IEJI Clarifies Its Focus to Better Support Promising Jewish Ideas

IEJI Program Director Dara Steinberg and mayberg foundation todd sukol

As demand for its support grows, the Incubator for Emerging Jewish Initiatives (IEJI), a Mayberg Foundation partner, is taking a closer look at who it serves. At a recent strategy meeting, Program Director Dara Steinberg, Board President Todd Sukol and advisor Amanda Mizrahi began defining three kinds of projects IEJI supports: leaders working on their own, projects in their start-up phase, and projects reaching a second stage of complexity, growth and sophistication. The discussion centered on how IEJI provides structure, support and accountability to each.

Starting in late 2025, requests for fiscal sponsorship grew dramatically. In 2026, both new and established projects began reaching out more often with questions. Those requests, along with Dara’s observations about the tailored resources and advice projects needed, led to more advisory conversations on strategy, development and building advisory boards.

Some of IEJI’s earliest projects have also grown substantially. One of them, the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC), spun off an initiative, the DEEP (Developing Embedded Expertise Programs) Consortium, as its own fiscally sponsored project. The needs that drove IEJI’s founding have only intensified given the conditions facing Jewish and nonprofit communities in recent years, so it was a good moment to discuss IEJI’s overall direction and strategy.

Before the meeting, Dara met with IEJI’s fiscally sponsored projects to learn about their experience running their projects and the support they receive, and hope to receive, from IEJI. Needs varied depending on whether a project is run by one person or a team, how long it has existed, and the leader’s past experience in the nonprofit field.

For example, one leader came to IEJI to create a specific educational resource. Once he secured funding and created and distributed the resource, he chose to keep the project going because he saw more opportunities connected to the original work. His challenge was deciding which opportunities to pursue, in what order, and how to budget for a different kind of project than the one he had started, even though the two shared a common thread. IEJI has been helping him develop his ideas and plan for the next stage of the work.

Mayberg foundation managing director amanda mizrahi, dara, and todd discuss ieji’s next chapter over coffee

IEJI’s aim is to make sure that people with a strong spark to create a meaningful project, one with the potential to make a difference, have the support they need to contribute to Jewish life. While IEJI continues to look for projects that are well thought out, the group affirmed that IEJI is also a place for Jewish education and engagement projects with a limited scope, and for ideas that aren’t a sure bet but have enough substance to be worth trying.

“In my years in the nonprofit and philanthropic sectors, I’ve seen that there aren’t enough platforms supporting people who have the passion and drive to do this work but may lack the nonprofit knowledge or infrastructure to do it successfully,” said Dara.

“IEJI's purpose is to support people with the passion to strengthen Jewish life and help them bring their ideas to fruition. As more projects come to us, we owe it to them to be thoughtful about how we provide that support and to build a board that can help IEJI grow alongside them,” said Todd.

What’s Next for IEJI

With a clearer vision for the incubator’s future, IEJI will put greater emphasis on looking for passionate leaders and projects with strong potential, while continuing to provide resources to its existing portfolio. Like many of its projects entering the second stage, IEJI is thinking about governance and about board members who can extend the reach and expertise of its small board. In 2027, IEJI’s leadership expects to determine what a program offering structure, support and accountability should look like, while still providing the flexibility and personalization its projects need to succeed. As the tagline on IEJI’s website puts it: “Our success is others’ success.”

IEJI welcomes ideas on how it can deepen its support of leaders in Jewish education and engagement. Contact Dara at dara@darasteinbergconsulting.com to share your thoughts.