As part of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Reimagining process, the Transition Team has been working since the fall of 2011 to incorporate changes proposed at the Community Summit in June 2011 and the follow-up Strategic Action Session that was held in August.
Currently, two Work Groups, Vision and Structure, are creating a new Vision Statement and planning for a restructuring of the Federation at an organizational level.
Andrea Schneider, member of the Transition Team and the Structure Work Group, gives her perspective on the direction and progress of the Structure Work Group.
The Structure Work Group has been focusing on reimagining the structure of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation in order to fulfill our goals set at last year’s Community Summit.
Throughout the past year, as we have debated and imagined how a new Federation could operate, we first determined key priorities.
It is clear that the Federation should focus on the things it does best and for which it is best situated.
Financial resource development (FRD) remains the top priority, as we are the primary or key funder for the majority of our partner agencies. Our commitment to them and to you is that the FRD part of the Federation will be strengthened and invigorated.
In addition to FRD, the Federation is uniquely positioned to convene the community in times of need, decision-making, celebration and around issues that affect all. It is also capable of large-scale projects that benefit the entire community, such as supporting the recent demographic study.
In order to make these components of outreach happen, certain parts of Federation will need to expand while others will need to contract.
With the priorities of FRD and outreach in mind, the Structure Work Group has recently been focusing on the structure needed to most effectively facilitate these two key functions.
We are aiming to increase communication and cooperation across areas of work. We will seek to eliminate “silo-ing” that can occur when these two things are lacking by increasing teamwork across the areas of outreach and FRD, and even within different types of FRD.
Based on what we heard at the Summit and SAS, we are restructuring FRD to increase the capacity of our Jewish Community Foundation and lessen the burden on annual fundraising mechanisms.
The discussions of the Structure Work Group have aided in the development of the job description for the new chief executive officer currently being recruited. This group would like to see the CEO spending much of her/his time developing relationships and connections throughout the community.
The Work Group will also seek ways to increase efficacy in communication, leadership development, planning for the future, connections with Israel, regularly convening the community, and incubation of new initiatives.
To see these efforts come to fruition, the Federation will need to grow the number of active volunteers involved. We want to ensure that volunteers have a fulfilling and valuable experience as together, with our partner agencies, we nurture the community.
We envision a Milwaukee Jewish Federation of solid financial health and stability, as each generation invests in the success of the community.
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