Staff

A team of experienced staff work directly with professional staff and board members of affiliated camps.
















 

Consulting Team

Sarah M. Eisinger 
Sarah M. Eisinger joined JCamp 180 in 2019 with more than twenty years’ experience in the nonprofit sector. In the director role, she sets the strategic direction of the department and guides a high-performing team. Previously, Sarah held positions in philanthropy and in the economic development fields. Throughout her career, she has funded, coached and consulted to hundreds of nonprofit organizations across North America. For the decade prior to joining HGF, Sarah specialized in developing nonprofit facilities. She was executive director of the Nonprofit Centers Network, an organization that promoted nonprofit shared space and resources and then served in the real estate department of MassDevelopment, the state economic development agency. Sarah co-authored the book Shared Space and the New Nonprofit Workplace, under Oxford University Press, and winner of the 2019 Terry McAdam Book Award from The Alliance for Nonprofit Management. She holds a master’s degree in urban policy analysis and management from The New School and has held the LEED accredited professional certificate.  Sarah grew up at Jewish camp as a camper and counselor at Camp Shalom, a day camp in Madison, WI. Her home camp is Camp Interlaken JCC in Wisconsin where she was a camper, counselor and program director and now family camp participant.

Elizabeth Kaplan
Elizabeth Kaplan is JCamp 180's program coordinator. She has 10 years of experience as a Jewish educator and Jewish professional with skills in program management and design, family and community engagement, conference and event planning, and building partnerships. Elizabeth has held year-round and seasonal positions at a variety of different Jewish summer camps, including URJ-affiliated, Independent, and JCC camps. She joins JCamp 180 from her most recent job as the Assistant Director of Camp Laurelwood.

Elizabeth holds a master's degree in Public Health from Tufts University and a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Brown University.

Kevin Martone 
Kevin is JCamp 180's senior program manager. Since joining JCamp 180 in 2007, Kevin has supported many camps in reviewing, selecting, and implementing technology to reach their fundraising and outreach goals. His primary areas of consulting services at JCamp 180 are donor/gift data collection, enhancement and hygiene; communications planning; and fundraising technology assessment. Kevin also manages JCamp 180's communications and supports our year-round learning offerings. He also serves on the JCamp 180 annual conference planning committee which is designed to meet the needs of professional staff and their lay leaders of our 130+ affiliated Jewish camp and partner organizations across North America.
 
Before joining JCamp 180, Kevin worked at Deloitte Consulting, helping clients utilize technology solutions to meet their goals. People who work with him say that Kevin is optimistic, clear, and patient. Kevin holds a BS in Operations Research and Industrial Engineering from Cornell University. He enjoys reading non-fiction books and leveraging learning from those books in our work with camps, with a soft spot for the Heath Brothers, Seth Godin, and Daniel Pink.
 
Content Expertise

  • Donor database functionality
  • Communications planning
  • Online communications best practices
  • Online learning

 

Tara Acker 
Tara has been a mentor for JCamp 180 since 2017 supporting Jewish day and overnight camps to develop strategic plans, to strengthen governance practices of both fiduciary boards and non-fiduciary camp committees, and to provide coaching on fundraising best practices, including legacy fundraising, and helping camps build a culture of philanthropy. 

In addition, she has over 15 years of experience with adaptive leadership training which has been incorporated into the training curriculum of JCamp 180’s Leadership Engagement and Advancement Program (LEAP) intended for board chairs and vice-chairs. 

Since 2018, Tara has served on the JCamp 180 Conference Planning Committee to design an annual conference that meets the needs of over 700 professional staff and their lay leaders from our 130+ affiliated Jewish camps and partner organizations across North America.  

Before joining JCamp, Tara worked in the public sector including as director of SomerStat for the City of Somerville, MA.  In this role, she provided analytical and executive support to the Mayor to help make Somerville a well-managed, transparent, and high-impact city government. She oversaw 10 city departments, whose combined activities accounted for 95 percent of the City’s direct spending and generated most of the City’s service-related revenue.

Tara also cofounded a 501c3 nonprofit organization that provides adaptive leadership training within the peace-building arena and currently serves on the board.
People who work with Tara say that she is innovative, flexible, and a creative big picture thinker who pays attention to detail. 

Tara received her bachelor's degree from Boston University and a master's degree from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Content Expertise

  • Strategic Planning
  • Board Governance and Committees
  • Fundraising
  • Adaptive Leadership Training and Leadership Coaching
  • Conference Planning

Natasha Dresner
Since joining JCamp 180 in 2005, Natasha has supported dozens of Jewish Camps in areas of organizational development such as governance and board development, fundraising, Executive Director development, and strategic planning.  She also directs JCamp 180’s professional development program “LEAP” for camp board chairs and vice-chairs as she admires their passion and commitment to camp.

Natasha’s primary areas of consulting services are nonprofit governance and board development (she’s a BoardSource Certified Governance Trainer), leadership training and coaching, comprehensive fundraising, evaluation, culture change, as well as strategic prioritization and positioning.

