Our Purpose

Leading Edge exists to foster a healthy, adaptive, high-performing Jewish nonprofit sector.

Our Vision

Leading Edge envisions a sector of Jewish organizations in which high-quality, diverse leaders and talent are ready and supported to build great places to lead, work, and serve.

Our Mission

Leading Edge influences, inspires, and enables Jewish organizations to continuously improve performance through culture and leadership.

Our Values

Read about the six values that inform everything we do, both within our team and in interacting with the broader community.

Our History

Founded in 2014 and originally called the Leadership Pipelines Initiative, Leading Edge emerged from a group of funders and communal leaders who saw a leadership succession crisis on the horizon for Jewish nonprofits. They commissioned the Bridgespan Group to answer the question: Why are Jewish organizations struggling to find the talent they need, especially at the most senior ranks? Bridgespan’s answer was Cultivating the Next Generation of Leaders for Jewish Nonprofits, the inaugural report and initial roadmap of the journey that became Leading Edge.

Since then, Leading Edge has become the central address for talent and culture in the Jewish sector, changing the way that Jewish organizations and the sector think and talk about talent development, leadership, and organizational culture. Leading Edge has supported over 300 organizations in their quests to become better places to work; has facilitated the development of dozens of executive leaders; and has begun to bring board and professional leaders together to solve leadership challenges facing our sector.

Through its founding and in its work, Leading Edge has succeeded in elevating the issues of culture and leadership, putting talent on the map and demonstrating its centrality for the future of our sector. Leaders—professionals and boards—are finally talking about the importance of investing in talent and organizational culture.