Leveraging Expertise to Advance Partners
The Leveraging Expertise to Advance Partners Initiative (LEAP) is a partnership between CJP professionals, volunteer leaders, and community organizations to strengthen collaboration and organizational capabilities across the Greater Boston Jewish community. Through LEAP, community professionals and board leaders can access knowledge and advice through best practice seminars, targeted breakout discussions, and brainstorming sessions. We are accessing the best talent in our community and leveraging it to advance our communal vision and strengthen our organizations.
Featured topics are generated from interest in the community.
Have an idea for a subject you would like us to consider for future LEAP seminars?
Let us know.
See below for recordings of past seminars!
Webinars
2020-2021
Launching Sustained Collaborations and Mergers
October 2020
Based on the phenomenal attendance of our prior LEAP panel discussion on mergers and collaborations where CJP Board Member Ed Shapiro gave the keynote, we held another LEAP session “Launching Sustained Collaborations and Mergers”, on this topic to offer you more resources and supports. With an introduction by Ed Shapiro and panel moderated by Laurene Sperling, Co-chairs of CJP’s Optimizing the Ecosystem Through Formal Collaborations Taskforce, you will want to watch this.
This panel also featured:
- John MacIntosh, Managing Partner at SeaChange Capital Partners. SeaChange champions nonprofits facing complex challenges, and is the partner of choice for funders seeking to help.
- Makiyah Moody, Senior Manager at La Piana Consulting. La Piana Consulting helps nonprofit organizations navigate change, so they can be more effective at delivering on their mission.
- Neil Stevenson, Senior Staff Attorney at Lawyers Alliance For New York. Lawyers Alliance is the leading provider of business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations and social enterprises that are improving the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods.
In the face of recovery, when nonprofits will be called on to do more — likely with fewer resources — mergers, joint ventures, programmatic and administrative partnerships, and other types of “sustained collaborations” can be tools to preserve, sustain, and grow impact. In this session, we discussed why nonprofits pursue sustained collaboration, how they approach the process, and what lessons they have learned along the way with much time for Q&A.
As we mentioned in the program, we are providing an avenue for organizations to have exploratory follow up conversations regarding sustained collaborations. You can contact Kimberlee Schumacher, CJP’s Vice President of Partnerships and Services at kimberlees@cjp.org
Engaging Your Board to Further Your Mission
August 2020
What successes and challenges arise when volunteers and professionals tackle the biggest obstacles facing your organization? Learn how to onboard and inspire your directors so you can lead together with purpose.
Key speakers include:
- Amy S. Cahners, Principal at Cahners & Donahue Associates LLC
- Scott Cohen, Founding Partner and former Chair, Gann Academy Board of Trustees
- Annie Knickman Plancher, VP Staff and Strategy, Social Finance
- Susan Musinsky, Executive Director, Social Innovation Forum
- Steven G. Segal, Executive-in-Residence/Lecturer at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business and Inaugural Board Chair of Courageous Parents Network
- Laurene M. Sperling, Managing Trustee of the Sperling Family Charitable Foundation, Vice Chair, Duke University Board of Directors, and Member, CJP Board of Directors
- Neil A. Wallack, former Chair, CJP Board of Directors
2019-2020
Strategic Partnerships
January 2020
We invite you to come together with other Jewish communal leaders at the next LEAP session on Strategic Partnerships: How can coordination and collaboration make us stronger?
Learn how organizations in our community have partnered effectively to further their missions and increase impact. What successes and challenges arise when organizations with shared visions and goals come together? Through our featured speakers we will discuss a variety of strategic collaboration efforts including: strategic partnerships, programmatic collaborations, and mergers.
Cybersecurity Awareness, Advice, and Resources
December 2019
Is your organization’s network and digital information well-protected? Does wondering about your organization’s cyber vulnerabilities keep you up at night? Read this SlideDeck to strengthen your cybersecurity smarts and explore strategies and best practices that will help your organization improve its security posture:
- Address vulnerabilities, both internal and external
- Train your employees to be your cyber partners in protecting your organization
- Protect your organization and digital assets without breaking your budget
Financial Health
September 2019
Do you believe sustaining strong financial management is critical to your organization’s success? Have you wondered about your organization’s fiscal vulnerabilities? Come together with Jewish communal leaders across Greater Boston for the inaugural CJP LEAP seminar on Strengthening Organizational Financial Health
Building and sustaining strong financial management practices is a critical leadership responsibility at organizations of all sizes.
As an organizational leader, do you think about…
- How to balance oversight responsibilities and decision-making power between volunteer and professional leadership?
- How to prepare effective Board conversations about your organization’s finances?
- How to organize limited human resources to deter and protect against fraud?
As a Board leader, do you ask…
- Whether your organizational leaders are taking the appropriate steps to mitigate financial risk and exposure?
- What the long-term financial outlook is for your organization?
- Whether the right systems are in place to prevent fraud?
CJP Contacts
General questions: LEAP@cjp.org