Strategy

The Foundation's strategic philanthropy is guided by its Road Map. We invite you to click here for a downloadable version that includes the full commentary in its original layout (inspired by a page of Talmud). Or review the interactive version below by rolling over the purple text to reveal the commentary.

Road Map

Strategic Priorities

Our logic models—one for each strategic priority found in the Road Map—offer a practical look at the relationship between activities and anticipated results. They specify which activities lead to desired outputs and outcomes. The short-term outcomes in the logic models connect to the long-term outcomes in the Road Map. These are works in progress that we will revise in the coming years as our strategies develop.

To help you learn more about our grantmaking strategies, we share the different types of grants within each strategic priority.

Exploring the Road Map Further

In some areas, our strategy remains unchanged:

  • The Foundation’s mission—to foster compelling, effective Jewish learning experiences for young Jews—is as laser-focused as before.
  • We define learning broadly—classroom, experiential, at home, outdoors, and beyond. This includes learning about Jewish wisdom, values, practices, culture, traditions and history. We believe that Israel education is an essential piece of Jewish education.
  • We focus on relationships and, when needed, multi-year investments that provide support for capacity building.
  • We understand the value of, and invest in, evaluation to enable data-informed decision-making.

In some areas, our strategy has evolved:

  • The Why of Jewish Learning: Many people engage in Jewish experiences seeking inspiration to live a better life and to make positive contributions to their communities and the world. Jewish learning can be a path to connection, meaning, and purpose.
  • Our Evolving Audience: Exploring connection, meaning, and purpose is an exercise many young Jews want to do alongside others in their lives (their parents, partners, roommates), some of whom are Jewish and some of whom are not. We encourage grantee-partners to consider their audience to be young Jews and their families and friends.
  • Inflection Points as Catalysts for Learning: On one’s journey through life, there are key inflection points along the way—passage to adulthood, having children, moments of seeking personal growth, moments of questioning, and more—where Jewish learning can play an especially relevant and helpful role.
  • Embracing Our Diverse Jewish Community: Jewish community and life is diverse and is comprised of people and people not-yet-engaged who represent a spectrum of backgrounds, races, beliefs, and other defining traits. Jewish learning experiences and the Jewish community will be richer when our leaders, educators, and participants better reflect the full diversity of today’s Jewish population.
  • Keeping Up with a Changing World: The modern world changes quickly; the Foundation is unafraid to take risks, to be bold, and to experiment. We are intent on embracing this approach and in supporting others to do so as well.
  • Our New Strategic Priority on R&D: This new strategic priority is about catalyzing culture change in the Jewish education world towards a mindset of greater experimentation. We chose this title carefully, deciding not to use the word “innovation” in naming this strategy. We are interested in exploring R&D as the engine that drives innovation.