Strategic Planning - Corporate versus Non-Profit

On November 19, 2012, the AJC Board met again to ratify the previously submitted strategic plan. Having just gone through this effort at my workplace in a corporate setting, where a three-years plan was a heroic effort with significant political muscle flexing from all parties involved and ripple-effect to everything the company does, I was ready to sit back and enjoy a lively debate at the non-profit AJC.

I was somewhat disappointed with this expectation. Most of the questions during the meeting were tactical in their nature (e.g., How are we going to increase young membership?, or How are we going to improve our fundraising record?, etc.), and while they are key issues to discuss, very few strategic insights related to long-term operation and budgetary guidance was included in the final plan that was unanimously approved by the AJC's board.

The lack of a cathartic experience was probably due to the difference between for-profit and not-for-profit focus of governance. Both plans at my company and at AJC included structural changes to their leadership and governance organizations, they differed on their specificity on how they answered the "what's next?" question. A publicly traded company undertaking strategic planning has to primarily allocate its budget to the main areas of their operation and set up metrics that monitor the efficiency and effectiveness of the performance as it relates to the plan. This non-profit planning process was more geared towards understanding where the biggest challenges and opportunities are, using the SWOT analysis technique. The outcome of that self-analysis was than translated into changing their working committee structure. This included the creation of an executive leadership committee that includes the President (ex-officio) and Director as well as all committee leads. However, because AJC has minimal freedom to their yearly budget allocation, they did not tie these initiatives to any financial metrics.

The take away from this experience for me was that corporations and non-profits have very different strategic planning and leadership models. While slicing the dollar-cake dominates the prior, an almost Freudian self-reflection is in the focus of the latter. As my synagogue is gearing up to have leadership transition and strategic planning for the future, this lesson comes handy determining what should be on our agenda.

Arab Spring or Islam Winter? - Andy David @AJC Board Meeting (Oct/22/2012)

Mid-day board meetings attract a different crowd than evening ones, so I heard from the Jonathan Dove, Director of Development of AJC SF. There must be truth to the statement, as I have seen some new -mostly from the sixty and above generations- faces when attended the noon lecture by Andy David, the newly appointed Consul General of Israel of the West Coast of the United States. His entrance to the room was rather subtle without demanding a sense of respect or urgency, as one may have expected from other political or academic figures. In fact, that perception of being just another guy of the room made the young, Romanian-born, dentist by trade and politician by choice David likable from the very beginning.

Other than his unmistakable accent, his laptop charger, which turned out to be incompatible with the three-pronged US wall sockets, was also testifying for his Israeli upbringing. Luckily, David and I not only shared the Eastern European origin (despite their historical differences, Hungarians and Romanians have a boatload of commonalities), we also happened to have the same type of computers. This resulted in the fortunate situation that he could use my charger to power his presentation. It felt almost almost symbolic that my PG&E issued laptop charger supplies the electricity for such an prominent customer of the company. There must be some sort of award that I should receive, but for now, I was satisfied with the presentation from Andy David.

The central tenet of his talk was to refute the notion of an Arab Spring, and replace it with the more telling term "Islam Winter". He also attempted to explain why it is relevant to the average American in the Bay Area. For the first part of his argument, David used historic cultural analysis that involved looking at how Arab nations in the Middle East embraced their unique secular nationalism, and not their religious or sectarian alliance. In about 15-20 years ago, the so-called 'big disappointment' in realizing the failure to provide economic growth became apparent among the Middle East, the associated secular Arabism lost its momentum. Before that time, country leaders of Arab countries would pose with politicians of the Western world in their matching modern suits, without wearing white robes or head covers that are almost universally characteristic of contemporary Middle Eastern politics today. Economical and tribal conflicts changed the narrative, and while in Iran and Turkey religion started to dictate the agenda, in Syria regional sects gain central momentum. This was the point - according to David - from which Arab secularism was pushed to the background, and Moslem radicalism took control.

