Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties

Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties

Founded in 1910, the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, The Peninsula, Marin and Sonoma Counties functions as the central philanthropic and investment hub for the Bay Area's Jewish community. CEO Joy Sisisky and Board Chair Laura Lauder oversee an organization whose capital base flows from multiple donor-advised funds and supporting foundations — including the Helen Diller Family Foundation, the Lisa and Douglas Goldman Fund, and the Walter & Elise Haas Fund — rather than a single family wealth source. The Federation deploys capital through an impact investing mandate that spans direct co-investments, fund commitments, and secondaries. The portfolio targets early-stage through expansion-stage ventures, with a sector emphasis on ClimateTech, EdTech, FinTech, Healthcare Services, and Energy Transition & Renewables. The organization invests across North America and the Middle East & Central Asia, maintaining an office in Kfar Saba, Israel, to anchor its Israel-focused deployment. Its investment posture blends philanthropic and mission-related investing, with confirmed activity in private credit and venture strategies. The organization operates from its Steuart Street headquarters in San Francisco, with CFO/CIO Holden Lee overseeing the investment portfolio. The Federation also engages in professional networks including the Jewish Funders Network and JPRO Network, and partners with the national JFNA umbrella to coordinate on Jewish community investments. Its structured giving and investing apparatus manages the Jewish Community Endowment Fund alongside the programmatic work of multiple family-named supporting foundations. Where many endowments separate grantmaking from market-rate investing, the Federation integrates both through a unified impact office — applying institutional portfolio construction to donor capital while maintaining programmatic ties to local community assets like the Berkeley Bayit residential facility and the Katz Snyder Gallery Permanent Collection. This dual identity as both community funder and disciplined allocator distinguishes its architecture from a standard foundation.