

As we tackle these new challenges, we’re equipping our team with the infrastructure, resources and processes we need to execute. One key learning from the plan was the importance of strengthening team members’ sense of belonging. A great plan with an uninspired and disconnected team will never succeed.

Like others, UpStart faced challenges over the last two-plus years in this area. We need to cultivate a team environment able to withstand distance and different working styles. To deliver on our promise to our network, funders and partners, we must connect everyone on the team to each other and to our mission.

Part of our foundation will be frameworks that focus on metrics, evaluation and learning to support our whole team in measuring outcomes, telling the story of our network and influencing the trajectory of Jewish life. Nearly all of us in the field experienced the power of collaborations over the last two-plus years. Organizational leaders looked for opportunities to work together so more people could bring their expertise to the table.

As we move forward, UpStart will continue facilitating deeper collaborations and partnerships within and on behalf of our expanding network. Mutual collaboration between our network and the Jewish community’s institutions are essential to create a more just, vibrant and inclusive Jewish future.

This future can be, and must be, created now. There’s what I call a “patient urgency” reflected in the plan, while also being mindful that we need time, space and a solid foundation for intentional growth. This plan and the tactics within reflect the combination of radical impatience for impact and sensible patience for growth.

With this renewed clarity of purpose and urgency, we know that the ideas of more and better are intricately connected. The need to invest more resources in the social entrepreneurs who are changing Jewish life everyday — and the people who will follow in their footsteps — will yield a greater number and diversity of people participating in Jewish life and will enhance the enduring vitality of Jewish life for generations to come.

Aaron Katler is the CEO of UpStart.

originally published in eJewish Philanthropy.

Start by Asking: How One Funder Elevates Non-Grantmaking Support

As a funder supporting organizations that create and provide Jewish learning opportunities, the Jim Joseph Foundation is inherently in a position of power in the funder-grantee relationship. While we acknowledge this reality, we also try to minimize this “power dynamic” when possible. Talented, committed grantee-partners are vital to realizing our aspiration and, guided by a relational approach to grantmaking, we strive to offer them more than just grant support. This can mean offering technical support, supporting data gathering or other research efforts, or filling a void either in the field or in their organization specifically.

In fact, non-monetary grant assistance has been a staple of our successful grantmaking for decades. In the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) 2018 report, Strengthening Grantees: Foundation and Nonprofit Perspectives, researchers noted that 83% of foundation CEOs say that their staff provides direct assistance beyond the grant and 67% enlist a 3rd party consultant to provide that support. Even with those promising numbers, the report shares a stark disconnect between what foundation professionals are offering and what nonprofit CEOs say they actually need. According to the report:

Almost all foundation leaders say that their foundation: 

  • feels responsible for strengthening grantees;
  • cares about grantee organizations’ overall health; and
  • is aware of grantees’ needs.

In contrast, the majority of nonprofit CEOs say: 

  • their foundation funders feel no or little responsibility for strengthening their organization;
  • most foundation funders do not care about strengthening the overall health of their organization; and
  • most foundation funders do not ask about their organization’s needs beyond funding.

The report shared dichotomous perspectives about who makes decisions about consultancies, the nature of ancillary services provided, whether follow-up takes place to the interventions that are provided, and overall responsiveness to requests beyond the dollars granted. While some of this divide can be attributed to communications challenges, more can be attributed to succumbing to the power divide.

Undoubtedly, we have made some mistakes with our grantee-partners that are noted in this report. Operating from an office that in certain cases is thousands of miles away from these partners leaves plenty of room for error and assumption. We have discovered some of these through three different iterations of CEP’s Grantee Perception Report and recognize that there are grantee perspectives that remain un-shared due to the grantee-funder relationship.

