Schmooze. Network. Learn. Share. Connect. Inspire. Grow!
The Atlanta Jewish Federation’s Innovation Initiative was born of the enterprising spirit which runs through our Jewish community in an effort to encourage and nurture creative progress in our city and beyond. We are a community idea accelerator created to offer guidance, connections, and resources for our city’s Jewish changemakers from start-ups to legacy organizations.
Jewish Innovation Fund
Federation Innovation By The Numbers
$600k
INVESTED IN COMMUNITY INNOVATION GRANTS OVER 2 YEARS
450
PAIRS OF PEOPLE CURATED IN DEEP MEANINGFUL CONVERSATION
14
COMMUNITY IDEA GENERATION & COLLABORATION SESSIONS
We Empower Changemakers
Courage
We stand up for our innovators and recognize the courage it takes to pursue their ideas and make a difference. Learning from failure is as equally important as celebrating victories.
Progress
Impactful ideas take time, concentration, and adaptability. We provide the space and support necessary to empower our grantees to take measured steps in the right direction toward success.
Connectivity
Our ecosystem of creators actively works together as we offer guidance and resources to bring their ideas to life. From mentorship to education, we connect and equip grantees for viability and success.
About Federation Innovation
Mission
Our mission is to provide guidance, connection, and resources for Atlanta’s future-thinking Jewish community to bring their brightest ideas to fruition in the name of progress.
Vision
Our vision is to create a lasting impact in Atlanta’s Jewish community by fostering a culture of invention, creativity, and progress which ripples through our city and beyond.
What is an Innovator?
What is an innovator? Many perceive the big idea of innovation as a one-in-a-million thinker producing new inventions that change the world. Da Vinci. Edison. Jobs.
Yes, those innovators impacted the world in major ways. But, we believe the potential for innovation exists all over. It’s simply waiting to be recognized.
We see innovation in the willingness to ask “what if?” In the ability to take a step back and gain a new perspective for greater efficiencies. In ideas that impact gradual change in the community, and others that change the world.
Want to learn more?
Email Samantha Kurgan at skurgan@jewishatlanta.org with any questions or comments.
Innovation Fund Application Now Open!
The Federation Innovation Fund accelerates Jewish innovation by investing in transformative, creative, scalable, and community-driven projects and technologies that reimagine Jewish life in Atlanta and across the globe and will catalyze positive change. Open to Federation’s current partners, new collaborators, individuals, and organizations, the Innovation Fund provides funding up to $50,000, plus strategic and infrastructural support. We seek to build a resilient and unified Jewish community by celebrating the ingenuity that drives Jewish Atlanta forward, and by elevating those organizations and ideas that address the contemporary needs of our community. Applications are due March 1, 2023.
Innovation Advisory Committee
Federation Innovation is shaped and steered by a fascinating and eclectic group of people who are all high-level thinkers, doers, and innovators themselves! We’re always looking for people who might want to share their time and talent with us.
Richard Berman
Jill Herskovits Bernstein
Jeremy Borak
Matthew Borenstein
Alexis Cohen
Susan Cohen
Dori DeRossett
Josh Feingold
Rami Genauer
Joey Hurd
Michael J. Kogon
Craig Kunkes
Jason Levine
Brittany Nehmen
Dana Rachel Neiger
Keith Pepper
Mark Rothberg
Evan Shapiro
Ryan Silberman
Mitch Skyler
Michael Sussman
Erica Tritt
Phillip Ventimiglia
Amy Zeide