The second part of this talk, why this segment of history is particularly relevant to us in the Bay Area, felt a little less sophisticated and more common sense. In short, leadership's greatest power is how they control access to information, and as we have heard this many times, the Bay Area happens to sit in the virtual center of the World. Despite only being here for a relatively short amount of time, Andy David was quick to recognize this geo-political fact, and set his agenda for the coming years as Consul General of Israel accordingly. He admitted that Israel has lost its reputation of a rational agent on the stage of world politics, because it focuses on its conflicts too much. Consequently, Israel is judged and details (of who's right or wrong) don't matter any more. His (and our) responsibility for the coming years is to position the communication around Israel to bring normacy and democracy back to the conversation.

Sukkot and the Mighty Women at the SF Jewish Federation

Sukkah tormented by the wind, but still standing
on the roof of the SF Jewish Federation Building

During chol hamoed sukkot (October 3, 2012), we Fed Fellows had our second meeting. Katherine Tick, our kind program director, was once again very thoughtful and ordered kosher falafel platters from Sabra. I was risking a reputation of being the pickiest Fellow the JCF has ever selected, when I mentioned that unfortunately I cannot eat much inside the Koret board room during Sukkot. The eyes of our host lit up, and promptly led the way up to the roof of the building, where lo and behold was the Federation's very own sukkah. Unfortunately, due to the strong wind, the structure had fallen somewhat, but given my considerable appetite and the three still standing walls with the height of over ten tefachim, I quickly deemed the structure suitable for its intended halachic purposes. What the wind and cold weather took away, the food and the excellent rooftop view compensated.

As I was finding my way back to the second floor meeting room, I had to jog my spatial memory of dead-reackoning through a series of propped doors and office corridors, but made it just in time for the introduction of the evening's three guests from the JCF: Jennifer Gorovitz, Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Grand, President of the Board,  and Marsha Hurwitz, the new Chief Operating Officer. Marsha had only been in the job for 28 days, so she left most of the presentation to Jen and Nancy.

In a world where according to a 2012 report on Fortune 500 companies, women represented only 2% of CEOs, 14% of top executives and 16% of corporate directors, sitting across the table of three women leaders was refreshing in itself. One may say that the JCF is no Fortune 500, I still wonder if the ratios are so dramatically different for non-profits? Nevertheless before we draw far reaching conclusions about CEO demographics of American Jewish Federations, we heard multiple times from our speakers that San Francisco, together with Boston, is the most progressive of all Federations both in terms of their leadership structure and programming. 

Nancy Grand, President

So what exactly makes the mighty women duo led SF JCF so progressive? Is it that they managed to act upon a realization that they don't need to be a monolithic giant among the nearly 300 other Jewish organizations just within the Bay Area? Listening to Nancy's introduction, the vision for the JCF is more like a priority node in a nexus of like-minded others with similar focus to foster and develop best practices for leadership in all aspects of Jewish life. This represents a historic change for the Federation, as the organization was once created with the sole purpose to centralize fundraising efforts for communities and agencies struggling with financial hardship. Before, however, someone thinks that the Federation does not deal with money anymore, let's mention that last year alone they raised $17.7 million in unrestricted gifts. Impressive for a non Fortune 500, isn't it?!

Jennifer Gorovitz, CEO

Jennifer, an authentic minority Jew from Salt Lake City and once Stanford Hillel president, went through the details of their funds system (Core Funds, Israel and Global Funds, and Bay Area Initiatives Funds). Without even attempting to recall all details, I focused on the stated value system that determines how these funds are allocated, and what she calls the philosophy behind a healthy Jewish community. First, ensure a good education is in place, than care for the vulnerable, and lastly plan for as much cultural and social relationships as possible. This three-pronged approach resonated much with my socialist upbringing and feeling of societal-responsibility, represented in our Jewish values as tikkun olam. It would be interesting to see in action, how does the Federation actually make a decision about allocating its almost chai million worth of gifts. My mind immediately searches for worthy causes, such as creating a Hebrew Language Elementary School in the Bay Area (http://hleschool.org/), a project that my wife is closely involved with. Hope that I get the chance to ask this questions from Jennifer next time we meet.

My first board meeting at AJC - Sept/10/2012

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) had a special guest political speaker to give an update on the situation in the Middle East at the September 10th, 2012 board meeting that I first attended as a Federation Fellow.