Still, relational grantmaking is an attempt to ensure that knowledge-sharing and open communication are prioritized by both funder and grantee. This approach creates more meaningful and impactful investments. These last two pandemic years have shone an additional light on the disparities between the resources of the funders and the grantee-partners. They have also provided an opportunity to reflect and engage in new ways while many programs pivoted or halted, initially. During this time, we have heeded grantee-partners’ pleas for greater support in a few key non-grantmaking areas. This has included:

  • Developing and sharing a video series, Non-Profit Budgeting Best Practices: How Stories are Told and Partnerships are Strengthened Through Numbers in Spreadsheets. The series title captures the oft-overlooked role a budget can play in fostering a positive funder-grantee relationship. We do not offer a prescriptive methodology for how everyone should present their financial reports. Rather, the practices are intended to offer help in compiling budgets that articulate an organization’s priorities, ambitions, and story. In this regard, the descriptive videos cover areas and questions that grantee-partners have asked us during the Foundation’s years of grantmaking.
  • Providing support for scenario and contingency planning, offering evaluation and research support, and sharing a platform for grantee partners to have professional learning communities. The scenario and contingency planning included ongoing, one-on-one coaching with experts in addition to group learning sessions.
  • Revising our annual survey instruments to determine what other support is needed by our partners that may not have been solicited or voluntarily shared with us previously.

These examples build on some of the Foundation’s long-standing practices, in line with our belief in relational grantmaking. This includes:

Giving space for the grantee-partner to set meeting agendas

This includes opportunities to choose how often to share. Over the last two years in particular, some grantee-partners wanted to check-in with us more — to update us on developments, to think through a challenge together — while others wanted less frequent conversations. The “rate of communication” takes on greater importance when people’s time and energy are stretched thin. By asking how often grantee-partners wanted to connect with us and also by making those interactions as productive as possible, we could calibrate accordingly.

Showing vulnerability

We do not have all the answers, nor do we have to pretend that we do. Whether the grantmaking professional has been in the field for one year or 20, it is a fact that at this very moment, the person with the most information, context, and experience is the practitioner running the organization or specific program being funded. We have the benefit of regularly studying a broader picture than any singular organization can display, but we lack the understanding of the intricacies of every offering.

At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we aspire that Jewish youth, their families, and friends will lead lives filled with connection, meaning, and purpose. To achieve this, we must continue to ask questions of our funding and grantee partners alike: What knowledge and information is needed currently, what do you anticipate needing moving forward, and what has been most useful to your organization in the past? The above examples are just a few of many. We hear from grantee-partners about needs in evaluation, R&D, communication, and many other areas of technical and personnel-based assistance. The best way to learn more about these areas — and to identify others — is to start by asking.

Steven Green is Senior Director, Grants Management and Compliance for the Jim Joseph Foundation.

originally published by the Center for Effective Philanthropy

Don’t Just Look Back: Using Evaluation to Inform Future planning

In 2014, Rose Community Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation partnered to create the Denver and Boulder Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative, one of 10 community-based efforts across the country in the Teen Funder Collaborative (now housed at The Jewish Federations of North America). Our initiative, like others, was designed to cultivate new Jewish teen offerings, increase teen engagement and involve teens who come from diverse Jewish backgrounds.

Each initiative had a critical component in parallel to these external efforts: independent evaluation. Over the course of the initiative, our evaluator, Informing Change, provided us with findings, data and analyses showing progress toward our desirable outcomes. And, if we weren’t making progress, we gained an understanding of the reasons why. The final report, based on seven years of data collection and evaluation, is a valuable knowledge-base for professionals and institutions — both locally and nationally — seeking to engage Jewish teens and their families.

Beyond looking back at the initiative’s outcomes, we plan to utilize the data from this report to inform a variety of approaches moving forward — from considering potential investments in teen engagement, elevating the needs of Jewish-teen-serving professionals, cultivating collaboration and developing a cohesive community vision around teen programming. To that end, our organization has identified key takeaways where the collected data can meaningfully inform our future investments in the Jewish community.

For example, the teen programs themselves were described by stakeholders as high quality, responsive to teen interests and needs and effective in engaging teens from a variety of backgrounds. Yet, despite the quality of the programs, there remain opportunities for cultivating a more collaborative and sustainable Jewish teen ecosystem in Greater Denver. We plan to leverage this report to catalyze a shared community vision that prioritizes Jewish teens — not organizations — and elevates shared opportunities in which programs, communal professionals, parents and lay leaders all support them as they navigate emerging into young adulthood.  

Additionally, though Jewish-teen-serving professionals and group leaders are generally well-trained, we learned about gaps in staff talent development, retention and pipeline. We need to ensure that professionals see room for career advancement within their organizations, as teen-facing positions often are viewed as early career roles with high turnover rates. Training and professional development of program leaders will further the Initiative’s progress on the diversity and quality of Jewish teen programming. While professionals affiliated with national Jewish organizations have access to national training events and networks, local educational programs and training offerings are critical supports for professionals in smaller stand-alone organizations. Professional development also helps program leaders feel valued by their organization and by the broader Jewish community and contributes to longer tenure in their positions. Because of this, our organization is committed to supporting innovations and investments that attract and retain a talented crop of Jewish teen professionals.

