JInnovate
JInnovate fosters creativity and growth within the Jewish community by supporting innovative projects and ideas that address evolving community needs and drive positive change.
What we do
Fostering Creativity and Growth Within the Jewish Community
1

Meeting Evolving Community Needs

As community needs change, it’s essential to develop new approaches to address emerging challenges.

2

Encouraging Community-Led Solutions

Empowering individuals and organizations to propose creative solutions to pressing issues strengthens the community from within.

3

Building a Resilient Future

By investing in innovation, we ensure that the community remains vibrant, adaptable, and prepared for the future.

Our initiatives

Community Grant Programs

Investing in new initiatives and emerging organizations that are serving our community in unique ways rooted in our five impact areas.
Our initiatives

Capacity-Building Programs

Offering training and resources to help community innovators develop their projects and maximize impact.

Strategic support. Sustainable growth. Real results.

Building Capacity for Long-Term Impact

We focus on strengthening organizations from the inside out—helping them build the skills, systems, and strategies needed for sustainable impact. Our capacity-building approach includes:

  • Over 700 hours of pro-bono professional services donated in the last two years

  • $135,000+ in value delivered through volunteer-led projects

  • Areas of support include:

    • Finance and budget creation

    • Strategic planning

    • Marketing and branding

    • Public relations

    • Data and metrics collection

In their words:

“By leveraging the volunteers’ expertise, we can maximize our fundraising efforts through donations, expand our reach, and strengthen our program—ensuring that more children have reliable access to the food they need to thrive.”
Denise B., Executive Director, Backpack Buddies of Metro Atlanta

This is more than support—it’s capacity building that creates lasting change.

Partnership with Alloy Fundraising

JInnovate has partnered with Alloy Fundraising’s Grants Groundwork process to enhance institutional readiness, position the organizations for major funding opportunities, and develop a roadmap for scaling their impact. In its inaugural year, the partnership completed projects for three organizations in Jewish Atlanta.

Our approach combined, 

  • Customized grant writing support, including narrative development, general operating/capacity building language, and a targeted programmatic proposal.
  • Prospect research, identifying highly aligned institutional funders across mission areas such as food and nutrition, youth development, civic engagement, democracy, Jewish philanthropy, and higher education. 
  • Infrastructure recommendations, such as board development, compliance systems, and operational planning.
  • Institutional philanthropy advising, including coaching for foundation funder engagement, outcomes/storytelling, and budget planning.

What We Delivered For Each Organization 

  • Shared Grants Drive: Organization and background files commonly needed for grant applications 
  • Funding Opportunities Comprehensive list of prospective institutional funders and supporting information, such as funder focus areas, average giving, grant deadlines, and more  
  • Core Grant Narratives Modular templates and language that can be used for marketing and donor communications 
  • Wrap-Up Report Key findings on the organizational domains of grant-seeking, including board of directors, internal capacity, budgeting, and strategic planning, with recommendations and next-step action items 

Year 1 By The Numbers 

  • 150+ funding entities presented with accompanying funder profiles
  • 6 grant narratives and communication templates 
  • 9+ strategic coaching sessions with nonprofit organization leaders  
  • Individualized support from five of Alloy’s experienced grant and fundraising professionals 
Measuring our impact
$1.5M
Over $1.5 Million invested in community innovation grants over the past five years.
$72k
Additional $72K provided to 31 different agencies in FY23, funding programs that support justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion.
Women-led
17 out of 22 organizations in the FY24 cohort are founded or led by women.
Testimonials

“I have not been able to stop talking to my friends about all the amazing speakers we heard at the leadership forum. I learned so much about fostering cooperation when we disagree, but also that Black Americans and Jewish Americans have so much in common.”

Avery Adelman

“The professional development, the public awards and recognition, and most importantly, the street cred that we’ve received from being part of Federation’s Innovation Initiative has helped us on our national-scaling efforts.”

Elana Frank

,

Executive Director, Jewish Fertility Foundation

“CCC is so grateful for the opportunity to work with Alloy Fundraising through our JInnovate grant. The passion and expertise their team brought was beyond expectations. We were able to immediately utilize the new grant templates in our current and prospective grant work and we look forward to seeing the results over the next few months. We have already applied to some of the funders they recommended and are in process on researching the rest. Thank you so much for this opportunity!”

Amy Zeide

,

Executive Director, Creating Community Connections 

“Bagel Rescue has received a grant! I wanted to share this one with you since it came directly from your recommendations, as a target foundation, and using the materials you helped me develop.”

Erin Stieglitz

,

Executive Director, Bagel Rescue 

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Fuel innovation in the Jewish community with your donation to our Annual Campaign
Connect with us
Want to learn more?

Reach out to Sam Kurgan at skurgan@jewishatlanta.org.

Investing in Big Ideas: Organizations We’ve Helped Launch, Grow, and Strengthen
Past Recipients Include:

AgeWell Atlanta

OneTable Atlanta (Together@onetable)

Congregation Bet Haverim

Repair the World

Jewish Fertility Foundation

Moishe House

The Blue Dove Foundation

Tikkun Olam Makers (TOM)

Trybal

Be’Chol Lashon

Jewish Education Collaborative

Your Jewish Bridge

JScreen

Ma’a lot

AJOCC

Oak Leaf

TALMA

Hillels of Georgia & BeWell Partnership

Hillels of Georgia Content Creators Program

M²: The Institute for Experiential Jewish Education

🌱Current Cohort Partners:

Bagel Rescue

TOM

BJLOT

Adamah

Jewish Fertility Foundation

Jewish Student Union (JSU)

Summer Institute for Teaching the Holocaust (KSU/Breman)

Backpack Buddies

OpenDor Media

L’dor V’dor

3GATL

Connecting Communities – Alumni Program

The Sandwich Project

Building Community Through Conversation

The Daffodil Project

We’re proud to be a launchpad for organizations meeting real needs, expanding access, and reimagining what’s possible in Jewish life.