UpStart FY27–29 Strategic Plan

BUILDING

Building the Foundation for Jewish Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship

FY27–29 Strategic Plan

BUILDING UP

Building the Foundation for Jewish Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship

For nearly two decades, UpStart has partnered with 250+ organizations and thousands of leaders to turn bold Jewish ideas into enduring impact. Along the way, we built something the field has never had: a language for innovation that’s repeatable, measurable, shareable, and proven across every corner of Jewish life.

Focus Areas

Our methodology applies across the full spectrum of Jewish life. These four issue areas provide a shared language for the work, making it easier for leaders, funders, and partners to find their entry point and connect with the right resources.

Jewish Identity
& Connection

Helping people build grounded, joyful Jewish identity across an increasingly diverse population.

Jewish Learning & Israel Education

Equipping educators to teach about Jewish wisdom and Israel with joy, confidence, and nuance, in service of deep understanding and multiple perspectives.

Community, Belonging & Access

Expanding pathways, lowering barriers, and strengthening relational models of participation.

Leadership &
New Models

Developing entrepreneurial, adaptive leaders for a volatile and fast-changing era.

Measuring Reach & Depth

Four outcomes sit at the core of our Theory of Change, the benchmarks to which every program, partnership, and investment ladder up. They are how we know whether our work is moving from activity to impact, and from individual wins to field-level change.

More innovative leaders

Better equipped leaders

More and better Jewish experiences

A stronger ecosystem

Strategic Pillars

PILLAR ONE
Innovate with Jewish Wisdom
Develop a shared framework, rooted in Jewish values, that any organization can use to build better.

Enduring innovation begins with meaning. This pillar codifies and operationalizes the Jewish Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (JSIE) Methodology, ensuring that creativity across the Jewish ecosystem is both values-driven and replicable.

Codify the Practice of Jewish Social Innovation
& Entrepreneurship (JSIE)

The Jewish Social Innovation & Entrepreneurship (JSIE) Methodology is a shared language for innovation: a teachable, measurable, and engaging process, and the only one whose rigor is rooted in Jewish values.

What we'll do
How we'll measure it
1
Make JSIE, our innovation methodology, the backbone of every UpStart program and partnership
Methodology published and
adopted across all programs; 100% of staff trained
2
Bring JSIE to leaders where they already are, through cohorts, convenings, and partner pipelines
1,000+ leaders trained across custom cohorts, certifications, and partner programs
3
A Vitality Index that shows the field where innovation capacity is strong, and where it needs investment
Adopted by
3 major funders; annual
Vitality Reports published

Impact data

94%
2025 participants reporting significant growth in skills and knowledge.
100%
Who felt more connected to a peer community. Vital foundations for enduring leadership.

PILLAR TWO
Empower the Builders
Align cohorts, applied learning, and capital.

The Jewish future will be built by people. The Leaders, educators, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs who are willing to try something new. This pillar invests in them: giving builders at every level the skills, credentials, community, and support to turn bold ideas into lasting impact.

Activate the Flow of Ideas and Investment

Build a connected ecosystem where ideas, resources, and collaboration move efficiently so the most promising work finds the support it needs.

What we'll do
How we'll measure it
1
Convene the field around the issues that matter most. Collaboratory brings builders, funders, and partners together around shared challenges, sparking the learning and connections that move entire sectors forward
500+ leaders convened across issue-focused national and regional gatherings
2
Redesign UpStart's programs as a progressive learning journey, from introductory to deep institutional embedding, so every builder can go further
300+ leaders and ventures engaged
3
Strengthen UpStart's financial and technology
systems to support expanded collaboration
Fully integrated CRM and finance systems operational

Equip Leaders and Educators to Shape the Future

Embed Jewish social innovation in the leadership pipeline, from educators and executives
to rabbis and movement builders.

