KESHET INC
For LGBT equality in Jewish life
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Programs and results
What we aim to solve
All Jews should feel at home in the Jewish community. Instead, many LGBTQ Jews, particularly youth, feel alienated and isolated. According to 2021 Gallup survey data, one in six adults in Generation Z identifies as LGBTQ. One in three LGBTQ Americans reported in 2020 experiencing discrimination within the past year. Additionally, The Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that 40% of LGBTQ youth respondents seriously considered attempting suicide in the past twelve months. The report also found that 21% of transgender and nonbinary youth have attempted suicide, and 52% have seriously considered it. Our Jewish values tell us that we must uphold the dignity of every person, and that we are responsible for creating a sense of belonging and mutual care in our own communities. However, Keshet’s experience in communities across the country has demonstrated that – despite good intentions – many Jewish institutions do not know how to be LGBTQ inclusive.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Transforming Jewish Institutions
Keshet’s Education & Training (E&T) team sparks change across every level of Jewish life, from the policies, programs, and cultures of our institutions to the perspectives of our leaders and community members. We offer a comprehensive menu of training programs, consultations, and workshops, including our signature Shivyon Equality Project — a yearlong program of training and consultation for institutions — as well as introductory staff trainings, consultation on specific questions, crisis response, and long-term communities of practice. Keshet integrates the many aspects of Jewish wisdom and tradition — text, ritual, history, holidays, folklore, literature, law, and more — into our Education and Training programs and online resource library of guides.
Supporting and Empowering Teens and 18-24 Year Olds
Keshet’s Youth Programs offer in-person and online experiences that are designed and led by LGBTQ+ Jewish youth themselves, strengthening their sense of confidence and pride, fostering their sense of connection to the broader LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities, and honing their leadership skills so they become part of the LGBTQ+ Jewish leadership pipeline. Our signature LGBTQ and Ally Teen Shabbaton weekend retreats are a powerful, immersive experience for participants, this year on the East Coast and in the Midwest. Our online youth programs provide year-round engagement opportunities and are designed to resonate with diverse communities and identities within the LGBTQ+ Jewish community, including teens who identify as Jews of Color (JOC). Many teens who join us online live in unsupportive households, such that engaging online with Keshet is their only opportunity for connection to LGBTQ+ Jewish community.
Mobilizing Jewish Communities for LGBTQ Rights
Living a Jewish life means affirming human dignity and civil rights for all. Through nonpartisan issue-based advocacy, Keshet mobilizes Jewish communities to protect and advance LGBTQ+ civil rights at the state and national levels. We also work with secular LGBTQ+ movement partners to bring the Jewish voice to LGBTQ+ rights campaigns. In response to the onslaught of legal attacks on LGBTQ+ youth across the country, particularly trans youth, last year we created the new initiative “Thrive: the Jewish Coalition to Defend Trans and LGBQ+ Youth.” We are proud to have recruited 200+ Jewish organizational coalition partners to take action, sending a powerful message to trans youth who have felt so besieged, isolated, and abandoned. Many of our partners, including some synagogues, Jewish social justice organizations, and Jewish Federations, had never before taken on public leadership for LGBTQ+ rights. Through Thrive, our partners can stay informed, develop campaigns, and respond to harm.
Where we work
External reviews
Photos
Videos
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Evaluation documents
Download evaluation reportsNumber of people served by Keshet community partners
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Trained 7,819 staff and leaders from 212 day schools, camps, synagogues, service organizations, JCCs, and other Jewish institutions, which collectively serve over 4.5 million people.
Number of Jewish professionals and lay leaders across the country who were trained by Keshet last year
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Transforming Jewish Institutions
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Trained 7,819 staff and leaders from 212 day schools, camps, synagogues, service organizations, JCCs, and other Jewish institutions, which collectively serve over 4.5 million people.
Number of LGBTQ Jewish teens whose lives were enriched by Keshet programs last year
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Supporting and Empowering Teens and 18-24 Year Olds
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Engaged nearly 1200 individual LGBTQ+ and ally youth in programs and led 98 in-person and online programs for LGBTQ+ and ally youth. 88% of these programs were youth-led100% were planned with youth
# of Jewish institutions and individuals who mobilize for LGBTQ rights
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Related Program
Mobilizing Jewish Communities for LGBTQ Rights
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Mobilized members of 417 Jewish community organizations to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and provided 46 educational trainings. Trained staff and leadership of 21% of Jewish organizations nationally
Goals & Strategy
Reports and documents
Download strategic planLearn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Keshet works for the full equality of LGBTQ Jews in Jewish life. We equip Jewish organizations with the skills and knowledge to build LGBTQ-affirming communities, create spaces in which queer Jewish teens feel valued and, together, take action for LGBTQ rights nationwide.
• We partner with leaders of national and local Jewish organizations and synagogues, offering workshops and trainings that give communal leaders the tools, skills, and confidence to put LGBTQ equality into practice.
• We create opportunities for LGBTQ Jewish teens across the country to come together, develop proud, LGBTQ Jewish identities, and build leadership skills to advance change in their home communities.
• We call on the Jewish community to fight for LGBTQ justice and take action collectively to advance real breakthroughs—from securing marriage equality to transgender civil rights.
• We are an open resource of best practices and educational materials on the intersection of Judaism and LGBTQ equality for anyone seeking to expand their knowledge or apply those resources to their own community.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Keshet sparks change across every level of Jewish life, from the policies of our institutions to the attitudes of community members. Only by building relationships with Jewish leaders, LGBTQ Jews of all ages, and allies can we create progress that lasts.
