Lay Leadership Affinity Group Webinar – Building Board Diversity: An Opportunity and Unique Challenge for Jewish Agencies

Exceptional nonprofit boards recognize that diversity is essential to an organization’s success. They see the correlation between mission, strategy, and board composition and understand that establishing an inclusive organization starts with establishing a diverse and inclusive board. Many board members already understand that a homogeneous board can result in near-sightedness and group-think. By contrast, a heterogeneous board — one composed of individuals with a variety of skills, perspectives, backgrounds, and resources — promotes creativity and innovation and yields differing voices that can play an important role in accomplishing the organization’s mission and increasing understanding of constituents and community needs. Diverse boards also are more likely to attract public and private sector grant makers which are increasingly focused on diversity. Yet, according to Board Source’s bi-annual study of non-profits,” Leading with Intent” many — if not most — nonprofit boards are not making meaningful headway towards achieving diversity.

This challenge is compounded for traditionally defined Jewish agencies, as they  must also take into account the concerns of their Jewish Federations and other Jewish philanthropic support. Most typically, that by diversifying religiously, and ethnically, Jewish agencies may find themselves at a “tipping point” where they might no longer be considered Jewish agencies, and thereby might lose Jewish community support. This webinar will review key research findings related to diversity and inclusion practices of today’s Boards of Directors;  explore what it means for a Jewish Agency to diversify its Board and discuss  strategies for accomplishing diversification while retaining both the Jewish nature of the agency and the support of the Jewish community. This webinar will be the precursor to a more intensive workshop on this subject that will be part of the May 2020 NJHSA Annual Conference.