Going forward, we also must develop strategies to ensure that the two Jewish communities involved in the Initiative, Denver and Boulder, continue to offer a mix of diverse and high-quality programs that appeal to teens. Maintaining this quality will require ongoing monitoring of the Jewish teen ecosystems. We need to find ways for each community to stay informed about available teen programs and opportunities, keep an eye on program quality, and increase awareness of parent and teen satisfaction with the existing programs. Providing low barriers to entry to Jewish teen programs is important in all communities, but especially so where there are smaller populations of Jewish youth or where Jewish families are geographically dispersed.

As a foundation serving the Greater Denver community, committed since 1995 to grantmaking in support of the region’s Jewish community, the Jewish Teen Initiative and subsequent evaluations provide us with valuable insights. We better understand how we’re doing our work, how we connect with grantees and partners, and the results of these efforts. Over the course of the Initiative, thousands of Greater Denver teens participated in immersive experiences, one-time events, in-school clubs and more.

We are ready to build on this success. By embracing learning as an organization-wide priority, Rose Community Foundation plans to make space to keep listening to our grantee partners, peer organizations, and others. We’ve asked grantees what they need — resources, training, technical assistance — to strengthen their capacity and evaluate their work in ways that nourish and sustain Jewish life in our community.

As our region and communities across the country consider future models and innovations for improving Jewish programming and increasing engagement, we hope the report and the data findings serve as a helpful resource. Through our grant making efforts in the Jewish community, we encourage a dynamic and inclusive Jewish ecosystem, which embraces myriad ways to be Jewish and builds enduring community infrastructure to sustain it. We know other foundations and grantee organizations around the county share this vision and approach. Thankfully, many learnings from the final report extend beyond the teen ecosystem and may apply to broader engagement efforts within the Jewish community. These learnings can help contribute to a roadmap for the future of Greater Denver’s Jewish teen programming and other communities around the country interested in creating and sustaining meaningful Jewish experiences.

Vanessa Bernier (she/her/hers) is program officer, Jewish life, at Rose Community Foundation.

originally posted in eJewish Philanthropy

Institute for Jewish Spirituality: Creating Thriving Communities With Rich Spiritual Lives

For more than 20 years, the Institute for Jewish Spirituality (IJS) has developed and taught Jewish spiritual practices to help individuals and communities experience greater awareness, purpose, and interconnection. This work takes on even greater importance today as young people encounter life’s unprecedented challenges and struggle with mental health. In this environment, IJS can be a vital source of support, engaging people through Jewish spiritual practices across the country, around the world, and online at any time of day.

In the past year, more than 10,000 people participated in IJS’s offerings—from online courses on Jewish mindfulness meditation, Tikkun Middot, and prayer as personal practice, to master teachers leading the daily sit, weekly Torah study, and online Yoga studio. IJS also offered specialized training for more than 300 JCC professionals and reached thousands more through its podcast, online retreats, and numerous other programs. These efforts are proven to have positive outcomes. 94 percent of participants in IJS programs say they are more emotionally resilient. And 87 percent of participants say that Jewish spiritual practice deepened their connection with their Jewishness.

At a time of anxiety and isolation for so many young people, this virtual fellowship enabled the students to connect with each other as writers, friends, and spiritual chavrutot (learning partners). Together, we built a remarkable community that spoke to the spiritual experience of writing, gaining a new understanding of the relationship between our bodies and our creative process. For Jewish writers in particular, this isn’t always an easy relationship.
– New Voices Editor-in-Chief Rena Yehuda Newman on the “Resilient Writers Fellowship, an eight-week cohort program from IJS and New Voices Magazine that brings together college-age writers in a virtual community to cultivate a Torah of creative, embodied Jewish spiritual practice. 

Integral to IJS’s broad reach is its work with clergy—more than 500 rabbis and cantors have engaged with IJS programs. They in turn engage more than 250,000 people. The Clergy Leadership Program (CLP), an 18-month fellowship experience, and Hevraya, which provides ongoing support for CLP alums help clergy reenergize and deepen their spiritual lives.

