Writing in eJewish Philanthropy, Prof. Joshua D. Margolis (Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School) and Gali Cooks (President & CEO, Leading Edge) call for a transformational change to how we approach talent, a new commitment to investing more than ever in the sector's people, ultimately strengthening the entire Jewish communal ecosystem for generations to come.

The Jewish nonprofit sector needs a shift from viewing talent as a cost to talent as an investment. A cost is treated as a negative, something to be minimized; an investment is a positive, something with growth potential that can appreciate in value over time.

They note that the talent cost mindset is rooted deeply in the nonprofit sector, as noted perhaps most famously by Dan Pallotta in his acclaimed 2013 TED talk.

That framing can easily lead decision-makers and donors astray into becoming pennywise and pound-foolish… The mindset that seeks to minimize ‘overhead’ costs can lead to underinvestment in talent, ultimately undermining the charity’s effectiveness. After all, the Jewish nonprofit sector is a service industry. In a service industry, the people are the product.

Joshua Margolis & Gali Cooks. Do we treat talent like a cost (negative), or an investment (positive)?