Executive Director Uriel Zehavi works the practice alongside Cheryl, drawing on extensive nonprofit experience across boards, communications, development, governance, and compliance.
Cheryl’s background
Cheryl founded the Atlanta Israel Coalition in 2018 and has run it as executive director ever since. She built it from nothing — no staff, no funding, no board — into a multi-program advocacy organization with a working board and a recognized presence across Jewish, civic, and interfaith life in Atlanta and well beyond. She ran it through COVID, the 2021 Gaza war, October 7 and the war that followed, and the global antisemitism surge that came with all of it. The World Zionist Organization recognized that record with its Zionist Legacy Award in 2023.
For years she has fielded the calls peers make when something lands on the desk that week — executive directors and board chairs asking how to handle it. This practice formalizes that work under Mitzpe’s imprint.
Service tiers
$250
Quick Consult
One 60-minute call on a single defined question. No prep required — the right tier when one experienced read will move the decision.
$750
Extended Session
Two 90-minute working sessions with light prep, followed by a short written summary and recommended next steps.
Inquire
Project Engagement
Scoped to specific deliverables over four to eight weeks, longer where the work warrants.
What the practice handles
- Governance and board dynamics
- Board chair micromanaging, board not raising money, founder-to-professional ED transition, board conflict pulling staff into the middle, new ED inheriting a board built around the old one.
- Programming and events
- Underresourced launches, partnership negotiations, programs not attracting the intended audience, signature events that have plateaued, first major mission to Israel.
- Crisis and statement work
- A statement that has to go out in twelve hours, staff or board member in the news, a security incident requiring community communication, reputational situations.
- Community advocacy strategy
- Building or repairing a coalition, countering antizionism at the school board, city council, or university, mobilizing for a specific moment, multi-faith engagement including harder conversations with post-October-7 allies.
- Fundraising basics
- Donor letters not landing, end-of-year campaigns, a first major-gift ask, board giving that has slipped, donor communication during a difficult news cycle.
Out of scope
Legal advice. Mental-health questions presenting as organizational ones. Engagements whose purpose is to validate a decision already made against better judgment. For institutional security and threat assessment: Diaspora Security Practice (Mordecai Zehavi).
Inquiry
Write to the nonprofit-advisory desk. Every inquiry is triaged within two business days.
Prefer email? Write to the nonprofit-advisory desk directly.