It’s essential that Jewish leaders provide our communities with offerings that are fully authentic, alive, and responsive to congregants’ needs as human beings in the world today. IJS helps us learn how to do this. What IJS has given me is invaluable—infusing my Jewish practice and my leadership with mindfulness, a deep connection to my body, and the understanding and language to draw others into contemplative practice. This matters because Jewish communal life must connect to our inner lives.
– Rabbi Rachel Timoner, a CLP graduate, an active participant in Hevraya, and a graduate of IJS’s Jewish Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Training Program, which she credits with enabling her to lead online meditations for her congregation.

Now, IJS is positioned to grow and create even more thriving multigenerational communities with rich spiritual lives. Building on its success and proven outcomes, and drawing on the deep well of Jewish texts, rituals, and traditions, over the next few years IJS will expand efforts to:

  1. Reach Young People. Through strategic partnerships with youth-serving organizations, IJS will help tens of thousands of young people develop greater emotional resilience and a deeper sense of belonging in Jewish life. 
  2. Develop New Leaders. While continuing to support the vital role of clergy in the spiritual lives of American Jews, IJS will launch cohort programs for activists, community leaders, and agency executives to deepen their own leadership and become champions of Jewish spiritual practice. 
  3. Become the Platform for Jewish Spirituality. IJS will power the development of a network of organizations, individuals, researchers, and funders to create research, develop media channels, host convenings, and train a new generation of teachers of Jewish spirituality.

https://player.vimeo.com/video/674449491?h=4f92272c70

Through this work, IJS aims to lead the Jewish community in making spiritual practice a vital part of meaningful Jewish life, increasing the resiliency and compassion of individuals and communities. 

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. Visit jewishspirituality.org to learn more. 

 

How Budgets Can Strengthen a Funder-Grantee Relationship

At the Jim Joseph Foundation, we aspire that Jewish youth, their families, and friends will lead lives filled with connection, meaning, and purpose. Talented, committed grantee-partners are vital to realizing this aspiration and, guided by a relational approach to grantmaking, we strive to offer them more than just grant support. This can be technical support, data gathering or other research efforts, or something else that fills a void either in the field or in their organization specifically. Today, we are responding to a need with a video series, Non-Profit Budgeting Best Practices: How Stories are Told and Partnerships are Strengthened Through Numbers in Spreadsheets.

The series title captures the oft-overlooked role a budget can play in fostering a positive funder-grantee relationship. To be clear, we do not offer a prescriptive methodology for how everyone should present their financial reports. Nor do we require a special budget format for every grant approved. The Jim Joseph Foundation employs a type of trust-based philanthropy that employs guidelines rather than red lines and gives the benefit of the doubt to our grantee-partners. They are the ones who actualize the initiatives the Foundation cares about. From a reporting perspective, we adjust our submission needs based on the amount requested (i.e. under $100k; $100k-$250k; $250k and up). We also only request formalized reporting annually since we have regular communications with grantee-partners at least once per quarter. This provides space to discuss a majority of the updates, successes, and challenges of the grant. 

With that in mind, the practices in these videos are intended to offer help in compiling budgets that articulate an organization’s priorities, ambitions, and story—while also helping organizations anticipate questions about financials from funders. It is our hope that these videos will provide a succinct illustration of what we have learned over the past fifteen years as best practices in the space. Organizations can select what makes sense for their needs. We offer what has worked for us and provide insight into why we think budgets prepared in this manner are effective. Even as we share these, we recognize that every situation has its own factors that inform the grant budget and application process. Over the last two years, for example, the Foundation took new steps to streamline a parallel application process through the Jewish Community Response and Impact Fund (JCRIF). The Foundation understood that some grantee-partners were facing unprecedented challenges caused by the pandemic and did not have time or resources for a normal grant application process. They also needed support quickly. In this instance and others, we heard from our partners and did our best to respond accordingly while also continuing to help them be the best versions of themselves. 

