by Scott Brown After 30 years as a Jewish professional, I now know the secret weapon for the success of Jewish organizations. It is not money, vision nor new technology. What is the secret weapon for current and future success? It is the investment in and retention of quality #2 professionals to assist in leading our organizations. With the right person in place at the right organization with the right chemistry, that organization will thrive and its top professional will excel. There will be an immediate talent resource for the future. This topic is hardly ever written about or discussed in journals or at Jewish professional conferences. Yet, it may be the single-best investment strategy we can follow. To prove it, simply identify the highest performing Jewish organizations, and I believe … Continue Reading

by Robert I. Evans and Avrum D. Lapin Although available for at least several decades, Donor Advised Funds (DAF) are generally considered a contemporary giving methodology for many philanthropically-focused donors today. As we approach year-end giving we wondered if Jewish donors were adequately taking advantage of the option. A survey of several organizations featuring DAF’s suggests that 2011 will be another record year for creating new DAF’s and where additional assets are contributed into existing DAF’s. Attracting some attention recently from cynics as well as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) because of the belief that some people are using DAF’s as a personal bank account where they receive charitable tax deductions but are not especially philanthropically active, DAF’s are … Continue Reading

Recently, in a meeting with a colleague a question came up about the process of engaging leadership and finding the most appropriate person to lead a nonprofit organization. Every nonprofit organization goes through a process every two to five years of selecting a new volunteer leader who serves as president or chair of the board of directors. The official name of the position depends on the culture of the organization as stipulated in the nonprofit’s by-laws. In general, the person in this role, the person is the volunteer “head” of the organization and is responsible for chairing the meetings of the board of directors and officially represents the organization in public events. The chair of the board leads the process of establishing policies and is responsible for the fiscal accountability … Continue Reading

A fascinating story ran in the Israeli newspapers last week about a couple named Kurt and Julia Nassau who left a bequest of $700,000 to the Israel Symphony Orchestra. The only problem is there is no such orchestra in Israel. There is the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and there is an Israel Symphony Orchestra Rishon LeZion, but there is no Israel Symphony Orchestra! The issue is now before the New Jersey Supreme Court, which will decide what to do with the bequest. Friends of the deceased couple surmise that the Nassau’s most likely intended the money to go to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Israel’s leading symphony, and not the much lesser-known Rishon LeZion orchestra, and that they merely made a mistake with the name when drafting their will. On the other hand, the people in Rishon … Continue Reading

Just when you thought things were going so well, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) suddenly steps down. Now what? No one from either the board of directors or the professional staff saw this coming. Everyone figured that at some point, most likely after assuming the lead role as head of the organization, the CEO would eventually step down, but so suddenly? And so soon? When this happens, it’s important to take a few steps back and ask some Big Questions, such as: What does an organization do when faced with this situation? Who breaks the news to the board of directors, the staff and the community? How does the board organize itself to move forward? Who assumes executive responsibility for the organization after the CEO relinquishes responsibility? What becomes the focus of activity in the … Continue Reading

Nonprofit agencies are often stretched to the limit. It’s understandable, too, since nonprofit work is very demanding while resources are often scarce. As a result, something has to give and unfortunately, it is usually the one thing organizations need the most: the constant give and take between exploring, studying and developing a response to identified community concerns while keeping tabs on what has to be accomplished and whether there are enough staff and resources in place to get the job done. A possible approach to an agency feeling stretched beyond its means during these kinds of planning processes is to reach out to people who are not members of the board of directors or the professional staff. It means opening up the exploration of issues to a set of fresh eyes by inviting people who … Continue Reading

by Deborah Kaplan Polivy, Ph.D. Why don’t we use the correct language when speaking about endowment building? Why don’t we say building an endowment to ensure ongoing resources for our Jewish communities and organizations? We often use the terms “planned giving and/or “legacy giving” when what we really mean are contributions that will be placed into an endowment fund, either currently or at death, the distributions from which will be made according to some Board or Finance Committee spending formula. Planned Giving is a term that has been adopted almost universally when in reality it is a tool for making an endowment gift. If Legacy Giving is leaving something permanently behind in memorial or in honor, then it can pertain to a capital or endowment gift. (I just passed the entrance to … Continue Reading

In the nonprofit world, change is inevitable. No matter the nature of the change - from relocating offices to re-conceiving the organization’s purpose; from hiring new staff and bringing on new board members to shifting funding patterns - every instance of change leads an organization into a transitional phase. You might say that when it comes to the words “change” and “transition” it is all a matter of semantics. I beg to differ. I want to stress the difference between the “changes” themselves and the process by which an organization seizes change as an opportunity to really experience transition. For example, a new chief executive officer (CEO) is hired to take over the administration of the organization. This is a change in the professional leadership of the organization but … Continue Reading