• We meet people where they are in their journeys to LGBTQ equality and inclusion, giving them the tools they need to take the next step forward.
• Because we partner with today’s and tomorrow’s Jewish leaders, our work changes lives and communities right now while creating a ripple effect of change for the future.
• We fuel progress everywhere LGBTQ people face discrimination in Jewish life, at the individual, institutional, and systemic levels.
• We believe in community-led change. When we inspire and equip Jews of all ages to be allies and advocates for equality in their own communities, we see tangible and lasting progress.
• LGBTQ visibility changes hearts and minds. We lift up the voices of LGBTQ Jews and allies—and encourage them to share their own stories—so their perspectives can make a difference in Jewish life.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
While there are many LGBTQ Jewish small-scale initiatives and several organizations, Keshet is the only organization that advances LGBTQ equality in Jewish life across Jewish movements, types of organizations, populations, and geographies nationwide. To do this work, Keshet utilizes our extensive and deep collaborations with numerous organizations both in local communities and nationally through large-scale partnerships.
Keshet works with a robust and diverse group of Jewish organizations of all movements, types, sizes, and locations to equip them to build LGBTQ-affirming communities. We believe that communities themselves drive the deepest and most sustainable change; we join them in partnership every step of the way. To that end, we partner with local and national organizations to identify their most pressing needs and develop programs and tools to best serve them. We form partnerships with national network organizations such as Jewish Community Center Association, Hillel International, Union for Reform Judaism, Foundation for Jewish Camp, and United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Keshet maintains partnerships with all of the non-Orthodox Jewish youth movements and in recent years also has been working with several Modern Orthodox schools in various parts of the country. Additionally, Keshet staff continually build and strengthen their local connections in communities throughout the country. Our strategic approach results in meaningful collaborations which allow us to continually expand our work and partner with more institutions and networks nationwide.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Keshet works for the full equality of all LGBTQ Jews and our families in Jewish life. We equip Jewish organizations with the tools to build LGBTQ-affirming communities, create spaces for LGBTQ Jewish youth to feel valued as LGBTQ and Jewish, and mobilize the Jewish community to fight for LGBTQ justice nationwide.
While COVID required dramatic adjustments to programming, Keshet approached that challenge as an opportunity to expand our work and reach wider audiences. As the COVID-19 pandemic shut down in-person gatherings nationwide, our Education and Training team redesigned all core trainings to be delivered online. We rethought how learners engage with us and redesigned the interactive portions of our trainings. While online training does pose substantial challenges, it also opens the door to new forms of interactive learning and makes repeat engagements more appealing and accessible. Ultimately, Keshet has actually increased our reach in the last two years.
Our Jewish communities are also in the midst of generational, revolutionary change: as dramatically more young people come out as LGBTQ, their families and communities become more aware that LGBTQ people are fundamentally part of their world. This change is slowly translating into more Jewish institutions seeking Keshet’s support to be more LGBTQ inclusive.
Over the course of the past several years we have learned that it is possible to reach new people and build new relationships via online engagement – including training for institutional change, support and leadership development with LGBTQ young people, and Jewish community mobilization for LGBTQ rights. While Keshet’s gatherings and connections were predominantly online this past year, the impact and value of these events is real and profound.
Meanwhile, throughout this process of having to continually reconfigure Keshet’s programs and plans, our staff have demonstrated tremendous resilience, creativity, and commitment both to one another and to our organization. Despite the constant change and uncertainty of these times, Keshet is thriving and stronger than ever.
We have outstanding results from this past year (available online at our website), which includes significantly expanding Keshet's programming in new directions, including
…Significantly increasing our programs designed by and for LGBTQ Jews of Color (both adults and teens)
…. Launching programming for grandparents and other beloved elders of LGBTQ youth (L’dor Va’dor) to learn about LGBTQ terms, identities, and rights, and to take action for LGBTQ rights …. Adding a fourth region to our work by bringing on Keshet’s Florida Education & Training Manager.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
KESHET INC
Board of directorsas of 11/01/2023
Ari Kristan
Stuart Kurlander
Partner, Latham & Watkins
Idit Klein
President & CEO
Daniel Heller
Harvard Business School
Gali Cooks
President & CEO, Leading Edge
Joy Ladin
David and Ruth Gottesman Professor of English, Yeshiva University
Rabbi Laura Abrasley
Rabbi, Temple Shalom, Newton, MA
Angel Alvarez-Mapp
Owner & CEO, Hello Mazel, San Francisco
Amy Born
Senior Strategist, Leading Edge
Alan Cohen
Chief Health Program Officer, Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA)
Erika Davis
Owner, Kavanah Doula-Birth with Intention
Bennett Decker
Student, Jewish Theological Seminary & Columbia University
Hope Glassman
Program Associate, Footsteps
Debbie Heller
Oren Henry
Attorney, Global Client Management at Visa
Robert Holgate
Robert Holgate Design
Simon Kaminetsky
Director of Philanthropic Initiatives, Greater Miami Jewish Federation
Seth Marnin
Marc Maxwell
Founder, Maxwell Architects
Andrew Nagel
Attorney, private practice
Deborah Newbrun
Co-foundor of Jewish Outdoor Leadership Training (JOLT)
Dara Papo
Director of Support Services, Community Housing Partnerships
Tamar Prager
MPH, RN, NP
Nathan Render
Chief of Staff to the Executive Office, Cambridge Innovation Center (CIC)
Jason Rosenberg
Finance Team, Autodesk
Rabbi Becky Silverstein
Rabbi, Beyn Kodesh l'Chol
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
No data
Transgender Identity
No data
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 03/23/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.