Certificate in
Faith, Innovation, and Social Impact
Leading with Faith, Innovating for Impact
In today's rapidly evolving world, faith-inspired leaders face unprecedented challenges and rapidly emerging complexity. Our communities are grappling with evolving social issues such as climate change, gun violence, housing affordability, economic disparity, racial injustice, and mental health. To effectively address these challenges and serve our dynamic communities, we need innovative strategies and fresh perspectives.
We cannot underestimate the potential, resources, and strength of our faith traditions and networks in solving these challenges. Faith communities were some of the first and most important social innovators throughout history. This is our legacy, and despite growing cultural concerns about religion’s viability and influence, we cannot let our imagination and potential grow stagnant.
This Certificate, tailored specifically for networks of faith-rooted leaders, combines the best practices from entrepreneurship and social impact education.
Through this Certificate, your network will explore critical concepts in entrepreneurship and social innovation and engage in problem-based learning, case studies, systemic and design thinking, and hands-on experimentation. By connecting with successful models and participating in peer-to-peer exchanges, your network will develop the tools and mindsets needed to drive meaningful change within your organization and community.
We focus on practical strategies, tips, and tools so your network will finish the course not only with a certificate but real potential to make lasting, innovative contributions to your community. Content explored will include innovation concepts and methodologies, examples of faith-rooted innovation, and specific tools to help envision, craft and implement change in organizations, congregations, and communities.
Join us to discover how an innovation mindset can exponentially enhance your organization’s leadership impact. The Certificate length (at least 20 academic hours) and format (virtual or in-person options available) will be designed in collaboration with your organization. Participants who complete all coursework will receive an NYU Certificate.
Who is this Certificate for?
This Certificate is designed for leaders who want to use the wisdom and assets of faith to create a better world and who sense the time has come for a different way. Currently, we are looking for organizational partners interested in bringing this certificate to their communities, networks, staff, grantees, or other cohorts of leaders.
The Certificate content is relevant for clergy, lay leaders, civil society leaders, and anyone interested in the social change potential of faith. Participants may either be actively innovating and seeking support, possess a vision for change but feel limited in their ability to achieve it, or sense an emerging future or yearn for something new but are unsure where to begin.
The content is designed for a multi-faith audience and taught by a multi-faith faculty. It can be delivered to either a single-faith or multi-faith audience.
The Certificate Program equips faith-rooted leaders with the essential language and strategies of innovation, empowering them to drive meaningful change within their organizations, congregations, and communities.
Interested in bringing this course to your organization, network, or community?
Contact us at info@innofaith.org today!
Certificate Content
Through coursework, participants will interact with innovation concepts and methodologies, examples of faith-rooted innovation, and specific tools to help envision, craft and implement change in their organizations, congregations, and communities. Following completion of the Certificate, participants will have gained:
Exposure to typologies, concepts, methodologies and practices in entrepreneurship and innovation;
Familiarity with practical innovation and entrepreneurship development and management tools;
Introduction to successful faith-based innovation case studies;
Development of an innovation mindset;
Innovation and entrepreneurship introduced to their organizations / congregations; and
Dialogue and collaboration with other leaders.
Certificate Logistics
Participants will complete the course through 20 academic hours, which can be spread out over 10 online and/or in-person meetings or compacted in a shorter timeframe. Over the course, participants will prepare and present innovation projects relevant to their communities, work, and backgrounds. Upon successful completion of all hours, coursework, and tasks, participants will receive an NYU Certificate.
The cost is $1500 per participant, with partial subsidies available through the generous support of Trinity Church. Currently, participation in the Certificate is only available through organizational partnerships, but if you’re interested in participating in the course as an individual, please reach out to us.
What do we mean by innovation and entrepreneurship?
We see innovation and entrepreneurship as a mindset and collection of strategies that can be used to address our most urgent social problems with fresh, effective, sustainable, and equitable solutions that benefit everyone. It includes any and all sectors, ideas, and methods of change and could involve market-based or donor- or community-funded solutions.
innoFaith is a multi-faith network of people who seek to use the wisdom and assets of faith to create a better world. innoFaith nurtures an ecosystem of people and organizations at the nexus of faith and social innovation. It inspires people of faith to address the social challenges of our time through innovation and collaboration by offering curated content, custom connections and convenings, and collaborative interfaith community to increase social impact.
The NYU Bronfman Center’s Institute for Impact & Intrapreneurship exposes people to the language, mindset and culture of innovation and entrepreneurship. Using NYU’s worldwide platforms, they make the language of innovation and entrepreneurship understandable to new audiences and communities. Their methods are hands-on and practical: teaching innovation and entrepreneurship the way that others teach management or leadership with educational interventions consisting of experiential learning and workshop practices.
Why are we collaborating?
innoFaith and the NYU Bronfman’s Institute for Impact and Intrapreneurship have teamed up to bring the best in innovation and social impact education to a field experiencing significant change: the faith sector. Existing training within the faith sector rarely touches on innovation leadership, particularly as it pertains to opportunities for faith communities to contribute their wisdom and assets to building not just better spiritual communities, but a better world for all. We believe that leaders who serve with an innovation mindset stand to contribute exponentially, both in their organizations and in the community at large.
