• Home
  • About
    • About
    • Policies
  • Submissions
    • Op-eds
    • News / Announcements
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

eJewish Philanthropy

Your Jewish Philanthropy Resource

  • News Bits
  • Jewish Education
  • Readers Forum
  • Research
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / The American Jewish Scene / Four Organizations Merge to Lead Next Stage of Jewish Innovation

Four Organizations Merge to Lead Next Stage of Jewish Innovation

November 10, 2016 By eJP

UpStart, Bikkurim, Joshua Venture Group, and U.S. based–programs of PresenTense
consolidate to be central resource for Jewish Innovation

The Collaboratory, May 2016
The Collaboratory, May 2016

UpStart, Bikkurim, and Joshua Venture Group are consolidating into a single organization – UpStart – to serve as the central resource for Jewish innovation. The newly envisioned UpStart will also include the current U.S.-based programs of PresenTense. The four organizations currently provide the Jewish community’s leading support services for innovators and organizations looking to tackle today’s Jewish challenges with new ways of thinking, and to create meaningful access points to Jewish life. Through this consolidation, UpStart will leverage the best of each organization to house all innovation resources under one roof – delivering a comprehensive, streamlined suite of high-quality services to entrepreneurs, intrapreneurs, and communities pursuing Jewish innovation.

“Jewish life has evolved in incredibly positive ways due in part to the success of our organizations, our program alumni, and our visionary partners,” says Aaron Katler, CEO of the current and future UpStart. “We come together now out of a shared commitment to build on that success and to expand our capacity to serve an evolving field. Our vision is to provide innovators and organizations at nearly every stage with the services and resources they need to succeed.”

The future Upstart will work to create a more robust platform to empower innovators and institutions to take risks, to develop creative engagement strategies, and to maximize the potential of their community-changing ideas. Current plans for enhancing the field, include:

  • Expansion of programs to nurture innovation at every stage of organizational life;
  • Development of a streamlined Jewish innovation toolkit and methodology;
  • Investment in field-based research and evaluation of impact;
  • Leveraging the power of a larger, more diverse innovation network; and
  • Connecting a growing network of independent cities through regional hubs covering North America.

The Jewish innovation sector is more mature and more sophisticated than it was 18 years ago,” says Aliza Mazor of Bikkurim. “The new UpStart combines our institutional knowledge and success to deliver more sophisticated, streamlined, relevant services for the community’s needs. As we increase the capacity for innovation through this consolidation, the broader Jewish community and all kinds of organizations will benefit – including people of different engagement levels, backgrounds, and ages.”

Starting four years ago, the organizations built strong relationships and trust working together on The Collaboratory, the largest gathering of Jewish innovators in the country. With support from Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, the executive directors of the organizations gathered for a retreat two years ago to learn more about each other’s programs and to share observations of this changing field. This conversation revealed aligned goals, along with an opportunity for deeper collaboration. Together, with funding from several forward-looking foundations, the organizations retained an outside consulting firm that works heavily with nonprofits, to conduct a scan of the  Jewish innovation field and ultimately to facilitate consideration of the consolidation process.

“It’s rare that organizations in a market niche choose to work together with increasing collaboration, and we are so proud of what we’ve created by leveraging our shared resources to serve the greater community,” says Naomi Korb Weiss, CEO of PresenTense Group.

“The consolidation is a very positive development for the entire Jewish community,” says Jon Woocher, Senior Fellow at Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, which supported the retreat with the organizations. “These organizations did their homework to determine the highest-impact opportunities for investing in Jewish innovation. As one organization, they can develop more coordinated and collaborative activities, while at the same time resourcing more programs, organizations, and leaders. This is a way to refresh, in a thoughtful and strategic way, what it means to foster Jewish innovation.”

During the transition period, each organization will continue to operate its own programs and support the cohorts that are currently underway. The future UpStart Board of Directors will be comprised of representatives from each organization. Bikkurim’s Mazor and Joshua Venture Group’s Lisa Lepson will remain in leadership roles at the future Upstart, with other current staff in appropriate roles as well. PresenTense’s global operations, including its current work in Israel and future initiatives in North America, will continue separately in order to advance the next stage of its global mission under the PresenTense name.

“Together, our organizations have more than 40 years of experience guiding this field, supporting passionate and creative leaders, and developing best practices that help Jewish communities engage people,” adds Lisa Lepson of Joshua Venture Group. “Because we all came into this consolidation process of our own volition, there is a strong sense of camaraderie and a unified vision. Now we will grow together to support new experiments, develop our community’s most promising leaders, and design new types of engagement that will define the next era of Jewish innovation.”

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: The American Jewish Scene Tagged With: Bikkurim, Innovation, Joshua Venture Group, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, PresenTense, UpStart

Click here to Email This Post Email This Post to friends or colleagues!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Elana Frank says

    November 10, 2016 at 6:15 pm

    Wow–Love it.

  2. Abby Levine says

    November 10, 2016 at 7:25 pm

    mazel tov! looking forward to the next stage of Jewish innovation!

  3. Caroline Kelly says

    November 10, 2016 at 10:03 pm

    This move is truly “walking the talk”. It is a great thing to see groups that genuinely do try to combine resources, share best practices, leverage the skills of others and seek to work efficiently. I wish them all the best in this decision.

Primary Sidebar

Join The Conversation

What's the best way to follow important issues affecting the Jewish philanthropic world? Our Daily Update keeps you on top of the latest news, trends and opinions shaping the landscape, providing an invaluable source for inspiration and learning.
Sign Up Now
For Email Marketing you can trust.

Continue The Conversation

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Recent Comments

  • Marty Kander on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Esther Shapiro on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Judy Aron on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Jeremy Broekman on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Cindy Chazan on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment

Most Popular Recent Posts

  • BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Words to Avoid – 2019 Edition
  • Being Heard: What We Owe Jewish Community Professionals
  • Redefining Jewish Education: Federations’ Goals for a New Century
  • Caregiving – The Big Issue No One is Talking About

Categories

Archives

Footer

What We Do

eJewish Philanthropy highlights news, resources and thought pieces on issues facing our Jewish philanthropic world in order to create dialogue and advance the conversation. Learn more.

Top 40 Philanthropy Blogs and Websites to Follow in 2019

Copyright © 2019 · eJewish Philanthropy · All Rights Reserved