Based on questions we received from grantee-partners, the series is comprised of five sections that can either be watched collectively or as independent videos:

  • Part 1: Welcome to Nonprofit Budgeting Best Practices
  • Part 2: Best Practices of an Organizational Budget
  • Part 3: Best Practices of a Program Budget
  • Part 4: Understanding Annual Budget Reporting and Variances
  • Part 5: Understanding Cumulative Cash Reserves

As a funder supporting organizations that create and provide Jewish learning opportunities, the Jim Joseph Foundation inherently is in a position of power in the funder-grantee relationship. While we acknowledge this reality, we also try to minimize this “power dynamic” when possible. So, when we produced the series, we tried to do so with great care and intention. In this regard, the descriptive videos cover areas and questions that our grantee-partners have asked us during the Foundation’s years of grantmaking. To ensure that we were responding directly and clearly to their needs, our development process included time for grantee partner review and input.

It’s important to note that we also saw an opportunity to help grantee-partners better reflect the full costs of their work into proposals. Many experts in our field have addressed the challenge of the Overhead Myth—the misnomer that intrinsically the less an organization spends on administration, the more efficient it is. We believe for an organization to function effectively with an extended time horizon, it needs to share its real costs. This requires the grantee-partner to trust that the funder will act in the best interest of the grantee-partner. The funder also needs to demonstrate flexibility about the levels and percentages of those costs.

Non-monetary grant assistance has been a staple in thinking around successful grantmaking for decades. In the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) 2018 report, Strengthening Grantees: Foundation and Nonprofit Perspectives, researchers noted that 83% of foundation CEOs say that their staff provides direct assistance beyond the grant and 67% enlist a 3rd party consultant to provide that support.  Even with those promising numbers, the report shares a stark disconnect between what foundation professionals are offering and what nonprofit CEOs say they actually need. According to the report:

Almost all foundation leaders say that their foundation:

  • feels responsible for strengthening grantees;
  • cares about grantee organizations’ overall health; and
  • is aware of grantees’ needs.

In contrast, the majority of nonprofit CEOs say: 

  • their foundation funders feel no or little responsibility for strengthening their organization;
  • most foundation funders do not care about strengthening the overall health of their organization; and
  • most foundation funders do not ask about their organization’s needs beyond funding.

The report shared dichotomous perspectives about who makes decisions about consultancies, the nature of ancillary services provided, whether follow-up takes place to the interventions that are provided, and overall responsiveness to requests beyond the dollars granted. While some of this divide can be attributed to communications challenges, more can be attributed to succumbing to the power divide.

Undoubtedly, we have made some mistakes with our grantee-partners that are noted in this report. Operating from an office that in certain cases is thousands of miles away from these partners leaves plenty of room for error and assumption, and we recognize that there are grantee perspectives that remain un-shared due to the nature of the grantee-funder relationship.

Still, relational grantmaking is an attempt to ensure that knowledge-sharing and open communication are prioritized by both funder and grantee. This approach creates more meaningful and impactful investments. Grantee partners expressed a desire for more support in budgeting. We do our best to respond. In the same way that we engaged grantee partners in the process, we want to continue to ask questions of our funding and grantee partners alike: What knowledge and information are needed currently, what do you anticipate needing moving forward, and what has been most useful to your organization in the past? The video series is only one of many areas that we think could be addressed. We hear from grantee partners about needs in evaluation, R&D, communication, and many other areas of technical and personnel-based assistance. The best way to learn more about these areas—and to identify others—is to start by asking.

Steven Green is Senior Director of Grant Management and Compliance at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

originally published in Candid Learning for Funders

Lessons from the Pinnacle: Coordinated Innovation Shifts the Landscape of Jewish Teen Education & Engagement

Eight years after the first local initiative was launched as part of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, the Cross-Community Evaluation team explores in this final report what has been accomplished to date. The research team examines to what extent the Funder Collaborative’s goals were realized and the main educational lessons learned from this project. They employ a high-altitude view to search for patterns across the 10 participating communities and across the arc of multiple years. And they draw on findings already produced by local evaluators in each of the communities and on the insights gained by those evaluators, as gathered in their annual reports.

These insights have been further supplemented through structured questioning of the local evaluators by the Cross-Community Evaluation team. In this way, researchers construct a picture of the educational and engagement strategies employed, achievements reached, obstacles faced, and implications for future work in this field. Ultimately, this pinnacle report provides an opportunity to explore the extent to which philanthropic leadership and coordinated programmatic interventions can induce a largescale shift in how and for whom Jewish education and engagement is practiced.