Before Harold offered Natasha a job at JCamp 180, she co-founded a reform congregation “HaTikvah” in Kiev, Ukraine, worked for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. She was also an Executive Director of a synagogue in MA, and did lots of private consulting. Natasha obtained her MBA from the European University in 1999, and she fell in love with Jewish camp (as a madricha) at the first Jewish camp gathering offered to the entire Former Soviet Union Jewry in Western Ukraine in 1993. 

People who work with Natasha say that she’s caring, capable, and fun to work with. To her, vibrant Jewish camps and communities are more than a job, but a passion and a part of who she is.
 
Content Expertise

  • Nonprofit governance and board development
  • Individual and group leadership training and coaching
  • Organizational structure and culture, including succession planning and leadership transition (lay and staff)
  • Fundraising program development, including major donor program development/strategy
  • Development staff coaching
  • Strategic planning, thinking, and positioning

Mark P. Gold 
Mark joined the JCamp 180 team in 2011 as the Program Director.  Now working at a more leisurely (semi-retired) pace, he continues to contribute to the JCamp 180 program, supporting a limited number of camps and the JCamp 180 professional development programs with a focus on financial analysis and reporting. 

Prior to joining the Harold Grinspoon Foundation and JCamp 180, Mark was a Technology manager of a Fortune 50 company providing applications support to both internal and external customers. 

With an advanced degree in engineering and an MBA, Mark’s strength is in the areas of financial reporting and review.  He also has expertise in individual coaching, Strategic Planning, capital project planning and oversight, and multi-variable decision making.  Mark’s analytic approach to problem-solving has been impactful in helping camps with limited resources prioritize from among multiple options. 

Content Expertise

  • Financial reporting, and communications within finance committees and the board 
  • Coaching to maximize individual contributions
  • Capital project planning and oversight 
 

Laurie Herrick 
Laurie is a fundraising consultant and entrepreneur with over twenty years of experience in the not-for-profit sector. She began her work with JCamp 180 in 2007. The emphasis of Laurie’s work is in creating fundraising breakthroughs by empowering leaders to build a healthy Culture of Philanthropy within their organizations.  It is through fostering this culture shift that Laurie fulfills her personal mission to make positive social change. She has done this through consulting as well as being a director of professional development programs with the Harold Grinspoon Foundation.
 
She started GIFT, a program for development professionals which ran for seven years before launching a team approach program called GIFT Leadership Institute (GLI). GLI requires a team composed of executive and lay leaders who collaboratively create and implement a Culture of Philanthropy plan. The participants in this course find the course to be transformative, and insightful and it has a powerful impact on their fundraising success. 
 
Over her career, Laurie has served in numerous professional and volunteer roles. She’s been a development director, executive director, board member, and board chair of a variety of non-profit organizations. These experiences led to her profound awareness of the challenges they were facing.  One of the noteworthy obstacles she observed in her role as a consultant was the way the culture, and specifically, a destructive mindset of scarcity got in the way of fundraising success. 
 
In 2002, Laurie started Rainmaker Consulting LLC, which provides fundraising and Culture of Philanthropy training, strategic planning, and board development. 
 
When she’s not consulting, Laurie enjoys trail running, swimming, gardening, and glass blowing.

Content Expertise

  • Culture of Philanthropy Training
  • Fundraising Training and Coaching
  • Strategic Planning as a Means to Build a Culture of Philanthropy

Dan Kirsch 
Since joining JCamp 180 in 2010, Dan has worked with camps to strengthen governance and advance fundraising. His primary areas of consulting at JCamp 180 are: fundraising, including capital and annual/sustained giving, Legacy program, and creating and sustaining a culture of philanthropy; executive and board chair coaching; and strengthening board governance. He also supports the JCamp 180 professional development programs and the annual conference planning team.

Before JCamp 180, Dan spent his career as a nonprofit fundraising professional and consultant in higher education, healthcare, and the arts, as well as for Massachusetts charter public schools.

Dan is continually impressed by the passion, commitment, and ruach of the Jewish camp professionals and lay leaders we have the privilege to work with at JCamp 180.

Content Expertise

  • Fundraising, including capital, annual/sustainer campaigns, and Legacy programs
  • Culture of philanthropy. 
  • Effective board governance
  • Executive and volunteer coaching
Dalia Krusner
Dalia is a consultant with JCamp 180, bringing to this role over a decade of experience in Jewish camping, fundraising, and nonprofit management. Originally from Toronto, Ontario, Dalia grew up at Camp Shomria in Canada, and snuck in a few extra summers at camp as the Director of Shomria's Heart to Heart program and then as a board member. Prior to joining JCamp 180, Dalia served as the Associate Director for the New Israel Fund in New England.

Dalia has a BA in Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies from the University of Toronto and an MBA in Nonprofit Management and MA in Jewish Professional Leadership from the Hornstein Program at Brandeis University. Dalia’s primary areas of consulting are in fundraising and governance. 

People who work with Dalia say that she is passionate, collaborative, and reliable. She is a big believer in empowering youth, and there is no better place to do that than at camp! 

