Alternative talent models for infusing Jewish nonprofits with enhanced skill sets

How at-cost centers of excellence and career switching fellowships can increase the diversity of valuable skills at Jewish nonprofits

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As I’ve written about in previous articles, Jewish organizations face the acute challenge of adapting business models that have been upended by the macro forces of technology, assimilation, and the proliferation of consumer choice. Many institutions such as synagogues, day schools, hebrew schools, youth movements, and federations have been challenged by trends that have shifted the way their participants want to interact with them. As a result, these organizations have faced sustainability headwinds that require them to effectively re-invent themselves to adapt. Adaptation requires new skills and competencies some of which borrow from diverse industries and backgrounds.

Today the solutions we have to bridge the talent gap are an impressive set of training programs for Jewish professionals. From Wexner to Schusterman to M2 to Mandel (and more) there are many organizations doing a tremendous job attempting to fill these gaps. These programs exist to evolve the skills and leadership capacities of leaders, many of whom have served non-profit organizations for most of their careers.

Without diminishing the ongoing work to develop current leaders, our institutions may benefit by finding ways to access talent with a more diverse set of skills and experiences. Non Jewish career paths spike in areas that have not traditionally been critical or even traditionally explored at all by non profit professionals. Example competency areas include analytics, first principle strategic thinking, web experiences, consumer research, leveraging technology tools (including AI), and business development / partnerships. While these disciplines have not traditionally had a significant place in Jewish organizations, given shifts in consumer preferences it may be worth building these competencies to help our institutions evolve.

The hard part of this challenge is figuring out how to incentivize people from diverse backgrounds to consider spending a considerable percent of their time focusing on Jewish problems. This article explores 2 practical opportunities.

Opportunity 1: At-cost centers of excellence

The challenge

There are a set of common needs that exist in many Jewish institutions that are typically very challenging to staff internally. Today organizations typically seek out consultants to help them work through these challenges. Many times the hiring organizations run a haphazard search process, not knowing exactly what they are hiring for or where to find them. Additionally, most of these consultants or firms charge a sizable markup which carries a steep cost. As a result, our community ends up over spending on for-profit consultants that often don’t have sufficient Jewish context. Here are a few specific examples of where this happens.

Online marketing

In a world of diminished demand for many segments of Jewish life, many Jewish organizations believe that online marketing is a viable method of building their constituent base. The challenge is that the world of online marketing is vast and it’s hard to discern what outcome measures to pay attention to let alone know how to navigate where and how an organization should be marketing themselves. On the firm side, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of hire-able for-profit firms who serve these types of needs. Many of them have never worked with a Jewish organization and have a lack of context on their goals and customers. They don’t understand the challenge of marketing to a narrow demographic and typically deploy a playbook that is less relevant for Jewish organizations.

Website experiences and design

An extremely broad use case for Jewish organizations is the desire to build out a web presence. There are a wide variety of off the shelf tools that different types of Jewish organizations can use to build out their websites, but the truth is, defining the right site hierarchy, simplifying web flows, and writing copy that captures an organization’s brand is a nuanced skill that requires expertise.

Partnerships / Mergers

The diminishing scale of Jewish institutions typically amounts to various forms of sustainability and talent challenges. JCCs, day schools, and synagogues often suffer from a challenging economic outlook, which makes them think about how they can join up with other purpose minded Jewish institutions to leverage their collective scale. There are a collection of independent consultants and firms that help nonprofits navigate partnerships. Those firms or individual consultants are typically for profit institutions who spend their time focused on a wide variety of mainly non Jewish clients and don’t understand the intricacies of Jewish ecosystems.

Potential solution: The at-cost consultancy

If Jewish organizations face these common problems and waste time and money to find solutions, there exists an opportunity to support them by building specialized consultancies or centers of excellence that operate at cost.

National and vertical specific umbrella associations occasionally build out these competencies internally, but these organizations face the same hiring challenges described above pulling from a limited pool of talent. If they were able to partner with an entrepreneurial founder they could philanthropically support an organization designed to hire alternative talent at an appropriate compensation level.

The best example of a firm with a limited profit motive, Jewish context, and a purpose driven mindset toward helping Jewish organizations is Rosov Consulting. Rosov built their business the hard way without the philanthropic support of an umbrella organization, but the end service they provide is invaluable to the Jewish community. They are a research firm that has deep expertise in Jewish problems and that, in my experience, offers prices that are at a steep discount relative to going out into the open market to look at non-Jewish firms. Aside from expertise and cost, they also save Jewish organizations time, since they are often the obvious choice for Jewish research needs.

While Rosov is already serving research needs quite well, how might the Jewish world promote the creation of “other Rosovs” in additional disciplines? Taking the example of online marketing above, perhaps an organization like JFNA could put their support behind 1-2 firms whose mission is to provide these types of services to Jewish organizations. This new 501c3 could stipulate their focus on Jewish organizations and seek to raise philanthropy for the sole purpose of hiring the best and brightest experts in this field and then charge Jewish orgs at or below cost rates for their services. This would limit the expense for dozens if not hundreds of Jewish non profits, and maximize the risk that the outputs are significantly above what they are able to achieve today.

Opportunity 2: A fellowship for career switchers

The challenge

There exists a cohort of talented individuals from diverse backgrounds who deeply want to make an impact in the Jewish community, but don’t know where to get started. They typically end up fulfilling critical lay leader roles on boards and as volunteers, but unless they are a board chair they ultimately end up spending 95%+ of their professional time focused on their non-Jewish day job. There doesn’t really exist a way for them to explore Jewish professions in a way that mitigates their short and long term compensation risk, as well as the risk that they won’t like it and need to pivot back. Some of these people periodically find themselves at career transitions or nearing retirement where there exists an opportunity to present a viable Jewish alternative. 

Potential solution: Career-bridging fellowships

What if a philanthropic foundation or federation sponsored fellowships that promoted career switching? 

A fellowship program could bridge the gap between Jewish nonprofits and professionals from various fields, such as business, technology, and healthcare. The fellowship could target professionals at career crossroads, either on the cusp of retirement or between jobs, who are open to experimentation and have a desire to make a meaningful impact in the Jewish nonprofit sector. By “productizing” these jobs they could effectively market the option for career switching. By calling this out as a fellowship they could create a compensation package that is out of band for most Jewish non profits, providing the risk mitigation to support career experimentation.

The fellowship could be structured to maximize the chances a match is made between a tough problem and a “fellow” with a unique set of skills. It could create a matching process where fellows could be paired with organizations based on skills, interests, and the needs of the nonprofits. On the supply side organizations could apply and a steering committee could assess the richness and uniqueness of the role. On the demand side the steering committee could review applications to make sure the candidate fits the criteria of a career switcher.

If successful these fellowships could allow fellows to explore the world of Jewish non profits and inspire them to consider career switching longer term. The fellowship would create the marketing to entice them, and split the compensation with the hiring organization to bridge the gap for the career switcher.

Conclusion

Alternative talent can be a catalyst for new ideas and pathways for our institutions. Our communities need to continue to evolve their existing fellowship and training programs for Jewish professionals, while pursuing new ways of attracting alternative skill sets from a more diverse range of fields. Without an evolution of talent macro forces may continue to outpace our community’s ability to adapt. It’s within our power to try and stimulate the demand for more qualified professionals to enter into the Jewish world.

Thanks for reading my article. I’m eager to get your reaction or feedback if you’re willing to comment. Alternatively, you can email me at asussm@gmail.com.