Village Chabad

“We are a Chabad house in a small but affluent community. Although it's small in numbers, we try to bring the activities and experiences we give people onto a higher level. I’ve seen that when it comes to giving and philanthropy, it's not just about putting up a fundraiser, making an annual thing and we're good. We had to figure out what we could do on a consistent basis that would give people not just a good feeling about giving, but a real reason why they're giving to our organization. What we have to express to them, in one word, is our impact. So we needed somebody who could help us convey that message to the community. We needed a storyteller.

Everyone who spoke about Shterna was like, this is a high-level nonprofit expert that you can turn to.

Before we started working together, when we had our meetings, there was a feeling that she truly understands my organization, my work. She was very helpful with ideas even before I became her client. She was just present in the conversation, and you felt like she cared about you and the organization and the work that you're doing. She also really wanted to make it work for my specific situation and my organization, and she tried to be flexible.

Just by [Shterna and her team] asking the right questions and then knowing how to figure out what the story is in any given situation, it is very helpful. I'm not one of those people that have “stories” all the time, but I'm doing a lot of things, and they were [able to find the stories in that.] There's definitely something [unique] about her understanding the things that I'm saying, understanding the work that I'm doing, really understanding it. She is also very open to feedback and always takes it very professionally.

What she is doing that I didn't have before, is really having people in the community understand the value of what we're bringing to the table.

Until we had this, some people knew me on a personal level, but hadn’t been engaged in any activity, and now they have a place where they actually understand the scope of things. But even people who were engaged – no one's coming to everything, so if somebody's involved in one of the elements of the community, now we're giving people a storyline, and a bigger scope of what the organization is all about.

For me, this is a very big priority in the community. We think everybody knows, everybody comes, they see everything. People actually don't know much. So I think this is a huge thing. Practically, I've been hearing excellent feedback from people on how happy they were to see it.

It gives donors a good understanding of where their dollars are going, and it gives people a reason to give and to continue giving.”

-Rabbi Mayer Brook