What we'll do
How we'll measure it
1
Pilot the Jewish Social Innovation Lab model at AJU to advance experiential learning and applied research
Lab launched, serving
100+ leaders
2
Launch accredited and certificate programs that train leaders in innovation and adaptive leadership, and award both certificates and recognized credentials
250+ credentialed leaders
through UpStart programs
3
Develop the next generation of Jewish innovation facilitators, giving experienced leaders the tools to bring JSIE methodology to their own organizations and networks
50+ trained facilitators deploying JSIE across partner organizations
4
Invest in UpStart's team capacity so we can deliver at the level this work demands
All staff trained in adaptive leadership and JSIE-aligned practices

IMPACT

71%
Leaders reporting increased capacity to sustain their ventures as a result of the program.
Leaders described the experience as
“creating valued time for REFLECTION”
and a driver of “PRODUCTIVITY and
stronger TEAM CONNECTION.”

PILLAR THREE
Strengthen the Systems
The backbone behind every breakthrough, because even the most audacious ideas need a solid foundation to stand on and systems to scale.

Bold ideas don’t endure without strong systems. This pillar builds the operational and financial foundations that sustain our work, including the Jewish Innovation Alliance, our vehicle for embedding proven innovation methodology inside the backbone institutions of Jewish life and scaling our impact across the entire sector.

Build the Infrastructure that Sustains Creativity

Strengthen the operational, financial, and technological foundations that make Jewish innovation resilient and enduring, ensuring that bold ideas, ventures, and leaders can grow without fragility or duplication.

What we'll do
How we'll measure it
1
Build the Jewish Innovation Alliance, allowing us to scale, diversify our revenue model and create greater sector alignment.
A shared innovation language across the Jewish ecosystem | 280+ leaders across 100+ institutions using a common innovation framework
2
Expand fiscal sponsorship and shared services to
serve early and scaling ventures
$20M+ in annual project
flow; 20+ ventures supported
3
Develop responsible technology and measurement
tools to improve efficiency and transparency
AI-enabled systems reduce
administrative workload by 30%
and enhance impact measurement
4
Grow earned revenue and financial sustainability
through certification, licensing, and shared services
30% of total revenue earned;
no single funder represents more
than 15% of total revenue

Organizational & Board Evolution

Strengthening systems begins at home.
As UpStart grows into its role as essential
infrastructure for Jewish innovation,
we will evolve our own GOVERNANCE AND
OPERATIONS to model the adaptive, values-
driven leadership we champion across the field.
In partnership with Leading Edge and
other sector peers, we will strengthen
board composition, engagement, and
ACCOUNTABILITY, ensuring our internal
structures reflect the same resilience and
creativity we build across the ecosystem.

“What’s exciting to me about where UpStart is headed is the shift toward deeper ecosystem impact. Not just supporting individual organizations, but really shaping the conditions for the whole field to thrive.”

— National Philanthropic Partner

Why Now?

Jewish life is being reshaped by forces that demand new thinking: demographic change, technological disruption, rising antisemitism, and a generation of leaders facing questions no playbook has answered yet.

This is exactly the moment UpStart was built for. Our methodology is field-tested. Our network runs deep. Our outcomes are measurable.

The opportunity ahead is to move from program provider to field catalyst, shaping how the entire Jewish innovation ecosystem learns, builds, and grows together.

OUR PHILOSOPHY:
When innovation is taught, shared, and sustained, creativity becomes enduring and impact multiplies.

Why Us?

UpStart has always been where bold ideas meet the support they need to grow. In this next chapter, we’re going further, connecting data to insight, ideas to investment, and innovation to the kind of sustainability that lets great work compound over time.

We’ve spent two decades earning the trust of builders, funders, and institutions across the Jewish world. We know the field, we know the methodology, and we know what it takes to make change stick. No one else sits at this intersection, and that’s exactly why we’re the ones to build what comes next.

By FY29:

TRAIN

1,000+

Leaders and Educators
in JSIE framework

SUPPORT

300+

Ventures and Institutional
Innovators through
programming

ENABLE

100+

Organizations to formally
adopt JSIE frameworks for
Program Design and
Leadership Development

Conclusion

This plan lays the foundation for a more connected, efficient, and enduring Jewish innovation ecosystem – one that pairs entrepreneurial energy with the systems that make collaboration last.

Through three pillars (Innovate with Jewish Wisdom, Empower the Builders, and Strengthen the Systems) UpStart will ensure Jewish innovation is not a passing movement but a sustained force shaping the Jewish future.

Rooted in gratitude for those who built this field, and guided by optimism for what we can build next, we now widen the circle, activating a new generation of investors, leaders, and dreamers to bring this vision to life.