
CEO Initiative
Because our future depends on today’s leaders. We’re supporting new CEOs and building a community of practice around outstanding leadership in Jewish nonprofits.

The first-ever national CEO Onboarding Program designed for top-level organizational leaders in the American Jewish community.
The Leading Edge CEO Onboarding Program is a cohort-based leadership development program for CEOs who have served in their role for under two years. In the program, new leaders lay the groundwork for organizational success and connect with a growing community of their peers. Participants work directly with experts in leadership development and elite leaders and thinkers in the American Jewish community to take their competencies — and their organizations — to the next level.
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Executives changing the Jewish world.
Meet the participants
Program Highlights
- Support from an experienced, expert executive coach
- Participate in training at the Center for Creative Leadership, a preeminent leadership development institution
- Connect with leaders and funders of major national and key local organizations in the American Jewish community
- Attend a comprehensive, on-the-ground Israel experience to better understand of the range of issues related to Israel and how to facilitate important related conversations back home
- Undergo a 360-degree evaluation to gain critical self-knowledge for improvement
Applicants are:
- The most senior professional leader of an organization in the Jewish community who has been with their organization for no more than 24 months
- Representing a charitable organization that has been in existence for at least three years
- Able to attend all in-person convenings, sessions with coaches, and webinars
- Able to secure an organizational commitment of $5,000 to support participation in the program and pay for domestic travel-related expenses
Applications are currently closed.
Applications for Cohort 4 will open in early 2021.
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New program: Leading Partners: Strengthening Board Chair-CEO Partnerships
Related Resources
View the Resource Library
- CEOsReport
CEO Succession: Case Studies of Excellence from the Jewish Nonprofit Sector
These case studies offer a candid, personal look at the inner workings of CEO transition processes at six major Jewish organizations.
- CEOsGuide
CEO Search Committee Guide
Leading Edge partnered with a Senior Editor from Harvard Business Review to distill the most important elements of running a successful nonprofit CEO search.
- CEOsArticle
Beyond the Glass Ceiling: Understanding Gender Inequities in the Jewish Communal Workforce
While approximately 70% of our sector’s workforce identifies as women, women represent only 30% of our CEOs.
Many emerging leaders are willing to take on challenging roles, but not in organizations with rigid cultures that lack collaboration, innovation, and autonomy... Change must happen at the organizational level, and leaders—both the professional leaders and the lay leaders—must take responsibility for promoting that change.