What communal nonprofits can learn from the corporate world

There’s been a lot of buzz about bringing corporate practices into our communal nonprofits. Large nonprofits like the UJA-Federation of New York, the Orthodox Union, and the ADL have pulled senior corporate executives or lawyers to serve in the number one slot. Both Eric Goldstein, CEO of the UJA, and Allen Fagin, retired executive vice president of the OU, were senior partners at world class law firms. Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of ADL, was an entrepreneur and corporate executive at Starbucks who holds an MBA from the prestigious Kellogg School of Management in Illinois.

Kiruv organization Olami has given senior leadership roles to Charlie Harary, a lawyer, investor, and strategic advisor, and Benjy White, a former CapGemini consultant and corporate COO. Even nonprofits that have not entrusted the CEO position to business executives are being pushed by board members with business backgrounds to utilize corporate best practices in management, transparency, and efficiency.

Our panelists

Allen Fagin

is the executive vice president emeritus and former chief professional officer of the Orthodox Union. In 2013, Mr. Fagin retired from leading international law firm Proskauer Rose LLP, where he specialized in employment law. He served as Proskauer’s chairman from 2005 to 2011. In April 2014, he took the helm of the Orthodox Union as the executive vice president and chief professional officer and was responsible for the vision, design, and implementation of new departments and programming; the strategic growth and expansion of existing departments; and the leadership and mentorship of hundreds of employees.

Michael Bloch

has been a consultant with global management consulting company McKinsey for 23 years, 17 of them as a partner or senior partner. He advised the senior leadership of global enterprises on technology, innovation, business operation, and strategy. In early 2021, Michael left McKinsey to focus full-time on the social sector. He founded Israel Impact Partners to help philanthropic individuals and foundations accelerate the growth of the nonprofit organizations they support.

Aryeh Goldberg

is the executive vice president of commercial operations at Bruin Biometrics LLC. He serves on the board of several important institutions and is the chairman of the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Center for the Jewish Future at Yeshiva University. He is a co-chairman on the Anwar Sadat Congressional Gold Medal Commission in commemoration of the 40 years of peace between Israel and Egypt, and he and his wife have been active members of AIPAC’s New Leadership Network since 2013.

Let’s Break It Down — The Importance of Research

It seems that every online fundraising campaign, annual dinner, capital campaign, and social media post has an accompanying video that’s designed to speak straight to the heart. The video may feature a young bald child hugging his camp counselor, a tearful couple describing the turmoil of attending a sibling’s bris so many years into their own childless marriage, or a poverty-stricken Holocaust survivor hugging the delivery man schlepping in boxes of basic Pesach necessities. Clearly the organization is doing amazing work — just look at the evidence! And when the video tugs at your heartstrings, you’re convinced, and you loosen your purse strings.

Good marketing is convincing (just look at how much the Super Bowl commercial slots cost), and well-produced videos have never been more compelling. But can we build communal agendas (and allocate our tzedakah dollars) based on hype and heart? The video may be an effective marketing and fundraising tool, but is the story it’s telling about the program justified or cost effective?

A good video just means the person who made it is good at what he does, and a sophisticated organization will take a step back and analyze the facts on the ground intellectually and not emotionally: How often does the scene in the video actually happen? How much does it cost us to provide these services we’re depicting in the video? What’s the return on investment (ROI) for all effort put in — can we use the same dollars for an even bigger impact?

And this doesn’t just apply to fundraising videos — it can apply to actual services and programs themselves. Data analysis allows nonprofits to use cold hard facts to decide to expand and streamline effective programs, while curtailing programs and angles that are ineffective.