Local Camp Director Participates in National Fellowship Executive Training for Jewish Leaders

Donations to the annual Community Campaign, through the Jewish Federation of Cincinnati, provide need-based scholarships that allow Cincinnati area Jewish children to attend overnight camp at Camp Livingston and benefit from a summer immersed in a Jewish environment.

Ben Davis, director of Camp Livingston of the Cincinnati Jewish community, has been selected to participate in the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s (FJC) Executive Leadership Institute. Fifteen fellows from nonprofit Jewish camps across North America will receive intensive training in business management, fundraising and leadership skills.

Camp directors work year round, confronting challenges and dealing with issues that a mayor of a town might meet, including overseeing multi-million dollar budgets, hiring and supervising a staff of several hundred, managing communications, supervising physical sites, working with a board of directors, initiating new programs and much more. The Executive Leadership Institute (ELI) is a one-of-a-kind program for the 21st-century camp director, often characterized as an executive MBA program, that weaves together the best of private sector leadership and management training with Jewish values and ethics to create the premier training program for Jewish camp professional leaders.

This third cohort of ELI is again made possible because of a generous grant from the Marcus Foundation, bringing the Marcus Foundation’s total donation to FJC to almost $3 million and providing continued support for an innovative project with a proven track record of success.

Those within the camp field, and in the Jewish communal world more broadly, view the Executive Leadership Institute as a program that successfully produces professional leaders with the vision, presence and skill to create change and excellence. The fellowship consists of six seminars over the course of 14 months, executive coaching and the use of customer satisfaction survey instruments, among other vital tools. With two cycles completed, the program has also created a certain esprit de corps among its graduates, generating a vital network of camp directors who support one another in becoming vision-driven leaders.

“Camp directors operating in 2012 and beyond require the training and tools necessary to make their camps and the camp field flourish,” explains Jeremy J. Fingerman, CEO of the Foundation for Jewish Camp. “Adapting lessons from the private sector, ELI provides fellows with the necessary skills to raise the status of Jewish camping, grow their individual camps, compete in this competitive climate and simply be better directors.”

Camp Livingston offers an unmatched Jewish summer experience for children and teens. For over 90 years, Camp Livingston has provided a safe and nurturing environment where campers gain self esteem and confidence and form lifelong friendships with their camp friends, all within a fun and exciting Jewish atmosphere. Visit camplivingston.com for more information.

The Foundation for Jewish Camp (FJC) is the only public organization dedicated solely to nonprofit Jewish overnight camps. FJC employs a variety of strategies toward a single goal: to increase the number of children in Jewish summer camps. To this end, the Foundation creates inspiring camp leaders, expands access to and intensifies demand for camp and develops programs to strengthen camps across the Jewish spectrum in North America. Through strategic partnerships on local and national levels, FJC raises the profile of Jewish camp and serves as a central resource for parents and organizations alike. FJC works with more than 150 camps, 70,000 campers and 10,000 counselors across North America each summer to further its mission. Visit jewishcamp.org for more information.

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