Content Expertise
  • Fundraising, including annual fundraising, major gift cultivation, and crowdfunding campaigns
  • Board governance and committees 
  • Culture change
 

Michael Miloff 
Starting in 2004, Michael was privileged to be one of the founding group of consultants for JCamp 180. In addition to the pleasure of working with a number of camps and movements, he helped develop the original conference technology program and more recently contributed to the Enrollment Program, annual trends survey, and support for camp days of giving. Currently, he has been helping camps with financial literacy and executive search.

Prior to his time with JCamp 180, Michael worked for a renewable energy consulting firm, managed the in-house consulting and then health divisions at the City of Toronto municipality, and, subsequently, served as the Executive Vice President of the Canadian Urban Institute. In the 1990s and early 2000’s I was a Principal in a group that consulted on start-up digital innovation to Fortune 100 Tech companies like Apple and Microsoft, as well as helping found/run Internet businesses including an Internet-related mutual and venture capital fund.

Based in Toronto, Michael currently works part-time with JCamp 180. His primary areas of consulting are strategic planning, governance, executive/chair coaching, and, of course, support for fundraising. For the rest of his time, Michael consults with a number of Jewish federations, day schools, synagogues and a few private sector/social enterprise organizations in such areas as strategy, mergers, and financial modeling. People that work with Michael come away energized from the experience.

Michael is drawn to work with Jewish camps because of their extraordinary ability to Jewishly engage campers and staff, build independence, leadership, and other skills and, make lifelong friends. His own Jewish identity was joyfully nurtured by Winnipeg’s day camp, Camp Playmore, and Camp B’nai Brith, a beautiful, island overnight camp.

Content expertise

  • Strategic planning
  • Board Governance and Committees
  • Fundraising
  • Financial/data analysis
  • Executive coaching

Jill Paul 
Three themes describe the joy Jill has had working as a JCamp 180 mentor since 2009. She is passionate about camping as a transformative experience and is able to inspire both organizations and individuals to be their best. Most importantly her understanding of Jewish camping plays a role in enriching the lives of her Jewish grandsons.

Jill brings considerable experience and expertise in strategic planning, board development, and a genuine love of fundraising. She is proud to have helped many nonprofits raise millions of dollars. People who work with Jill say that she’s a good listener, energetic, and someone who follows through. Above all, though, Jill maintains a positive attitude. Her clients dream big and Jill is excited to help them achieve their visions.
 
Prior to her work with JCamp 180, she had a successful 25-year career in nonprofit management.  Jill worked as a camp counselor, camp director, and ultimately CEO of Girl Scouts of Pioneer Valley in western Massachusetts. Completing a successful capital campaign for new construction and modernization of the oldest Girl Scout camp in the nation was one of her proudest accomplishments there. Before coming to New England, Jill established West Pacific Girl Scouts for military families in Japan, Korea, and the Philippines, living in Japan and Korea for five years.
 
Jill holds a BA from Whittier College, an MA from San Diego State University, and an MBA from the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.

Content expertise

  • Coaching
  • Strategic Planning
  • Board Development
  • Fundraising
Ari Polsky
Ari is a consultant with JCamp 180, managing our consulting practice by lining up camps with the consulting services from our team that best meets their needs. He provides consulting and coaching in camp communications, enrollment, and data-informed decision-making. Within JCamp 180, Ari is currently the relationship manager for many of our affiliated Day Camps.

Before joining JCamp 180, Ari worked for 8 years as a communications director, first with Ramah in the Rockies and then Camp Ramah in California, and a brief stint in community care at Camp Tel Noar. During his time with the Ramah camps, Ari participated in iCenter Birthright Fellows Cohort 1, National Ramah’s Kerem cohort, and JCamp 180’s training in effective communications (JTEC). Ari presents regularly to camp professionals via webinars, articles, and at gatherings with the Association for Independent Jewish Camps (AIJC), the Foundation for Jewish Camp’s Leaders Assembly, JCamp 180’s Enrollment Program, and the American Camp Association. People who work with me say that I am creative, thoughtful, and curious.

In his spare time, Ari enjoys traveling, hiking, skiing, baking, and photography. He has a BA in Art Studio from the University of California, Davis.

Content Expertise
 
  • Marketing & Communications 
  • Camp Operations to Support Strategy 
  • Enrollment
Herschel Singer
Herschel is a consultant with JCamp 180, focusing on how organizations can leverage the transformative power of data through impactful visualizations and storytelling. Prior to becoming a consultant, Herschel was the Analytics Manager for the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, and worked for Gateways: Access to Jewish Education, where he helped develop comprehensive evaluation systems to measure outcomes and impact. Herschel holds a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the Schottenstein Honors Program at Yeshiva University, as well as a master's degree in Jewish Professional Leadership and an MBA from the Hornstein Program at Brandeis University.

People who work with Herschel say he is curious, collaborative, and growth-oriented. He approaches complex questions and issues holistically in order to clearly articulate options and implications, doing so with humor, humility, and attention to detail.

When he can find time, Herschel loves to go snowboarding and long-distance running, but usually not on the same day.

Content Expertise
 
  • Data Visualization
  • Strategic Data-Informed Decision-Making
  • Systems Thinking
  • Evaluation
 

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