Turning Challenges Into Progress
I've spent my career leading Jewish organizations through moments of growth, change, challenge, and opportunity.
Here are a few examples of work I've led throughout my career that illustrate the kind of challenges I can help organizations navigate today.
Financial Turnaround & Organizational Alignment
The Challenge
An organization faced a nearly $1 million deficit and needed to fundamentally rethink how its resources were being allocated while continuing to deliver on its mission.
The Work
I led a zero-based budgeting process that required us to examine the organization from the ground up: what we were doing, why we were doing it, what it cost, and what mattered most.
Working with staff and organizational leadership, we aligned spending with priorities, made difficult decisions, increased fundraising, and built greater accountability into the way the organization managed its resources.
The Impact
By creating a 3-year plan and reducing the deficit incrementally, the program was not negatively affected. At the end of 3 years, the balanced budget was achieved, with more deliberate spending and increased revenues from new revenue streams.
More importantly, the process created greater clarity about priorities and a stronger connection between mission, strategy, and resources.
Lay-Professional Collaboration
The Challenge
A successful food bank had grown significantly while remaining primarily volunteer-led. As demand increased, the organization needed greater staff involvement and operational structure without losing the community ownership that had made it successful
The Work
I helped the organization think through how volunteers and professionals could work together more effectively, increasing staff involvement and oversight while respecting the initiative's volunteer roots.
The work required balancing growth with culture, putting stronger organizational structures in place while keeping the mission and community at the center.
The Impact
The food bank expanded its reach by approximately 50% while moving toward a more sustainable model with greater staff capacity and oversight.
Program Evaluation
The Challenge
Programs, staff performance, and other organizational offerings were being evaluated based upon anecdotal feedback and general “vibes.”
The Work
I created Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the program offerings in order to determine whether success was achieved. Additionally, I established annual staff goals so future evaluations were clear on expectations based upon agreed upon metrics. Formal evaluation meetings were established following key events to assure that all necessary and appropriate lessons could be learned.
The Impact
Staff satisfaction and performance increased as organizational goals became more clear for all parties involved. Program success was determined by shared standards, which allowed for more streamlined responses to organizational projects. The motto, “clear is kind” spread around the office, representing the value that the more clear we can be about our expectations and assessment, the better it will be for all involved.
Youth Programming & Family Engagement
The Challenge
Youth program participation was decreasing as children and teens had more commitments over the weekend.
The Work
I reoriented the youth program to focus its programming on days where parents needed somewhere for their children to be including teacher work days and Jewish holidays. These programs would be offered for the full day to allow parents who needed to go to work to have their children cared for throughout the day.
The Impact
By offering holiday inspired programming on the actual holiday days, we provided parents with childcare on days where they required it and also increased congregational participation on those holidays.
Not only did children’s participation increase, but parents also were attending holiday services with greater frequency as well.