The report covers insights in the following key areas related to strategic philanthropy, collaboration among and between funders and practitioners, and Jewish teen engagement:

  • Local Enterprises Meet Local Needs & Reflect Culture – Peer-to-Peer Learning Facilitates the Spread of Good Ideas
  • It’s All About the Teens – Shifting the Mindset of Jewish Growth and Learning
  • Development of Sustainable Models Takes Many Forms – Positive Change Tied to Structure and Innovation Strategies
  • A Common Cause: Professional Development for Teen Educators – Investing in Professionals is an Important Ingredient for Long-Term Change
  • (Re-)Setting the Communal Table – Building a Holistic Ecosystem Involves Teens, Parents, Educators and Stakeholders

Lessons from the Pinnacle: Coordinated Innovation Shifts the Landscape of Jewish Teen Education & Engagement, Rosov Consulting, December 2021

Looking Back at Seven Years of the Denver Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative: Key Outcomes & Lessons Learned

The Denver Boulder Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Initiative began in 2014 with a partnership between Rose Community Foundation and Jim Joseph Foundation. The Initiative was conceived in part in response to a research project on local Jewish teen engagement conducted in 2010 by Rose Community Foundation’s Jewish Life Committee and the Allied Jewish Federation (now JEWISHcolorado).

The Initiative began its first phase (2014–18) with three objectives and a commitment to encourage innovation in
Jewish teen programming. The Initiative’s original objectives were:

  1. Increase funding to existing innovators and new projects as a means to provide higher-quality experiences
    and achieve incremental growth in teen participation.
  2. Increase the number and quality of Jewish professionals and trained volunteers working with Jewish
    teens.
  3. Promote youth initiatives and youth-led ideas that engage teens and their peers in Jewish life.

The Denver Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative was one of the first of 10 initiatives across the US working collaboratively to create new Jewish teen programming and increase teen engagement. The Jewish Teen Funder Collaborative organized a group of national and local funders to study and explore pathways to greater Jewish teen engagement. Since 2014, each community working with the Collaborative has worked toward a common set of outcomes, expectations, and measures of success, with some additions and adaptations to address specific needs or interests of a sponsoring community. A national evaluation effort, referred to as the Cross-Community Evaluation (CCE), developed tools for this shared measurement and aggregates the data collected from the 10 communities’ evaluations to capture national-level trends and common learnings.

Over its seven years, the Jewish Teen Initiative has produced both positive outcomes for the region’s teens and an abundance of information and lessons learned that will help inform future investments in the local teen ecosystem. As our region and communities across the country consider future models and innovations for improving Jewish teen programming and increasing teen engagement, we hope this report will serve as a useful resource.
– Vanessa Bernier, Community Impact Officer – Jewish Life, Rose Community Foundation

Looking Back at Seven Years of the Denver Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative: Key Outcomes & Lessons Learned, October 2021, Informing Change

View Informing Change’s evaluations of Year 1 and Year 3 of the Denver Boulder Jewish Teen Initiative. View the Cross-Community Evaluation of the Jewish Teen Funder Collaborative.

 

 

 

Jewish Studio Project: Built for Times of Uncertainty

“I felt connected and at home. It was a massive relief—I have actually spent the years since smicha without a spiritual Jewish community that felt like my home, separate from anywhere I was serving as a leader. Jewish Studio Project spoke my spiritual language.”
– Participant in Jewish Studio Project’s Sunday Studio Immersive

Jewish Studio Project (JSP) believes that creativity is the best tool for exploring, adapting, and coming up with new ways to thrive in an ever-changing world. Since 2015, JSP has become a leading resource for creative learning and spiritual connection across the country. Through its immersive experiences, creative facilitator trainings, professional development partnerships and community programming, JSP has served over 15,000 participants and collaborated with over 100 organizations seeking creative approaches to Jewish engagement.

Student in Jewish Studio Project

“This course was even better than I expected and rather than a course that promotes art as just a “feel-good” or meditative activity, I felt really connected to my work at Hillel and in the Jewish world. Not only did this content give me student programming ideas, it also made me reflect on how I work.”
-Participant in JSP’s track at Hillel International’s virtual Dwell conference

Amid times of challenge and uncertainty, JSP’s collaborations with individuals, organizations, and communities across the country invite and inspire people to “make art about it.” Whether the “it” is  grief, bewilderment, fracture, or feelings of uncertainty, JSP provides sacred spaces in which new stories, prophetic imagination, and hope-filled possibilities can emerge. More than ever, individuals and organizations need tools and support to navigate the uncertainty of the moment and imagine a better future. In the midst of a pandemic, JSP digs deep into the wellspring of collective creativity to bring about profound shifts in the way people live, work and connect as a community and broader society.

