Building Organizational Effectiveness: Strengthening Community Through Partnerships
CJP is all about making a bigger difference — but we don’t go it alone. We work strategically with organizational partners throughout the community — social service agencies, synagogues, schools, JCCs, and more — to reinforce a strong yet flexible network that works collaboratively toward transformational change. This united approach allows us to care for one another and do our part to repair this divided and unjust world.
Partnership in Action
Working in close partnership with synagogues, agencies, day schools, early childhood centers, and other Jewish organizations helps us understand and respond to needs across the community.
COVID-19 Response: Crisis Management
When COVID-19 threatened to isolate us, our community responded by banding together, pivoting to online platforms, and strategically deploying funds and resources to meet evolving needs.
Leveraging Expertise to Advance Partners (LEAP)
Our community is rich in talent and expertise, and is home to Jewish professionals whose experience is both broad and deep. CJP’s LEAP initiative leverages these strengths for the good of all our partners.
Communal Security Initiative (CSI)
Our Jewish community has always faced complex and evolving security challenges, but now no organization needs to face them alone. CJP provides expert assessments, targeted funding, and training that empowers our partners to make their communities more secure.
Partnership in Action
We know we’re better together. CJP’s relational approach allows us to keep our finger on the pulse of the community, identifying opportunities and challenges — and mobilizing partners to collaboratively address them. With this deeper connection to our community, CJP can respond to local and cross-organizational issues more strategically, strengthening our collective Jewish life and future.
- Day schools
- Synagogues
- Social service organizations
- Organizations that specialize in families with young children
- Young adult engagement organizations
- Advocacy and social justice organizations
- Health metrics — We provide assessment, training and resources in six areas: finances, fundraising, leadership, governance, marketing, and infrastructure
- Pulse Surveys — We use data from surveys sent to our partners to inform the services we provide in order to ensure we are meeting their real-time needs
- Convenings — We are gathering organizations together both in person (prior to COVID-19) and virtually to facilitate connection and relationships with CJP and one another
Using data to support partners
Our latest partner Pulse Survey* has shown the most prevalent financial challenges partners are facing during COVID-19 include:
- Lost revenue due to membership cancellations or services provided to the community
- Furlough/layoff of hourly/part-time staff
- Furlough/layoff of salaried staff
- Inability to make rent payments for organizational facilities
- Employee healthcare costs
We meet with and support our partners regularly to help ensure they can continue to serve our community members. Read more about our grants to partners through the CJP Coronavirus Emergency Fund.
*October 2020
With support from CJP, our Jewish day schools took a holistic approach to learning during the pandemic and were poised to open safely in fall 2020 with learnings to apply to ensure students’ experiences were as meaningful as possible.
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“Partnership and a commitment to serving our community was the North Star of the Bost(ON) Summer initiative. CJP and JCC Greater Boston came together in the spirit of radical partnership and extreme collaboration, leaned in on each organization’s strengths, and ultimately achieved a greater collective impact than if we had each worked on our own.”
— Gavin Andrews, Chief Strategic Program Officer at JCC Greater Boston
Innovative partnerships are central to our work and we’re always looking to collaborate to make things better. With that goal in mind, the Jewish Teen Initiative (JTI) moved to CJP in 2020 to engage more teens and families in Jewish life. This union will allow CJP — which has invested in JTI for years — to leverage and expand JTI’s pioneering relationship-based approach to community engagement.
“From its inception, JTI has been a leader in engaging teens in Jewish life. What began as an innovative start-up on the North Shore has become a local and national model,” says CJP President and CEO Rabbi Marc Baker. “As CJP invests in a strong, thriving pipeline of opportunities for Jewish learning and action that begins with young children, we continue to focus on the teenage years as a critical stage of development on a person’s Jewish journey. “
Learn more about our joint approach to teen engagement.
Leveraging Expertise to Advance Partners
Through our Leveraging Expertise to Advance Partners (LEAP) initiative, CJP is harnessing the collective talent in our community to problem-solve, consult, brainstorm, and build professional connections. LEAP brings together CJP professionals, volunteer leaders, and partner organizations to collaborate and advance our communal vision.
325
325 leaders participated in five LEAP sessions focused on building and sustaining strong financial systems; cooperation, collaboration, and consolidations; engaging a board to further an organization’s mission; and more.
COVID-19 RESPONSE SPOTLIGHT
LEAP Tackles Cybersecurity Issues
Even before COVID-19 challenged the Jewish community to move our programming online, CJP’s LEAP initiative was helping local organizations increase their cybersecurity by providing a unique opportunity to gain awareness of online threats and resources to address vulnerabilities. This training is just one example of the timely issues LEAP addresses. CJP continually solicits ideas from participants for topics of interest, ensuring that content is relevant and practical.
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COVID-19 Response: Crisis Management
18
CJP awarded 18 grants of $1,000 to synagogues around the region to support their use of online learning as a means of connection to Judaism and Jewish identity. These grants have been used for technology expansion, curriculum development, and hiring facilitators.
250
Since the start of the pandemic, CJP has been facilitating our quarterly Pulse Survey and bi-weekly communications to 250 organizations to gather information about the most pressing short-term and long-term needs and communicate about supports and other opportunities.
399
We built a robust website that provided convenings, trainings, webinars, and additional resources. Webinars have been very well-received and well-attended, with 399 individuals registering for eight webinars, on topics including Creating Virtual Community and Crisis Communications During Coronavirus.
$17.5 million
We helped community organizations understand and complete applications for SBA loans. At least 29 local organizations (including CJP) had their applications approved, resulting in loans estimated to be in excess of $17.5 million.
4
CJP has convened day school Heads of Schools weekly since the pandemic began. These convenings have led to the creation of four cross-school working groups that address key challenges including access to technology, teaching and learning in a COVID-19 world, and special education and mental health challenges.
COVID-19 RESPONSE SPOTLIGHT
Since March, CJP has made available up to $750,000 in grants for synagogues and Jewish institutions to make security improvements to their buildings. The Chabad Center of Natick (pictured here) was a grant recipient and able to purchase new cameras.
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“The PPE grant from CJP made it feel like we were being thrown a lifeline. We had the sense that we weren’t just doing this all by ourselves. We know we are all in this together.”
— Janis Knight, Director of Education, Congregation Shirat Hayam, Swampscott
Every day, our committed volunteers and donors make an impact through their participation with us.
Unless otherwise noted, data reflects June 2019-September 2020 timeframe.