The CANVAS Compendium: Dispatches from the New Jewish Renaissance
When we think about growing a sector, we first think about money. Recognizing that the Jewish arts and culture sector was dramatically under-resourced, the funding partners at CANVAS prioritized getting dollars into the field as quickly as possible. In our first year of grantmaking, which coincided with the start of the pandemic, CANVAS distributed more than $750,000 to the field, including emergency grants and funds supporting collaborative partnerships between CANVAS grantees, artists, and museums.
Since the spring of 2020, CANVAS has given more than $3.1 million in total funding to the sector. And as we shared recently, the number of grantee partners in the CANVAS community has now grown to 24. Collectively, these organizations represent more than 3,000 professional creatives making visual art, films, books, poems, theatre, and more.
Jewish arts and culture is not a hobby—it’s an industry. The work is vital to our sense of peoplehood, possibility, and cross-cultural understanding. This is why dollars can’t be the only contribution we make to this sector, and why CANVAS functions not just as a grantmaker, but as an advocate, a convener, and a field-builder.
And you can’t build a successful field without well-supported leadership.
So, with the encouragement of our Executive Committee and the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation, we launched the first phase of the CANVAS Leadership Pilot Program in 2023. The project is directly related to our efforts to encourage and support the 21st century Jewish cultural renaissance and has been designed to ensure that the field’s leaders have access to the kinds of tools, mentors, and experiences that will foster growth and strengthen community.
That design is the handiwork of CANVAS strategic advisor and leadership coach Regan Solmo. Regan has 25 years of experience as a leader in the corporate magazine publishing sector, with 15 years building, managing, and leading editorial teams at major publishing houses, such as Hearst and Condé Nast—10 of them as Executive Managing Editor of W Magazine.
In the nonprofit world, Regan has a decade of experience serving on and leading boards of nonprofits dedicated to dismantling gender inequity—as the first-ever New York Board Chair of Girls Leadership, as a two-term Board Member of The New York Women’s Foundation, and as Director of Individual Giving for the Student Leadership Network, building major donor relationships and securing six-figure, multi-year gift commitments.
Currently, Regan advises nonprofit leaders and their boards on goal-setting and leadership strategy; staffing, budget, and management issues; and capacity-building through clear communication and energizing all stakeholders. She has run numerous successful executive search, placement, and onboarding efforts. Regan lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son.
We asked Regan a few questions about the CANVAS Leadership Pilot program.
Tell us how the program works.
The CANVAS Leadership Pilot Program is a two-year series of capacity-building programming, mentoring, resources, and gatherings for CANVAS grantees. It’s available to all senior staff and Board leadership of current CANVAS grantees.
Any additional spots will be made open to senior staff/Board of past CANVAS grantees. New CANVAS grantees are invited as they join the CANVAS community.
The first two years of the program include:
- A curated slate of online workshops focused on capacity-building and leadership issues
- Access to easy-to-use capacity-building tools and resources
- Access to CANVAS’s by-invitation-only community Listserv
- In-person gatherings for information-sharing and networking among peers
- Individual mentoring sessions with vetted experts from CANVAS’s wide professional network.
How did you design the program?
We started with regular surveys and needs assessments from all CANVAS grantees. Once we knew that capacity-building was an area they wished to learn more about, Lou Cove, Sarah Burford, the rest of the CANVAS team, and the CANVAS Board and Executive Committee began to think about what CANVAS could offer its grantees beyond material support. We wanted to focus our program on a more general theme of leadership, with the foundational understanding that one’s approach to one’s own leadership—being able to clearly articulate a vision, set a path to achieving it, and motivating stakeholders along the way—is the key to sustainable capacity-building for any organization.
It’s not just about “dialing for dollars”—that’s a short-term approach that never lasts. Lou speaks wisely about “teaching people to fish,” rather than fishing for them, and that guiding philosophy runs through all of our programs and one-on-one mentoring sessions. That’s why Executive Mentors don’t provide “product” or help Grantees with fundraising, but rather offer time-tested guidance, advice, and analysis.
Each CANVAS grantee is at a different point on their leadership journey, and while everyone wants more financial growth, they all have different contexts, philosophies, comfort levels, and stakeholders to consider. This clearly could not be a “one-size-fits-all” kind of program, and has to be able to move and be nimble.
What was the process of organizing it?
It was important to CANVAS that we thoughtfully build and iterate a program that is not specifically a set cohort, with a set curriculum. Since CANVAS’s grantees vary rather wildly in terms of organization size, management challenges, board involvement, and approach, we had to design something that was flexible and iterative, while also putting a frame around it so that it feels substantial and can be replicated over time with new grantees. This is where the fun is for me—thinking about how best to build the machine, then amassing all the knowledge and materials for its efficient construction—while also tinkering with the gears along the way.