Facilitators & Faculty
Dr. Nir Tsuk
Dr. Nir Tsuk is a seasoned practitioner, academic and facilitator with over 25 years of international experience in the fields of social capital, entrepreneurship, impact and culture of innovation. Serving as NYU’s Global Distinguished Scholar (as well as a Visiting Professor of Entreprenurship at Osaka University, Japan), Nir is has launched for New York University the Institute for Impact and Intrapreneurship, connecting New York and Tel Aviv – and bringing the language of innovations to those who need it most. Prior to this, Nir helped idealist.org – the world's largest social online talent acquisition platform – to increase its size and impact as its Head of Growth, and has brought Ashoka – the world's largest social entrepreneurship organization – to Israel, after serving as a Ashoka's Global Fellowship Director in Washington DC, connecting more than 3000 social entrepreneurs in 72 countries. Nir holds a PhD from Cambridge University in social and political sciences – where he wrote his dissertation on social networks, social capital and intentional communities. Previously, Nir led policy research initiatives at the Community Development Foundation in London and at the Committee for Social Affairs in the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem.
Danielle Goldstone
Danielle Goldstone is Founder of innoFaith, a multi-faith network and platform for social innovation. innoFaith seeks to inspire and engage people and communities of faith to innovate and collaborate for social impact. She is also a social impact consultant with over 20 years of experience in the global social change and social innovation fields. She is Senior Advisor to Ashoka, the world's largest network of social entrepreneurs, and previously was the founding director of Ashoka’s global Empathy Initiative. Her background also includes policy advocacy and human rights analysis related to the U.S. war on terrorism. She has written on the topics of the International Criminal Court's involvement in Uganda and the importance of empathy for social change. She has a B.A. in economics and international relations from Stanford University, and a Juris Doctor, Master of Theological Studies, and Graduate Certificate in Human Rights from Emory University, where she was Editor in Chief of the Emory International Law Review. She is an attorney, admitted to the New York Bar.
Other faculty have included:
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna
Rabbi Yehuda Sarna serves as the University Chaplain and Executive Director at the Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at New York University (NYU). He is co-founder and senior fellow at the Of Many Institute for Multifaith Leadership at NYU, where he designs educational experiences and curricula to train the next generation in interfaith action. He was one of the principal subjects of Chelsea Clinton's 2014 documentary, Of Many, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and aired nationally on ABC in 2017. The documentary is utilized as a teaching tool for universities and high schools around the country seeking to establish norms of religious and spiritual diversity within their institutions. The Of Many Institute designed an award-winning training module, Faith Zone, to train university students, staff, and administrators in religious literacy. Rabbi Sarna was appointed to the Muslim-Jewish Advisory Council, a project of the American Jewish Committee and the Islamic Society of North America, to lobby for more vigilant legislation of hate crimes. Rabbi Sarna has been recognized for his outward-looking and innovative approach. He was awarded the Richard M. Joel Exemplar of Excellence from Hillel International in 2008 and was the honoree at the Orthodox Union/Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus Awards Dinner. In 2009, he was listed as one of the 36 Under 36 changemakers by The New York Jewish Week.
Rev. Jen Bailey
Rev. Jen Bailey is an ordained minister, public theologian, and national leader in the multi-faith movement for justice. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Faith Matters Network, a Womanist-led organization equipping community organizers, faith leaders, and activists with resources for connection, spiritual sustainability, and accompaniment. She is also Co-Founder of the People's Supper. Founded after the 2016 Presidential Election, The People’s Supper has hosted over 2,000 suppers in 135 communities nationwide focusing on bringing people together across lines of difference to engage constructively on issues affecting their communities since January 20, 2017. An Ashoka Fellow, Aspen Ideas Scholar, On Being Fellow, New Pluralist Field Builder and Truman Scholar, Rev. Jen earned degrees from Tufts University and Vanderbilt University Divinity School where she was awarded the Wilbur F. Tillett Prize for accomplishments in the study of theology. A sought-after commentator and public speaker on the intersection of religion and public life, Rev. Jen has spoken at the inaugural Obama Foundation Summit, Makers, TEDxSkoll, and the White House. Her work has been featured on OnBeing with Krista Tippett, CBS This Morning, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and dozens of other publications. Her first book, To My Beloveds: Letters on Faith, Race, Loss and Radical Hope, was published by Chalice Press on October 12, 2021. Jen currently sits on the boards of The Fetzer Institute, Jessie Ball duPont Fund and The Healing Trust. She is also ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and serves locally on the staff of Greater Bethel A.M.E. Church in Nashville, Tennessee.
