We had a wonderful time at the Executive Director Share (EDS) event organized by the Torah Educators Network in the beautiful city of St. Petersburg, Florida! It was an excellent opportunity to connect, engage, and collaborate with our existing Jewish school partners, as well as to meet new school administrators and share the value of our connected network of school solutions. Here are a few of our favorite moments from the event we wanted to share with our readers.
Community Brands team members Frank Ranieri and Sam Rosenfeld at EDS 2023.
From Our Team
Sam Rosenfeld, Director of Solution Strategy, and Frank Ranieri, Financial Aid Account Executive, attended EDS on behalf of Community Brands. They had a wonderful time connecting in person with school leaders and immersing themselves in the many informative sessions throughout the event.
“The administrators and teachers attending EDS aim to create safe, resilient, and impactful places of learning for Jewish communities nationwide. School administrators and industry thought leaders led and attended sessions on a wide array of topics, including enhancing campuses from educational and security lenses, building sustainable operations to streamline and expand student admissions and retention, and engaging school boards and potential donors to develop schools of the future,” Sam shared.
Sam also shared insight about the impactful keynote session: “We particularly enjoyed the keynote speaker, Dr. Avi Helfand, who spoke to the legal landscape facing religious schools seeking public funding and nearly a century of changes in local, state, and federal interpretations of the First Amendment’s impact on faith-based educators and schools across the country.”
Another standout session was led by Renee Davis of the Evolve Giving Group. It was titled, “Using Data for Planning and Accountability: For You, for Your Leadership, and for Your Board.” Renee gave schools effective donor data management strategies to help development directors better track goals, measure fundraising campaign effectiveness, and enhance outreach strategies.
Finding ways to track highly engaged donors and building dashboards as simple as spreadsheets can bring schools from reactive fundraising goals to predictive and insight-driven campaigns. Our team was excited to be able to contribute the advantages that GiveSmart by Community Brands provides schools in need of these capabilities and look forward to working with EDS attendees to build better fundraising databases per Renee’s recommendation.
Sam and Frank meet Nachum Joel, a member of the international hit Jewish acapella group “The Maccabeats,” and the current Chief Operating Officer of Samuel A. Fryer Yavneh Hebrew Academy!
Thank You for Joining Us!
We want to extend our gratitude to all those who attended EDS 2023, hosted wonderful workshops, and stopped by our booth to chat. It was a pleasure connecting with you and learning more about the incredible work you do at your schools. We look forward to staying in touch, and for a more in-depth conversation about how our solutions serve schools, please set up a time to chat with one of our experts.