Leadership

In 2009, the Pipeline Project and the Flexible Leadership Investments Program created the 21^st Century Fellows Program with the support of the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, the Arcus Foundation and the Gill Foundation. The primary goal of the 21^st Century Fellows Program is to retain and advance diversity leadership in LGBT organizations. It meets this goal by recruiting people of color in senior or middle management positions to receive holistic programming including hard and soft leadership skills, opportunities to develop strong relationships with others in the field and customized support to fit the individualized needs of each fellow.

Since early 2010, and across three cohorts of participants, BTW has led evaluations of the Program. The findings generated from these evaluations are intended to promote learnings about the Program among the staff, partners and funders, and prompt timely adjustments to strengthen the program.

Coaching can be a powerful tool in the development of nonprofit leadership.

The Coaching and Philanthropy Project is a partnership between BTW informing change, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, Grantmakers for Effective Organizations, and Leadership that Works. This work was made possible by the generous funding and support of W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Harnisch Foundation, The James Irvine Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund.

The resultant Coaching and Philanthropy Project produced a new body of literature and tools to fortify this emerging practice among nonprofits. Funders and nonprofit leaders now use these resources to assess when and how to use coaching to strengthen leadership within the sector.

In 2008, Jewish Funds for Justice received funding from the Nathan Cummings Foundation to redesign their Selah Leadership Program. Selah staff wanted to strengthen the program and its contribution to the Jewish social justice movement. They envisioned providing participants with leadership training, opportunities for social networking and a focus on collaboration.

BTW was hired to measure the program’s impact in a number of areas:

• Individual leadership
• Organizational change
• Network and movement building
• The role of Jewish values in social justice leadership development

The evaluation findings will inform Selah’s staff, Advisory Board and funders on the best practices for implementing leadership trainings and developing participant networks.

The Professional Development Initiative (PDI) is a seven-year, seven-million–dollar program of the Jim Joseph Foundation housed at BBYO. The Program seeks to increase the capacity and commitment of talented, early-career Jewish professionals to build a career in Jewish communal institutions.

BBYO professionals participating in the program receive an MBA with a focus on nonprofit management from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, a certificate in informal Jewish Education from Hebrew College, a mentor in the Jewish communal sector, and career supports from the Center for Leadership Initiatives. In turn, these professionals commit to continue working in the Jewish community for at least two years after completing the Program.

At the outset of the Program, The Foundation engaged BTW to design and execute a formative evaluation to provide process and benchmark data on PDI’s initial implementation. This work set the stage for the more outcomes-focused, longitudinal phase of the evaluation which is ongoing. Given broad interest in learning from the development and implementation of the PDI model, BTW’s work is also focused on identifying key lessons supporting the development of young professionals that can be useful to program stakeholders, other funders and the broader Jewish community.

The James Irvine Foundation Fund for Leadership Advancement Program provides coaching, mentoring and training opportunities tailored to nonprofit leaders throughout California.

The Foundation hired BTW to evaluate the program over two years. Over that period we kept them abreast of emerging findings as we targeted three goals:

• Identify the program’s strengths and weaknesses
• Understand the program’s impact on participants
• Garner suggestions for program improvements

BTW’s evaluation strengthened the program’s operation and helped the Foundation better understand its efforts.