Leading Edge

Excellence in Jewish Leadership

Leadership Starts with You

Why are great leaders for Jewish organizations so hard to find? Opinions vary. Some think we don’t do a good enough job preparing the next generation of leaders to take the helm. Others think the culture of traditional Jewish organizations is not attractive to top talent. Both mindsets are right.

To ensure the institutions at the heart of the Jewish community will be around to support and nurture generations to come, we need to invest more in building a talent pipeline and developing organizations to make sure they are great places to work.

This is the call of Leading Edge.

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LEADING EDGE RELEASE: A guide for onboarding new staff!

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What We Do

The vast majority of Jewish nonprofits—75% to 90% by some estimates—will need to hire new senior leaders in the next 5-7 years. The question is: where is the talent to fill those roles?

For a number of reasons, finding the right leaders to move immediately into these openings is already proving difficult.

Leading Edge—originally known as the Jewish Leadership Pipelines Alliance—addresses the root causes that prevent Jewish nonprofits from having the outstanding leaders they need.

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In 2014, we released an extensive report that explored the underlying issues and the actions needed for strengthening the pool of potential leaders for senior positions in the field.

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Leading Edge Programs

Our flagship programs focus on both the immediate and long-term leadership and talent questions facing our sector:

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Leading places
to work

Aimed at helping create great workplace cultures that recruit, retain and support excellent people who are empowered to do their best work.
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Board & Staff

Leading Edge is an unprecedented partnership between Jewish foundations and federations to build a robust talent pipeline for Jewish organizations.


B. Elka Abrahamson – President,
The Wexner Foundation

Robert Bank – President & CEO,
American Jewish World Service

Sandy Cardin – President,
Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation

Phyllis Cook – Managing Director,
Helen Diller Family Foundation

Barry Finestone – President & CEO,
Jim Joseph Foundation (ex-officio)

Joe Kanfer – Founding Director,
Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah

Scott Kaufman – CEO,
Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit

Marty Linsky – Faculty,
Harvard Kennedy School

Rachel Garbow Monroe – President & CEO,
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
(ex-officio)

Kimberly Miller Rubenfeld – Vice President,
Circle of Service Foundation

David Shapira – President,
David S. and Karen A. Shapira Foundation

Julie Sandorf – President,
Charles H. Revson Foundation

Jacob Solomon – President & CEO,
Greater Miami Jewish Federation

Jeff Solomon – Senior Adviser,
Chasbro Investments

Andres Spokoiny – President & CEO,
Jewish Funders Network


Mordy Walfish | Deputy Director | Contact
Amy Born | Senior Strategist for Organizational Development | Contact
Alena Gomulina | Program Director | Contact
Marisa Diehl | Operations Associate | Contact
Ted Farber and Dena Schoenfeld, TBF Consulting | Consultants on CEO Onboarding Program


Gali CookGali Cooks, Executive Director
"Our work is just beginning. We're eager to invite you into the conversation."
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“At the most fundamental level, this work is about the future of Jewish nonprofits across North America and the contribution we hope to make collectively in ensuring our professionals, especially those leading the way, are the most dedicated, mission-committed, and highly-trained professionals they can be."

—Rachel Garbow Monroe,
President & CEO, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation

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LAY LEADERSHIP COMMISSION

Engaging the Philanthropic Community in Sector Building

Some donors question the idea of investing in leadership development and organizational capacity building. We know investing in people and nurturing talent at all levels is key to ensuring that organizations have what it takes to run strong programs.

Our Lay Leadership Commission initiative engages the philanthropic community in learning about the leadership problem facing the Jewish nonprofit sector, understanding best practices from proven models and experts in the field, and developing recommendations they and their philanthropic peers can apply in their grant-making to ensure a vibrant and solvent Jewish nonprofit sector.

LEADING PLACES TO WORK

Supporting Nonprofits to Reflect and Grow

Traditional Jewish organizations are struggling to attract and retain new talent. Some have steep hierarchies and bureaucratic cultures, little autonomy for junior and mid-level staff to take risks and feel ownership over their work, limited career advancement, and low salary levels compared to jobs outside the sector. Many rising professionals are willing to take on challenging roles, but not in organizations with rigid cultures that lack collaboration, innovation and autonomy. The most visionary leaders strive for connectivity, open communication, and collaboration in both life and work.

Leading Edge knows that organizations are the sum of their people, and like people, they must constantly reflect on their cultures in order to be their best selves. We believe organizational growth is a practice, not a destination.

Our Leading Places to Work program has established five criteria in the Jewish nonprofit sector that are the key ingredients to a great workplace, and we are developing a method for ranking organizations based on these criteria.

As a baseline to understand what is and is not working, we have developed an employee satisfaction survey in partnership with DC-based Hay Group. We are also creating a process with measurable benchmarks for helping organizations move through their growing edges in each key area.

The survey is set to launch with a pilot batch of organizations this winter.

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