The 92nd Street Y serves more than 300,000 people in the New York metropolitan area. Its new executive director, Henry Timms, has an even broader audience in mind: the world.
Through digital savvy, Mr. Timms wants to expand the parameters of what the 140-year-old Jewish cultural and community center can do and who it serves.
“One of the challenges we always have to think about is how we reimagine community,” he says. “Our future is a combination of deeper local service but also wider impact.”
Mr. Timms, 37, who has been serving as the charity’s interim chief, has already proven himself adept at using technology to draw new audiences, both for the organization and for nonprofits more broadly. He co-founded #GivingTuesday, the movement started in 2012 that observes the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving as an annual day of volunteering and donating to charity.
The campaign helped charities raise at least $20-million in 2013, with about 10,000 companies, charities, and other groups in all 50 states participating.
Difficult Period
Mr. Timms is leading change at the 92nd Street Y in other ways as well. He is the first non-Jewish person to take the helm of the organization, which is recovering from public turmoil and tragedy.
Its former chief of 25 years, Sol Adler, committed suicide this month. He was fired last year, it was widely reported, for having a personal relationship with his assistant, Catherine Marto.
Ms. Marto’s son-in-law, Salvatore Taddeo, oversaw construction projects for the 92nd Street Y and was accused of taking kickbacks from vendors. Mr. Taddeo left his job at the Y early last year.
The Y’s board, through the organization’s spokeswoman, declined to comment on the matter.
John Ruskay, chief executive of the UJA-Federation of New York, which gives grants to the Y, praises Mr. Timms’s leadership through a difficult time for the organization.
“To be an interim is never easy,” Mr. Ruskay says. “I think Henry has been remarkable in maintaining the Y’s focus on providing excellence in what it does day to day, from the nursery school to the concert hall and everything in between, seeding innovation and extending its reach.”
Mr. Ruskay adds that he has heard little criticism about the Y’s selection of a non-Jewish leader: “What I have heard is that those people who know Henry and have worked with Henry are confident that he can provide strong leadership for the Y.”
Digital Projects
Another way in which Mr. Timms differs from his predecessors is that he’s British. He was born in Exeter, England, and his mother was from Texas so he spent holidays in the United States visiting family. He was business development manager for a publishing training company in England before he joined the 92nd Street Y five years ago.
What attracted him to move to America, he says, was its entrepreneurial spirit and “the opportunity to think big.”
The 92nd Street Y’s revenue in fiscal year 2013 was $57.1-million.
Among the big projects that have emerged under Mr. Timms’s guidance: The 92nd Street Y started a free online course, in collaboration with Wesleyan University, titled “How to Change the World.” The course covered major global issues such as health and the environment, and taught participants how to take action. More than 50,000 people enrolled.
He co-founded the annual Social Good Summit in 2010 to bring attention during the convening of the United Nations General Assembly to harnessing technology to solve pressing social concerns. In partnership with the United Nations Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the technology website Mashable, the 92nd Street Y gathered more than 1,600 bloggers, world leaders, activists, government officials, celebrities, business executives, and others for the event. An estimated 100,000 people watched the most recent summit online.
Mr. Timms also helped develop American Conversation, a series of discussions the charity holds with leaders in politics, media, and the arts that are held live and streamed online.
Online followers are responding. Approximately 5 million people a year visit the group’s website, online classes, live broadcasts, and social-media platforms. YouTube views doubled from 2012 to 2013, from more than 1 million to 2.17 million. Facebook followers also doubled in the same time period.
Big Ideas
Although Mr. Timms believes strongly in the power of technology, he insists that the charity’s primary focus is getting people to have thoughtful conversations about major issues.
“The big change is not about technology but about humanity,” he says. “The 92nd Street Y from its beginning has been about people engaging with big ideas.”
The Y has established the Shababa Network, a professional-development program to help Jewish leaders engage Jewish communities around the country. It streams High Holy Days services to people in more than 100 countries around the world.
“There is an increasing need for real human connection,” he says. “We’re seeing that need grow every single day.”
Henry Timms, executive director, 92nd Street Y
Education: Bachelor’s degree in history, University of Durham
Career highlights: Deputy executive director for innovation, strategy, and content, the 92nd Street Y; business development manager, Chapterhouse Publishing
Salary: He declined to disclose it.
What he’s reading: The works of John Gardner, co-founder of Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofit groups and foundations
Fun fact: He is related to Francis Scott Key, who wrote the lyrics for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