These efforts are guided by the Jewish Studio Process, a unique methodology that combines creative practices from the field of art therapy with Jewish learning techniques and spiritual community building. For nearly six thousand years, our ancestors honored creativity as a sacred undertaking, interpreting and reinterpreting scripture not only so that the text might speak to the challenges and needs of their times, but itself as a spiritual practice to cultivating creative habits of mind. JSP combines this creative process inherited from Jewish traditions with the creative process of art-making from the field of art therapy to create a vital new pathway into Judaism, social change, and into each person’s own soul. Individuals and teams are empowered to activate their imagination and bring emotions and intuition into their engagement with Jewish life. The outcome is an ever-more resilient and resourced people, able to continually reimagine lives and recreate the future.

Student art project

“This program helped me to grapple with and release many of the pressures and difficulties I was experiencing during this last year. From Covid, housemates to racism and worldly horrors. This was a creative release and processing of emotions, difficulties and trauma. I loved the concepts, the writing and I really loved the reflections on our work.”
– Participant in JSP’s Creative Resilience Program, a three month immersive professional development cohort for young adult professionals in the Bay Area

 

Now in its seventh year, aligned with this year of shmita (of rest and release), JSP dove deep into an intensive strategic planning journey – “Immersing to Emerge Anew” – to chart JSP’s next chapter. JSP has a bold plan for the next three years that is “courageous, inspiring and achievable,” centered around four key focus areas: thought leadership, creative practice, network building, and R&D. As the organization begins this exciting new chapter, JSP is poised to engage far more people and inspire networks, helping them connect deep Jewish experiences with the power of creativity as a vital resource for social transformation.

The Jim Joseph Foundation is a supporter of Jewish Studio Project. Learn more at jewishstudioproject.org.

It’s Ok to Argue: Insights on Designing an Israel Education Professional Development Initiative

On any given educational project, it is not unusual to be challenged by deeper societal issues than the project directly aims to address. What is unusual is being given the opportunity to pivot to address these deeper issues as part of the same grant from a funder of the project. Yet this is exactly what we were enabled to do as we launched the Israel education 4HQ program, part of a three-year community of practice called the Professional Development Initiative (PDI) supported by the Jim Joseph Foundation.

The originally planned project was designed to empower Moishe House programmers to engage their communities in stretching conversations about Israel. Working with The Jewish Agency for Israel Makom’s cognitive and pedagogical toolbox, we began making progress toward our goals. All evaluation pointed towards a successful embrace of complexity and courageous programming. Yet, at the same time, we felt we were reaching a limiting factor—a deeper societal issue, unrelated to Israel specifically—that affected the outcomes of the program.

We heard and saw that many program participants were extremely uncomfortable in discussions that led to disagreement. In exploring further, it was clear that this dynamic was not limited to Israel. Moishe House is an environment that aims to provide inclusion and comfort to people looking for a sense of community and fellowship. As such, it seems that the costs of disagreement, and being socially judged for one’s opinion, are too risky. Folks were far more comfortable skirting around issues, reserving judgment, and happily sitting on numerous fences, for the sake of maintaining a sense of community.

While this made a lot of social sense, it also made for stilted educational engagement. We began to realize that adult education about Israel effectively lives in the argument. Without argument—passionate disagreement—Israel and its issues remain theoretical, detached, and even somewhat illicit.

Although not a specifically “Israel-related” issue, this social imperative to avoid disagreement on most issues was a powerful impediment to achieving our Israel education aims.

And then came COVID-19. As significant funds went unused, the Jim Joseph Foundation expanded the scope of the grant to enable us to pivot towards this broader issue: arguments.

The literature on arguments is both abundant and limited. Much has been written and implemented about debating, the disagreement into which one enters in order to correct the opinion of others. Even more wisdom has been gained in the field of “problem-solving,” or “conflict transformation,” where one develops skills in diffusing disputes and making creative decisions. It turns out that far less has been shared, however, about disagreement for the sake of learning, about argument for the sake of identity development.

It is into this vast and challenging space that we were able to stumble and begin to thrive. Not only were we able to pivot within the original project, strengthening the project itself, but we were also able to develop an entire new direction based on our “on the job” discovery.