This format in itself was a great surprise for me, correcting the image in my head that the governance board of a national advocacy group should deal with operational and relevant tactical issues. Nancy Price, the President of the AJC board, explained to me after the meeting that most board meetings are for strategic discussions and overall policy discussions following a national meeting, while the detailed, sleeves-rolling, project-focused work happens in the various sub-committees with much fewer attendees. It makes sense, since the hour and thirty minutes evening meeting proved to be only sufficient time for a few follow-up questions after the presentation.

Dr. Kori Schake

The 20-30 attending board members - all varied in age, but having a trending average of somewhere over 40 years, with similarly matured professions such as CEOs, lawyers, emeritus rabbis and professors - were gathered to be educated on issues about Syria, Iran and Egypt. The presenter, Dr. Schake, is a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and an associate professor of international security studies at the United States Military Academy. She gave an early disclaimer that she is not a Middle East specialist, but a US defense expert, who worked for the Bush administration and McCain-Palin campaign as a security adviser.

Although my political and foreign policy compass may not align perfectly with the presenter's, I have learned appreciated her analysis about the strategic consequences of Syrian President Bashar Assad's government having been charged with war crimes by the UN Human Rights report, and why overturning his regime plays well for US military interests in the region. Similarly, I gained better insight of the similarities of nuclear games between Iran and Iraq, and why the Islam Brotherhood's influence in Egypt might not be as negative for the US and Israel as one might have thought. One of the key messages of Dr. Schake was that there isn't a separate "Arab world" to talk about, only a global and highly diverse world that deserves attention from all sides of the political spectrum.

The meta experience of the evening makes me think of the opportunities for the organizations where I serve (and have served) as a member of the board. Particularly for my shul's board, we need to start thinking about letting the day-to-day decisions to be delegated to more efficient committees, while the board as a whole needs to become more humble and better listener of expert opinions.

AJC SF first impressions - Aug/21/2012

Jewish Community Federation Fellows are placed at governing boards of national or local Jewish organizations matching their interests. As a FedFellow in 2012-2014, I had the honor of being matched with the American Jewish Committee (AJC) here in San Francisco, CA.

Mervyn Danker
Regional Director
AJC San Francisco, CA

After a few rounds of emails, the regional director of AJC, Mervyn Danker, invited me to meet him on August 21, 2012 in his spacious office overlooking the Bay Bridge and the Ferry Building on the fourth floor of the Jewish Community Federation (JCF) building.  Mervyn is from Johannesburg with a recognizable South African accent. He also had a more subtle but definite hint of his origin on his tie in the form of Zakumi, the leopard mascot of the 2010 South African FIFA Football World Cup (aka. 'soccer' for my US friends). We have known each other tangentially from seeing each other on the Chabad SF Cable Car minyan. Implicit Jewish 'background check' immediately accomplished.

After listening to my introduction as a Hungarian Jew from a secular Jewish background, becoming shomer mitzvot in London, and now living a traditional lifestyle in San Francisco, he concluded that I am a baal tesuvah. I took his label as a compliment, even though quickly explained that being baal tesuvah has a connotation, at least in my head, of rejecting ones previous non-observant life style that I can certainly not claim about myself. I may have given up going to the movies on Saturday or eating milk and meat together, nevertheless I embrace my secular education and liberal-socialist upbringing.

To counterpoint Mervyn's (and apparently his staff's) initial impression of me as a 'closet haredi', I quickly emphasized to him that one of my goal of participating in the FedFellowship was to break down the illusory walls between modern orthodoxy and reform or even secular Judaism. I hope that I can lead by way of example as a traditional Jewish person, who wants to build bridges between Jews and non-Jews alike regardless of their levels of observance.

On the MUNI ride home from the AJC, I read through their publication of government and international affairs, called Capital Alert. In the April 2012 issue, probably the most interesting read for me was AJC's position on religious liberty and civil rights, including how the organization works to protect Jewish students from anti-semitism and their official stance on the faith-based initiative and the Workplace Religious Freedom Act. I already know that these will be topics that I will want to chat with Mervyn and Jennah Craig (AJC, ACCESS program).