What can funders or donors do when they sense a burgeoning field—one that might be growing quickly but in a fragmented way, with minimal infrastructure and incomplete standards of practice? And what if this nascent field is struggling to mature parallel to a larger, national movement that is growing rapidly, with increasing public interest and support? What kinds of foundation investments in this situation would be strategically wise?
At such a moment, information is power; power to make better decisions about investments, engage key leaders in your efforts to expand and improve the field’s chances for growth.
In Fall 2007, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation and the Jim Joseph Foundation found themselves facing such a situation. As funders investing and interested in a range of organizations engaging in Jewish service learning, they were pleased with the growing market of young adults seeking service opportunities. At the same time, they were unconvinced that the existing programs were able to see the broader picture of the service movement, the growing public interest and the opportunities ahead of them.
Jewish service learning engages people of all ages in social and community issues and nurtures their understanding of Jewish values and heritage. To help their foundations make strategically wise decisions about future investments in Jewish service learning, these three foundations commissioned BTW to assess the landscape of Jewish service programs for young adults.
As part of this assessment, BTW collected data from the broader field of service as well as from Jewish service learning practitioners, funders and stakeholders. The data collection process reached across disciplines and drew on both primary and secondary sources. The BTW team conducted dozens of key informant interviews, administered online surveys, reviewed demographic and impact data, studied research reports from over 50 unique sources and drew upon our years of experience working in the fields of service, volunteerism and civic engagement.
Our report of findings included an action plan outlining options for reaching our clients’ shared goal of a growing, organized field of Jewish service learning. Over a period of several months, we helped our clients share the findings and recommendations from our research with funders and practitioners across the country.
As interest grew around supporting Jewish service learning as a field of practice, BTW helped a group of key stakeholders develop a plan to move forward with key recommendations from the research. The emergence of Repair the World, an organization dedicated to the development of a field of Jewish service learning, is evidence of the change that has resulted from the information BTW assembled, analyzed and shared.