In January we will publish—Stories for the Sake of Argument—a source book and a training manual for educational arguments about Israel. Together with the stories, we are now running many “argument circles” for educational organizations. Soon we also will embark on a U.S.-wide training program for 500 educators to “teach from the argument.” And a more detailed “Pedagogy of Argument” is being written, which should be ready for Pesach 2022.

Many invigorating questions remain: Are there any elements of Israel that should not be “open to argument?” What is the place for passion in a healthy argument, and how does one manage it? When is the developmentally appropriate age to begin teaching through argument? What kind of educational support can and should be offered to families who buy and work with the book?

We look forward to addressing them as we move forward.

Robbie Gringras, formerly the creative director for the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Makom, is a performer, writer, educator, and co-creator of For the Sake of Argument. Abi Dauber Sterne, the previous director of the Jewish Agency for Israel’s Makom, is an educational consultant and co-creator of For the Sake of Argument. Learn more at forthesakeofargument.org.

Read a previous blog about another program in the PDI by Kiva Rabinsky, Chief Program Officer at M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education.

Let’s Do More Together: The Benefits of Collaborative Research Projects

This summer CASJE released its study on the “Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators.” Almost immediately, Jewish leaders and practitioners began to dig into the findings and share initial insights on the data. These field-grounded perspectives, whether from those running educator training programs, in early childhood education, in part-time Jewish education, or other settings, offer an early glimpse into how this research can inform planning and investments in Jewish education and the Jewish education workforce.

Through the “Career Trajectories” study, our foundations sought to create usable knowledge accessible to all in the field. This knowledge can enable more people and organizations to strengthen the pipeline of Jewish educators and better support educators’ professional journeys. As representatives of the research’s funders, we are grateful to the leaders and organizations who have shared insights on the findings. We also are grateful to the many individuals and organizations, from within and outside of the Jewish world, who contributed their time and wisdom that shaped the research over many years. In fact, bringing this project to fruition was an exercise in collaboration. Three years ago CASJE convened a Problem Formulation Convening, a developmental conversation that brought together  practitioners, funders and researchers to ask critical questions related to the recruitment, retention and development of Jewish educators. We all recognized the need to more deeply understand what factors would help to professionalize the field and support educators’ success.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Stacie Cherner is director of learning and evaluation at the Jim Joseph Foundation. Menachem “Manny” Menchel is senior program officer, Jewish life at the William Davidson Foundation. To learn more and connect with them, email [email protected] and  [email protected]. Click here to read An Invitation to Action: Findings and Implications across the Career Trajectories of Jewish Educators Study

originally published in eJewish Philanthropy

Why It’s a Win for All: The Jewish Teen Funder Collaborative’s New Home at JFNA

In 2013, the Jim Joseph Foundation wanted to understand and address the perpetual problem of teens dropping out of Jewish life following b’nai mitzvah. The Foundation posed some big questions to itself and to researchers it commissioned to understand the challenge. How could the Jewish community engage more — and more diverse — post-b’nai mitzvah teens in Jewish experiences that add meaning and value to their lives? How could we strengthen connections to and among Jewish teens that give them a sense of belonging?

After uncovering some potential answers, the Foundation began working with 10 local and five national funders to create 10 teen initiatives in communities across the U.S. Together, these funders and initiatives formed the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative, with the common goal to develop and invest in local engagement opportunities to create high-quality, relevant and sustainable Jewish education and engagement experiences. Importantly, the early commitment from the Jim Joseph Foundation provided matching funds that local communities used to leverage for fundraising and/or allocating significant funding themselves.

In addition to sharing a common goal, over time the communities would also share learnings, benchmarks, frameworks and measures of success. To varying degrees they each experimented with new approaches to reach diverse new audiences. While each initiative had the autonomy to create initiatives suited for and reflective of their community, undoubtedly they had a larger collective impact than they could through individual action. The Funder Collaborative built a powerful national network with deep cross-community relationships, and found relevant new ways to serve Jewish teens, such as elevating wellness as foundational to achieving teen education and engagement outcomes.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sara Allen is executive director of the Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative and associate vice president, community and Jewish life at JFNA. Aaron Saxe is a senior program officer at the Jim Joseph Foundation.

originally posted in eJewish Philanthropy