We put a lot of thought into the mentoring component of the program. Some leaders expressed interest in working one-on-one with a mentor, so we wanted to be sure that CANVAS grantees felt comfortable expressing their more private thoughts and challenges in mentoring sessions. We spent a lot of time choosing the right mentors from our own network, and creating confidentiality guidelines that would draw a bit of a protective border around CANVAS grantee and Executive Mentor relationships.
Since CANVAS is a funder, we wanted grantees to feel comfortable letting their mentor look “under the hood” without worrying about anything sensitive “getting back” to the funder that they weren’t comfortable with. So while we are ultimately encouraging an open dialogue and transparency within our growing community of practice, it was important that we think this part through carefully, and clearly communicate it to all mentors and grantees.
We also thought specifically about how to design monthly grantee programs that are targeted to specific capacity-building topics, while also simply providing open, safe spaces where leaders can share what they are dealing with in the moment. Both aspects have been crucial for fortifying and nurturing a community of practice among CANVAS grantees. For example, following October 7, Lou and Sarah felt it was important to make the monthly grantee space available to all CANVAS leaders to just be together and discuss whatever was top of mind. It was urgent, vital work—and naturally it pushed some other topics to the side. This was an important modeling of leadership on CANVAS’s part—recognizing the time to pivot, be responsive to the community, and (temporarily) scrap the plan.
This customized approach is resource-intensive and costs more, but we think it’s worth it. (If you’re interested in supporting the Leadership Pilot Program, write us at hello@bycanvas.org.)
Whom did you talk to while developing it?
In addition to the incredibly knowledgeable and experienced members of CANVAS’s Board and Executive Committee, we also received advice from many in the CANVAS ecosystem. We particularly received invaluable, constructive direction and advice from Malka Travaglini from Barr-Klarman Massachusetts Arts Initiative. Also, Ashley Berendt from TDC, Anyu Silverman from the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Philanthropies, and Aliza Mazor from UpStart Lab were extremely generous with their time and insights. I also pulled in a number of experts from my own professional and personal networks, from decades of management and capacity-building in both the private and nonprofit sectors.
What are your hopes for CANVAS grantee leaders?
Managing and leading can be really lonely, especially when there’s a challenge that needs to be faced (which is every day, generally!). I hope that CANVAS leaders will find community and support with their Executive Mentors, with me and the rest of the CANVAS team, and with each other. Sometimes just having a trusted person to bounce ideas, challenges, frustrations, or fears off of can make all the difference in a leader’s ability to roll with things, move forward, and make the tough decisions.
What do CANVAS grantee leaders need?
Everybody needs more financial support! But well beyond that, every leader needs support in articulating their goals for their organization; help sketching out a clear roadmap for achieving those goals (financial, staffing, etc.); and strategic advice for bringing their stakeholders along to make it all happen. Whether you have a staff of one or two dozen, whether your Board is a “working” Board or advisory, this is where the work can get really interesting.
Between individual Executive Mentors, group programming, the CANVAS Listserv, in-person events, and an overall community of practice, we’re hoping that CANVAS can provide some of this support and be a place for learning and growth for all grantees, no matter what their particulars.
What are you most excited about?
Talking with CANVAS grantees and pairing them with individual mentors who can help address their particular leadership and capacity-building needs has been a joyful puzzle for me to solve, one that utilizes my own extensive leadership, team-building, and management experience. One grantee said they needed a data-driven accountability partner, so I paired them with a very patient and methodical former development director who can help them think through each week’s outreach priorities. Another grantee needs more staff-building help and specific advice on managing their Board, so I paired them with a former Board chair with considerable Board-building and management experience. A third is thinking about long-term organizational direction and growth, so we paired them with someone who specializes in strategic mapping and Board motivation. I’m thrilled to see how well the pairings are going so far—some fruitful collaborations!
How is the reaction so far?
I’ll let them speak for themselves…
“My first meeting with my Executive Mentor was fantastic. I feel energized and supported to make some big moves and I am so grateful to get this support. More exciting things to come!”
—Willow Jade Norton, Executive Director of Alliance for Jewish Theater
“I can’t thank you enough for my Executive Mentor. She is a terrific sounding-board, guide, rock in stormy waters, and light at the end of the tunnel. And all this with great smiles, enthusiasm and optimism. She is helping me all over the place: establishing the basic guidelines for running a non-profit, harnessing the power of volunteers, planning for the future, advising on fundraising, and more. It is a dream come true.”
—Yona Verwer, Executive Director of Jewish Art Salon
“The meetings with my Executive Mentor are always the highlight of my week. She has been wonderful in helping me think about the type of leader I want to be.”
—Sam Mogelonsky, Director of Arts, Culture and Heritage, UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and convener of the Kultura Collective
Calling all filmmakers! The Jewish Film Institute is now accepting applications through March 1st for the 2024 JFI Completion Grants. Apply by March 1 for finishing funds here.
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