Rosanne Haggerty
Rosanne Haggerty is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Community Solutions. She is an internationally recognized leader in developing innovative strategies to end homelessness and strengthen communities. Community Solutions assists communities throughout the U.S and internationally in solving the complex housing problems facing their most vulnerable residents. Their large scale change initiatives include the 100,000 Homes and Built for Zero Campaigns to end chronic and veteran homelessness, and neighborhood partnerships that bring together local residents and institutions to change the conditions that produce homelessness. Earlier, she founded Common Ground Community, a pioneer in the design and development of supportive housing and research-based practices that end homelessness. She was a Japan Society Public Policy Fellow, and is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, Ashoka Senior Fellow, Hunt Alternative Fund Prime Mover and the recipient of honors including the Jane Jacobs Medal for New Ideas and Activism from the Rockefeller Foundation, Social Entrepreneur of the year from the Schwab Foundation, Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian Design Museum’s National Design Award and Independent Sector’s John W. Gardner Leadership Award. She is a graduate of Amherst College and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.
Simran Jeet Singh
Simran Jeet Singh, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Interreligious Histories at Union Theological Seminary and a Senior Advisor for the Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program. He is the author of the national bestseller The Light We Give: How Sikh Wisdom Can Transform Your Life (Riverhead, Penguin Random House) and host of the podcast, Wisdom & Practice, which is produced in partnership with PRX and The Aspen Institute. Simran’s thought leadership on bias, empathy, and justice extends across corporate, university, and government settings. He has served as an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity with Columbia University and the Nelson Mandela Foundation, and a Soros Equality Fellow with the Open Society Foundations. In 2020, TIME Magazine recognized him as one of sixteen people fighting for a more equal America, and in 2022, Simran delivered the opening address at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Simran is the author of an award-winning children’s book titled Fauja Singh Keeps Going: The True Story of the Oldest Person to Ever Run a Marathon (Kokila, Penguin Random House). He earned graduate degrees from Harvard University and Columbia University. Simran is a recipient of the Peter J. Gomes Memorial Award from Harvard University and, in 2020, TIME Magazine recognized him as one of sixteen people fighting for a more equal America. He writes regularly for major outlets, including The Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, CNN and TIME Magazine, and he writes a monthly column for Religion News Service.
Nadia Roumani
Nadia Roumani is the Director of Financial Advisor Philanthropy Initiatives at Stanford University’s Effective Philanthropy Learning Initiative, and the Senior Designer of Stanford’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design’s (the d.school) Designing for Social Systems Program. She has facilitated design thinking strategy workshops for foundations, nonprofit organizations, and businesses around the world, including in the Europe, Middle East, North and East Africa, and across North America. She integrates design thinking, systems thinking, and strategic planning to help organizations better scope the challenges they want to address by engaging end users, increasing intra-organizational creativity, and incorporating radical collaboration. Over the past two decades Nadia has launched several organizations and initiatives including the Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) with Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz at Columbia University; the Women Leaders Intercultural Program with Ireland’s former President Mary Robinson; Global Policy Innovations Program at the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs (CCEIA); the Building Bridges Program at the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art (DDFIA); and the American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute (AMCLI) at the University of Southern California. Nadia received her BA in economics and international relations from Stanford University and her MA in international affairs from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Rev. Dr. Amy Butler
Rev. Dr. Amy Butler is an ordained American Baptist minister who has spent almost three decades leading historic faith institutions. As a regular voice in progressive Christian and interfaith conversations, Butler writes, speaks, and preaches all over the United States. She is Founder of Invested Faith, a fund that receives the assets of institutions and individuals and offers small, unrestricted grants to faith-rooted social entrepreneurs building businesses that are changing unjust systems. She is most energized by conversations about a future we cannot see but anticipate with hope. Butler currently leads National City Christian Church as intentional interim Senior Minister. Prior to that, Butler served for five years as the seventh Senior Minister and first woman at the helm of The Riverside Church in the City of New York. She holds degrees from Baylor University, the International Baptist Theological Seminary, and Wesley Theological Seminary.
Rabbi Sid Schwarz
Rabbi Sid Schwarz is a social entrepreneur, author and teacher. He is currently a Senior Fellow at Hazon, a national organization based in New York. Rabbi Sid founded and led PANIM: The Institute for Jewish Leadership and Values for 21 years; its work centered on integrating Jewish learning, Jewish values and social responsibility. He is also the founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, MD where he continues to teach and lead services. Dr. Schwarz holds a Ph.D. in Jewish history and is the author of two groundbreaking books--Finding a Spiritual Home: How a New Generation of Jews Can Transform the American Synagogue (Jewish Lights, 2000) and Judaism and Justice: The Jewish Passion to Repair the World (Jewish Lights, 2006). Rabbi Sid directs the Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a program that trains rabbis to be visionary spiritual leaders. He also created and directs the Kenissa: Communities of Meaning Network which is identifying, convening and building the capacity of emerging spiritual communities across the country. Sid was awarded the prestigious Covenant Award for his pioneering work in the field of Jewish education and was named by Newsweek as one of the 50 most influential rabbis in North America. Sid’s most recent book is Jewish Megatrends: Charting the Course of the American Jewish Future (Jewish Lights, 2013).
