Adam Simon of Schusterman Foundation Gets It

It was an honor and pleasure to see new faces at 09NTC (the Nonprofit Technology Network Conference) this year, including Adam Simon of the Schusterman Foundation. I first met Adam when he was the Executive Director of Northwestern Hillel, and had recently been awarded a Covenant Foundation grant to put his Hillel’s social media strategy on steriods. He was then recruited by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and is doing some serious investigation into how the Jewish community can put technology to use to achieve our goals.

The first day of the conference I found Adam diligently engaging many vendors and consultants, thirsty to understand how the non-Jewish nonprofit world thinks and acts in this space. The first words (nearly) out of his mouth: “Ok, Lisa … now I get it.”

Today’s JTA Fundermentalist blog features Adam as a guest, articulating what he “got” and “gets”:

Emerging social media tools offer radically different ways of engaging Jews and inspiring meaningful Jewish thought and action. Yet what too often passes for technological innovation in the Jewish world is simply pasting the rabbis sermon on the Web. For a community in need of revival, that standard is too low…

In a world where new technology empowers individuals to self-organize, Jewish organizations must shift their strategies, tactics and communications to provide something value-added beyond what individuals can do on their own. New media tools can energize Jews with interactive communication, dynamic connections with other Jews and the creation of community around shared interests. Jewish institutions can become facilitators of such creation, providing structures and support without dictating a specific vision for Jewish life…

Jewish social entrepreneurs associated with the ROI Community, Darim Online and PresentTense Institute are using and promoting strategies to engage hard-to-reach Jews not through flashy marketing, but by fostering opportunities for Jews to craft their own experiences and engage in open conversations with each other about why Judaism matters.

I couldn’t have said it any better. While Darim is working tirelessly to help Jewish organizations understand this exciting moment and embrace it productively, there are many other valuable resources in the nonprofit technology community to explore as well. NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) is one. Come find the Jewish orgs in NTEN at our affinity group, The Tribe. And join us at NTC next year (April 8-10, 2010 in Atlanta).

In Adam’s words, “Jewish organizations can and must begin earnest and advanced evolution from simply applying our old means of engagement online to unleashing the full power of new media. The Jewish people deserve nothing less.”

Read his full post here.

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