Leading organizations and funders in the Jewish education and communal service sector trust JESNA’s Berman Center as their partner for research and evaluation locally and nationally. A substantial number of our clients are continuing and repeat customers who, over time, have come to rely on the Berman Center's evaluation expertise to inform and improve their programs and to help them plan for the emergent needs of their communities. Contact the Berman Center to discuss your current and potential evaluation needs.

The Berman Center provides a range of evaluation services for clients of all sizes, from large-scale national surveys to targeted marketing studies to individual consultation and coaching. In partnership with our clients, we craft the best evaluation approach for each project within our clients’ critical time and budget parameters. Some of the outstanding educational and communal service organizations and funders that recently have engaged the Berman Center’s evaluation services include:

The Harold Grinspoon Foundation (The PJ Library), West Springfield, MA
The PJ Library is a flagship program of the Harold Grinspoon Foundation that distributes age-appropriate Jewish children’s books and CDs (with guides to help families use the selections in their homes) to families with children from six-months through eight years of age in participating Jewish communities.

Jewish Education Center of Cleveland (JECC): Retreat Institute, Cleveland
The JECC’s Retreat Institute creates and implements text-based retreats and programs in the Greater Cleveland Jewish community in cooperation with Jewish educational institutions as its primary partners (i.e., Jewish day and supplementary schools and congregations).

MAKOM, New York, New York
MAKOM – the Israel Engagement Network - provides professional development and content for communities and organizations to stimulate innovative thinking; inspire new initiatives; and generate systemic, programmatic, and institutional change in Israel engagement within the North American Jewish community.

The Montreal Federation CJA, Montreal, QC Canada
The Montreal Federation CJA is the central funding, planning, and coordinating body for services within Montreal’s Jewish community.

The Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), San Francisco
The JCRC serves as the central public affairs arm of the organized Bay Area Jewish community, representing synagogues and Jewish organizations on issues impacting the rights and protection of Jews as individuals and as a community.

Remember Us: The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project, Santa Rosa, CA
The Holocaust Bnai Mitzvah Project connects students preparing for bar/bat mitzvah with voluntary opportunities to remember individual children who perished in the Holocaust before they could be called to the Torah.


To learn more about how JESNA's Berman Center for Research and Evaluation can help you maximize the effectiveness of your Jewish educational and communal service initiatives, contact Dr. Renae Cohen, Director of the Berman Center, at 212-284-6516 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Through evaluation consulting and coaching, evaluation studies, and basic research in the field, JESNA’s Berman Center for Research and Evaluation strives to meet the existing and emerging evaluation needs of our North American clients, working primarily in the Jewish educational and communal sectors. Since it was established in 1992, the Berman Center has conducted more than 200 program evaluations, descriptive research projects, needs assessment studies, and other evaluation projects for four principal client groups:

• Private and community foundations and other philanthropists

• National and local “stand-alone” program providers

• Central agencies for Jewish education

• Jewish community federations

You are Doing the Smart Thing

In today's dynamic economy, reliable results matter. Nonprofit programmers and funders are looking for ways to address accountability, engage in outcomes-based planning, and measure impact. The most effective individuals and organizations take learning and evaluation seriously. Evaluation helps leaders better understand their goals, discern the impact of their philanthropy/programming, and identify ways to assess return on investment. Ideally, funders require it of grantees and program providers apply what they learn to program improvement and professional development.

You are Doing the Right Thing

Thoughtful evaluation means using learnings to improve program effectiveness and to refine outcomes. Formative evaluation can assess program implementation and impact and has the potential to improve performance at any stage in the life of the program. Funders and program providers using formative evaluation have the power to make mid-course corrections to ensure programs and services are meeting their goals and the community's needs. Summative evaluation determines how and to what extent programs have reached their desired outcomes. Leaders use summative evaluation to uncover lessons that they can apply to new planning and programming, determine how best to replicate or adapt a program, and assess the best use of funding for programs. Incorporating regular, systematic evaluation makes sure that "more good is done well."

You are Doing the Strategic Thing

Evaluation should be essential, not optional. Deliberate reflection and evaluation of programs and business models are standard in the corporate world. By adapting tested practices for the unique needs of the nonprofit sector, funders and program providers are taking the lead in professionalizing the work of the sector and raising the bar for excellence. Thoughtful inquiry and strategic application of what we learn is critical for reflective practitioners who care about effective program implementation and impact among their target audiences. 


To learn more about how JESNA's Berman Center for Research and Evaluation can help you maximize the effectiveness of your Jewish educational and communal service initiatives, contact Dr. Renae Cohen, Director of the Berman Center, at 212-284-6516 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

What we do and how we do it makes a difference to our clients. The focus of the Berman Center’s evaluation work is to provide our clients (funders, program providers, central agencies for Jewish education, and Jewish federations) with specific, utilization-focused data in accessible formats that facilitate organizational learning at all levels. For the Berman Center, every evaluation is a new project with a unique set of challenges and opportunities. For every client, the Berman Center draws upon its knowledge and experience, applies its expertise, and partners with the client to generate a tailored approach that meets the client’s evaluation learning goals.

From short-term assessments and consultations to multi-year, long-term evaluation projects, the Berman Center employs a range of quantitative and qualitative research methodologies (e.g., outcomes clarification, environmental scans, surveys, focus groups, interviews, observations, and literature and document review). In addition, the Berman Center provides clients with valuable, actionable, user-friendly evaluation reports in a variety of formats that respond to specific learning goals and research questions and that help the client communicate findings confidently to key stakeholders. Our three primary lines of service are:

1. Evaluation Studies: We Can Do It For You

The Berman Center evaluation team provides evaluation studies focused on the implementation and/or impact of a client’s programs and services. The results of these formative and summative evaluation studies help our clients better understand and make more informed choices about their work at any point in the life of their programs and services. Our evaluation team works closely with clients to assess their needs, plan for evaluation, collect and analyze data, draw conclusions, and, most importantly, to make recommendations to enhance program implementation and impact.

2. Evaluation Consulting/Capacity-Building: We Can Teach You/Coach You to Do It Yourself

The Berman Center is an effective and creative partner for organizations seeking to expand their evaluation capacities and capabilities. Its team members are accomplished evaluation teachers, offering one-on-one and team coaching, training, and professional development in evaluation in a variety of settings most convenient for our clients, both in person and using technology (e.g., phone, internet, etc.). Through this coaching and consultation, we help our clients understand the need for accountability in the nonprofit arena and meet the challenges of demonstrating impact. We help our clients further define their desired outcomes; facilitate their ability to plan for and assess the design of their programs; and develop their internal capacity to design, gather, manage, and interpret meaningful evaluation data.

3. Basic Issues Research: We Always are Learning to Serve You Better

Periodically, the Berman Center is commissioned to conduct non-evaluative research and systematic reviews of research done by others about a particular aspect of Jewish education. Gathering and digesting data through publication projects, literature reviews and environmental scans for our clients, and other endeavors enriches the quality of our work. It also increases the utility of our final products for our clients and, by extension, for the Jewish educational and communal service sector. To increase evaluation knowledge and skills across the field, Berman Center staff also share their accumulated wisdom and expertise directly with philanthropists, program providers, educators, researchers, and others. You will find Berman Center staff at Jewish education conferences, annual research association meetings, and national gatherings of Jewish education practitioners and funders.


To learn more about how JESNA's Berman Center for Research and Evaluation can help you maximize the effectiveness of your Jewish educational and communal service initiatives, contact Dr. Renae Cohen, Director of the Berman Center, at 212-284-6516 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .