The Orthodox Union has announced six winning nonprofit organizations that it will support through its new Impact Accelerator project.
Launched in early 2018, the OU Impact Accelerator was created to provide mentorship and early-stage funding for Jewish nonprofit entrepreneurs and their ventures.
They range in addressing communal issues such as dealing with at-risk youth, families managing mental illness and offering varied educational opportunities.
“The Impact Accelerator was developed to facilitate social entrepreneurship—to allow creative minds within our community to bring forward new and exciting programming to meet pressing, unmet needs,” said OU executive vice president Allen Fagin. “This creativity—coupled with guidance, mentorship and resources from the OU—will stimulate the growth and development of these crucial endeavors.”
The entrepreneurs will participate in a customized curriculum of coaching, business skills, implementation and funding strategies over the next six to nine months to improve their firms.
“The ventures we chose for the cohort are working on critical issues in our communities,” said OU Impact Accelerator founding director Jenna Beltser. “We are so impressed with the leaders of these organizations and believe in their dedication and capability to change the landscape.”
OU president Moishe Bane said “the hope of the Impact Accelerator was not only to assist and advance early stage Jewish communal projects, but also to encourage a greater focus on social entrepreneurship. The winning selections are introducing new and innovative ways of advancing the Torah study, religious inspiration and our halachicobligation to care for mind and body.”