Our community adapts and changes quickly – so much so that it can be hard to keep up! This JMAP dashboard measures things that community members value and will be updated annually so we can see change over time.

This data is an open invitation to engage for change. Identify a problem, try out a solution and see what happens. The dashboard aggregates data from across synagogues and agencies, so everyone’s efforts can be reflected in one spot.

JMAP Reflects Many Voices in Our Community

What makes for a vibrant, enduring Jewish community? Thanks to honest input from the community, the JMAP study revealed three essential pillars:

Welcoming, Inclusivity & Engagement

This pillar measures how community members connect and engage with the community, the barriers, and how we can improve to include all voices. Learn More

Organizations & Leadership

This pillar measures the community’s ability to provide leadership and financial resources today and in the future. Learn More

Jewish Programming Priorities

This pillar measures the priority programs named by JMAP survey respondents, including current offerings, participation rates, and eventually their impact. Learn More

The JMAP Dashboard: what it is, how to use it

What it is
Based on responses from the JMAP study, the JMAP dashboard measures what community members value most. We will track progress through yearly updates.

How to use it
Is there a number on the dashboard that concerns you? Convene a group of people or organizations to plan for improvements, and then see how your efforts move the needle on next year’s dashboard. If you don’t see what you want on the dashboard, you’re in luck – we are already working on additions and improvements for next year’s updates! As with any project, we’ll get better over time, and this dashboard will change and evolve just was we do.

Jmap Region

JMAP: The Background Story 

In June 2016, more than 1,200 community members across Greater Hartford shared their perspectives through the JMAP online survey, resulting in  the collection of 1.2 million data points. Numerous conversations about the data happened throughout our community. A chorus of community voices helped uncover the three essential pillars that make for a vibrant, enduring Jewish community. These pillars provide a baseline on which to measure our progress year over year. How is our community doing in relation to the pillars? Find out for yourselves, explore the JMAP Dashboard firsthand!

Understanding Greater Hartford’s Jewish Community, Understanding our Future.

Welcoming, Inclusivity & Engagement Dashboard

This pillar measures how community members connect and engage with the community, the barriers, and how we can improve to include all voices.

Welcoming, Inclusivity & Engagement Dashboard

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Total Community Volunteers from 27 agencies and synagogues

2019: 2,137 people

2018: 2,154 people

Details

Volunteers help our community thrive. This is a total of volunteers across all reporting organizations, including board members. Slight variance from year to year could be in part because of events in 2018 that included more volunteers.

The Welcoming Spaces scale analyzed how welcoming practices on websites, phone, and entryways across 27 organizations.

Overall, the community rated a 7.85 out of 10 in 2018.

Details

Based on the work of Big Tent Judaism, an organization that provided a community-wide assessment of Greater Hartford’s welcoming practices in 2012, we developed a 20-point index. The index addresses websites, physical spaces, and email and phone queries. For a full list of the index points,

LEARN MORE

Total Synagogue Memberships from 8 synagogues in Greater Hartford

2019: 3294 households

2018: 3314 households

Details

Aggregate number of households across all participating synagogues. 

Organizations and Leadership

This pillar measures the community’s ability to provide leadership and financial resources today and in the future.

Organizations & Governance

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Average Board size across 27 agencies and synagogues:

20 people

Details

When boards get too big, engagement can suffer. When boards get too small, effectiveness can suffer. That’s why the JMAP Dashboard now includes average board size. A 20-member board is within the range of best practice, which is generally 14-24 people.

In 2019, the community welcomed

67 new board members,

averaging three per institution.

Details

A consistent pipeline of new leadership is important for community continuity and planning. With 67 new board members across 27 agencies and synagogues, the community welcomed many new faces to leadership, and has a responsibility to train and cultivate these and future new leaders.

50/50 Men & Women

across 27 agencies and synagogues

Details

Leadership diversity is important to effectiveness, and boards are at their best when they represent their communities. Across 27 agencies and synagogues, about half of all board members are men and half women. Other aspects of board diversity are important consideration, although some more difficult to measure.

64% attendance

across 10 agencies

Details

Attendance at board meetings is an important measure of board member engagement. For this measure, we asked agencies to report attendance from their previous three board meetings, and averaged them. If organizations have low turnout for board meetings, its important to address the issue and ensure board members are engaged and active.

2019: 8.56/10

2018: 8.44/10

across 16 agencies

Details

This index consists of ten essential requirements for every governing body. Each component counts for one point, and the number reported here is based on an average across all reporting organizations. For a complete list of the components,

LEARN MORE

Leadership

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292 Unique users

12 programs

16 agencies and synagogues

 

Details

Data provided by the Jewish Leadership Academy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford for 2018-2019.

