8 | JUNE 30 • 2022
PURELY COMMENTARY
guest column
A New Strategic Plan for
Jewish Family Service
H
appy New (Fiscal)
Year! It’s not early
this year. It’s always
right on time. We Jewish
organizations have lots of years
to organize us: Jewish, secular
and, yes, fiscal.
We also have
lots holding us
accountable.
Funders.
Contracts. The
community. The
people we serve.
Contrary to
what many believe about us
so-called “nonprofit” Jewish
human service organizations,
we are complicated businesses,
with multiple bottom lines. The
“nonprofit” moniker is a tax
status.
Jewish Family Service’s
bottom lines are 1) Financial
and 2) Impact. Please don’t
define us by what we are not,
but rather, by what we are … a
social impact organization.
A year ago, Jewish Family
Service exited merger talks
with JVS Human Services and
Kadima, which now, together, is
Gesher Human Services. With
this exit, we needed to define
ourselves and our future and
hold ourselves accountable to
our bottom lines. We embarked
on a strategic planning process
and adopted a strategic plan
that we have implemented as
of June 1. (That’s right, the
beginning of our fiscal year)
We did all the things:
gathered a steering committee,
hired a consultancy (Veralon,
veralon.com) to shepherd us
through (thanks to the Jewish
Fund for its support on this
[and all things JFS!]), conducted
focus groups …
And now we have a five-
year strategic plan that will be
our roadmap amidst what will
undoubtedly be challenging
times.
Before I declare some of the
strategic plan’s directions, let
me expand my already too-long
context-providing preface.
Jewish Family Service always
aspires to act strategically.
Arguably, we’re successful at
this a lot of the time. Part of
the strategic plan then is to
take a step back and be more
intentional than we can be from
our day-to-day reactive perch.
Not everything that Jewish
Family Service does strategically
made it in to this strategic plan.
Nor should it have. What is
called out here is what needs to
be called out here. For example,
that the population of people
identifying as Orthodox is
growing, and that Jewish Family
Service needs to continue to
strategically be relevant to and
welcoming of the Orthodox
communities, is not in the
strategic plan, but is how we
strategically function daily.
The strategic plan helps chart
Jewish Family Service’s future,
but we can’t know everything.
Pandemics, wars, floods and
recessions come to mind. When
(and if) bad things happen that
are not known or knowable,
Jewish Family Service will
respond, if it’s true to our
mission, even if not specified in
the plan.
OUR FIVE-YEAR PLAN
Starting with the mission, the
rest flows from there. Jewish
Family Service’s mission
statement is: Inspired by Jewish
values, we improve lives through
service.
Next, we looked at and did
not alter our vision statement,
the words that describe
our ultimate aspiration: A
community in which no person
faces life’s challenges alone.
Then, we thought about how
we want to do our work and
landed on this values statement:
JFS honors its Jewish values,
including recognizing the
dignity of all people (B’tzelem
Elokim) and the call to care for
others (Chesed) to strengthen
the Jewish community and the
broader community. We do this
by focusing on:
• Respect — We honor
the dignity of all people,
empowering those we serve
with care that is sensitive to
individual and cultural needs.
• Kindness — We believe
in the good of all people. We
serve others with compassion,
empathy, generosity and
without judgement.
• Diversity — We embrace
diversity in all its forms and
serve and employ people of
all backgrounds. We foster an
equitable and inclusive culture
allowing individuals to thrive
on their own terms.
• Integrity — We hold
ourselves to the highest
standard in all aspects of our
work. We are dependable and
accountable to each other
and pride ourselves as good
stewards of the agency.
• Collaboration — We
work together to cultivate
relationships with those
we serve and the broader
community to provide
comprehensive and high-quality
service.
From here we identified
several critical planning issues
as the scaffolding of the plan:
• Mental Health Needs
• Team (i.e., the JFS
workforce)
• Diversity, Equity and
Inclusion (DEI)
• Financial Sustainability
From here we landed on 17
initiatives, which we will tackle
for five years. The ones we
landed on to start this (fiscal)
Perry Ohren