WINGS Synagogue Consulting

With an eye focused firmly on the future, the Orthodox Union is determined to help make our synagogues the best they can be, lighting the way to new levels of inspiration, capability, professionalism, and achievement.
This is the task of WINGS—to help shuls do everything better.

The WINGS Team

To bolster the expertise of our creative and energetic in-house staff, we have recruited a select few of North America’s most innovative and accomplished rabbis, executive directors, youth directors, and business experts.

Between them, this team has amassed a vast amount of experience in solving the problems that shuls commonly face. And they have learned lessons from the success stories and the war stories of communities across North America that can be applied to other shuls facing similar situations.

What is a New Growth Synagogue?
A New Growth Synagogue could be in existence for 60 years or for one year. New Growth is not about your synagogue’s age or size, but about its outlook and attitude.

Does your synagogue believe in finding new ways to promote growth and dynamism? Does your synagogue seek means by which to capitalize on state-of-the-art methods of successful development? If the answer is “yes,” then WINGS is for you.

In the following pages, we present some areas in which WINGS can help.

---

Mission Statement and Strategic Planning
From Fortune 500 companies to small-town day schools, all successful organizations invest a considerable amount of time in the development of a mission statement. Why should a synagogue pay any less attention to its mission? A great mission statement will help steer, generate, and structure all of your synagogue’s programs and key decisions.

The WINGS staff is trained in guiding your synagogue in developing the most on-point mission/vision statement. We will also show you how to use your mission statement to increase membership and improve overall involvement.

Mentoring
Your doctor is required to take continuing education courses. Your children’s teachers begin each year with an in-service to learn more about the latest teaching methods. Why should your rabbi, executive director and shul president receive any less than this same level of professional development?

WINGS’ mentoring programs will provide your synagogue’s staff and laity with personal coaching in order to optimize their potential, thereby strengthening your community.

Growing Membership
Putting bodies in the seats is a concern for New Growth synagogues. Making those bodies commit to membership is an additional layer of challenge for the synagogue leadership. WINGS is skilled in harnessing your specific niche in membership growth. We can offer you the advantages of modern research and innovative outreach methods to help build your membership. Find new members and keep them coming.

Program Ideas and Execution
Nothing can create strong synagogue buzz better than a solid program. A well-planned program enables a synagogue to educate, inspire, and inform its members.

Allow WINGS to help you generate original program ideas. Run your events at an affordable price; learn how to “layer” your programs over the course of the year so that you can achieve maximum benefit from them. WINGS will also show you how to make your synagogue activities and initiatives feed into one another so that they generate long-term effects.

The Art of the Shabbaton
The average Orthodox synagogue functions on a day-to-day level. However, with regard to impact, nothing compares to Shabbat. Families, guests, and singles all come together on the weekend, giving you 25 hours to inspire and woo your crowd.

WINGS can develop targeted Shabbatonim designed specifically for your demographic. We go beyond the costly and limited effect of a simple scholar-in-residence weekend to give you an all-inclusive thematic concept that will dazzle your congregants.

Youth Department
Numerous studies have shown that one of the keys to building your synagogue is through children. Families are drawn to synagogues with the best youth programming. Developing creative means by which to expand your youth program is critical to generating a healthy future.

WINGS is equipped with over 300 creative program ideas and structural strategies that will spearhead a winning youth division.

The Committee
Synagogues typically try to pursue many great endeavors, but they often get stuck because they lack the proper support group. Utilizing a committee in the optimal way will bolster your original ideas and invigorate your traditional events.

WINGS does not just stress the importance of a committee; we actually train your lay leadership and inform your staff in the delicate protocol of forming a committee. A sound volunteer group is much more than throwing people together around a table; it is a sophisticated body that needs the tools to work in a synergistic fashion.

Fundraising and Budgeting
How can your shul maximize its budget, and what are the best ways, proven by shuls time and again, to fundraise?

If you are looking to get a sense of how other shuls allocate their budgets, to increase your revenue, or to ensure you are getting the greatest use out of every dollar you spend, ask WINGS to share with you what we have learned from others who mirror your concerns.

Promotion
Promote, Promote, Promote. Synagogues are not above the need to get their message out to the public. You may have the best chazan, rabbi, and program idea, but if nobody gets to hear about them—what have you achieved?

With our six-point plan you will be able to effectively share your strengths and events with those who need to know. Learn how to advertise some of the more significant landmarks of the year without draining your time and budget.

Ask WINGS to help you source the most appropriate designers and printers for your brochures.

The Service
New Growth synagogues can put their best feet forward in the way they conduct their services. A shacharit that moves too slowly may turn off new visitors. A mincha that moves too fast may drain the inspiration out of your synagogue.

Let WINGS help you develop the spirituality and tone of your tefillot with pinpointed suggestions that are based on a knowledge of your constituency and successful practices currently being used in synagogues worldwide.

Office Management
Synagogues face enough challenges; they should not need to also struggle with inefficiencies in the office. Is your executive director given the freedom and guidance needed to develop your programming? Is your secretary taking all-inclusive snapshots for your visitor profiles? Your office should be running like a wellgreased machine.

WINGS will show you professional business model strategies that will allow you to ensure that your synagogue office staff is working together efficiently. We will be your office partner, helping to generate synergy in your synagogue.

Activism and Public Policy
Some synagogues find that being vocal about Israel and social activism boosts their membership. Moreover, a healthy dose of synagogue activism can help bolster synagogue involvement and camaraderie, doing good for your congregation, for Am Yisrael and the world.

WINGS is connected to a wide network of activists and organizations—including the OU’s Washington-based IPA—that can help provide you with dynamic avenues of expression.

WINGS is a consulting initiative of the Karasick Department of Synagogue Services of the Orthodox Union.

Rabbi Judah Isaacs; Director of Community Engagement. Call 212-613-8336. Or email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).