Median Average for CEO and/or Senior Rabbi: 5.5 years

Range: 6 months to 31 years

Details

Retention and succecssion planning for professional leadership is an important part of organizational success. This information is from data provided by 15 agencies and 5 synagogues.

Financial Health

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Surplus:
5 organizations

Break Even:
4 organizations

Deficit:
4 organizations

Compared to 2018 when 6 organizations ran a deficit.

Details

Deficit/surplus in relation to expenses was calculated by comparing budget versus expenses from 990s and financial statements across 13 agencies, with 2 agencies improving from last year. Break even was determined as any organization +/-3% budget vs. expenses. This measure is one way to understand financial health, but should be reviewed in context of an overall financial picture.

2018: $91.3 million

2017: $84.7 million

Details

Endowments provide funding for nonprofit organizations in perpetuity, ensuring community sustainability. This is an aggregated number across multiple institutions.

2018: $14.8+ million

2017: $13.3+ million

from 15 agencies

Details

This is one measure of the overall community’s fundraising ability. It aggregates fundraising dollars from the last fiscal year, as reported by 15 agencies. It does not include synagogue fundraising.

Details

The Family Median Income in a given geographic area. The median is the middle value when all are arranged from highest to lowest. Source

2016 unemployment data for Greater Hartford is expressed as a percentage of the available work force that is not employed. Source

Cost of living indices are based on a US average of 100; amounts below 100 mean the area is below the US average, amounts above 100 mean the area is above. Source 

Median home price is the middle value when all the sales prices of homes are arranged from lowest to highest. This is considered a good indicator, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. Source

Jewish Programming Priorities

This pillar measures the priority programs named by JMAP survey respondents, including current offerings, participation rates, and eventually their impact.

Jewish Programming Priorities Dashboard

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2019: 312 children

2018: 323 children

Enrollment for kids ages 0 – Pre-K at four Early Childhood Centers.

2019: 754 children

2018: 857 children

Number of children in three Jewish day and six synagogue supplemental schools.

2019: 1271

2018: 1290

across three local Hillels.

2018-2019:
9 programs

2017-2018:
11 programs

Measures Israel programs formally sponsored by a local agency or synagogue

 

2019: 945 teens

2018: 777 teens

 

Details

Teens participating in any youth program including JTConnect, synagogue youth groups and regional youth movements. Likely includes some duplication.

Summer 2019:
161 children

Summer 2018:
162 children

Enrollments from five overnight camps in Southern New England.

2018-2019:
1522 Sessions

2017-2018:
1571 Sessions

across 13 agencies and synagogues

Details

Counts as any instance of a Jewish educational event or program specifically for adults at 6 synagogues and 7 agencies. When a series, each meeting time (session) was counted as one.For example, weekly Torah study across 26 weeks at one synagogue would be counted as 26 sessions.

829 Sessions

across 7 agencies and synagogues

Details

Counts as any instance of an event or program specifically for young children (4th grade and below) at seven synagogues and agencies. When a series, each meeting time (session) was counted as one. For example, weekly tot shabbats across 26 weeks at one synagogue would be counted as 26 sessions.

2018-2019:
303 sessions

2017-2018:
278 sessions

across 6 agencies and synagogues

Details

Counts as any instance of an open social or educational event or program provided by Jewish agencies specifically for seniors at 6 synagogues and agencies. When a series, each meeting time (session) was counted as one. This does not include the hundreds of Jewish programs provided to seniors through Hebrew SeniorCare’s Hoffman Summerwood and Adult Day Center, or through Federation Homes.

2018-2019:
7 programs

2017-2018:
1 program

across two organizations

Details

Number of program series offered by 2 agencies and synagogues specifically for an audience of interfaith families, intermarried couples or others interested in learning about interfaith family needs.

2018-2019:
6 inclusion programs

across 6 agencies and synagogues

Details

Number of program series offered by 6 agencies and synagogues specifically for in celebration of the LGBTQ+ community or to train professional staff and community members on LGBTQ+ inclusion.

Plans for the Future

This dashboard will improve over time, as we deepen our understanding and the community’s ability to track data.  Future iterations will include more, better measures. Here are a few examples. 

Welcoming, Inclusivity & Engagement

Measures of inclusivity: include information about accessibility to physical spaces, inclusion efforts for people of all ages and life stages, and more. 

Track public space Judaism programs such as Rosh Hashanah in the Park, where anyone can walk by and take part. 

Organizations

Cost of Participation: An economic index or model that identifies the costs of taking part in the Jewish community, based on many possible choices and scenarios.

Jewish Programs

Measures of quality: impact should always be measured in more than numbers of people attending, but evaluating quality is difficult. A task force of educational professionals and programming professionals will convene to develop good measures of quality for different categories. 

The JMAP Dashboard would not be possible without the participation of local agencies and synagogues. Our thanks and appreciation go to these organizations, who carefully reported their data for the benefit of our entire community!