It was interesting for me to read the monograph, Good to Great and the
Social Sectors by Jim Collins because I read the business-oriented
book Good to Great for an HR course I took at Baruch a few semesters
ago. While Collins presents a table showing the differences between
business and social sectors on 9 various dimensions (on pp. 32-33), I
was also struck by the fact that Collins emphasizes the “Hedgehog
Concept” as the driving force of effective and sustainable
non-for-profit organizations, and the applications of the concept is
not all that much different from business applications. When an
organization (whether business or non-profit) successfully answers the
essential question, What you can be best at in the world, it is a
blueprint for an engine that can drive fundraising, program
implementation and personnel recruiting.

I have been involved in a 10-year-old organization called Moishe
House, which facilitates inclusive Jewish cultural and educational
experiences for young professionals all over the world, centered
around an urban Jewish communal home. There is now a fair amount of
buzz about this organization, and I have always wondered why it was
more successful at fundraising than other organizations. I recently
participated in a 10th anniversary celebration of Moishe House, where
I realized that the organization’s founder and Executive Director
David has a clear grasp of the “hedgehog concept”: he persuasively
communicates the idea that Moishe House is the best platform to
empower young Jews around the world to create their own ideal Jewish
community, and this is the engine that drives all aspects of the
organization. What I find interesting is that David holds an MBA from
Harvard Business School, so the idea that business management
principles can be effective in the non-profit sector is definitely
manifest in Moishe House.

In Moishe House, I think the Board trust David and his team to develop
the strategic direction of the organization, and the Board is the
backbone that makes the organization’s geographic and program-based
expansion financially possible. I think that in some non-profit
organizations, the Board members are either totally withdrawn, or try
to micromanage the organization. Board members who have succeeded in
business often find that they cannot so easily guide the financial and
operational success of a non-profit. But the Board members of Moishe
House have not tried to over-apply business concepts, perhaps in part
because they know that the organization’s longtime Executive Director
is himself savvy in business based on his background.