Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia

The investment committee is chaired and populated by a rotating group of board members with significant private-sector experience. Mark Fishman, CEO of TRF Holdings, and Michael P. Markman, president of BET Investments, have held board leadership roles that include oversight of the investment function. Amir Goldman of Susquehanna Growth Equity brings direct GP-level venture capital judgment to the committee. The CEO, Michael Balaban, oversees the professional staff but does not appear to hold a CIO title; the model is effectively an outsourced-CIO structure executed by a high-net-worth volunteer board.

The four suburban campuses — Schwartz, Mandell, Saligman, and Feinstein — are held as operating assets, not passive investments. JFGP uses them to deliver programs directly, meaning they generate no external rental income but carry substantial carrying costs. The sale of the Jewish Community Services Building at 2100 Arch Street, a Center City Philadelphia office property, reduced the urban real estate footprint and suggests a strategic preference for owned, purpose-built facilities over leased space.

The Federation's venture capital exposure appears to come through fund commitments rather than direct startup investments. Board member Amir Goldman's firm, Susquehanna Growth Equity, writes direct growth-equity checks, but JFGP itself has not publicly disclosed any direct technology positions. The organization's venture capital tag in its investment strategy likely reflects limited-partner commitments to external managers rather than proprietary deal activity.

The endowment is built from 125 years of annual community campaigns in Greater Philadelphia, a region with one of the densest Jewish populations in the United States. Unlike a single-family office with one wealth creator, JFGP's asset base is a layered aggregation of thousands of donors. The Jewish Community Foundation of Greater Philadelphia, a planned-giving arm within the Federation structure, supplements the annual campaign with bequests and donor-advised funds that feed the permanent pool.

JFGP is one of 148 local federations in the JFNA umbrella network, but it operates independently with its own board, investment committee, and asset base. JFNA provides national-scale program coordination and emergency-response infrastructure. When the October 7 attacks occurred in 2023, JFGP routed emergency grants through JFNA channels alongside its own direct allocations, demonstrating the dual operating model.

The Professional Advisors Network functions as a deal-flow and donor-cultivation pipeline. It convenes estate planners, wealth managers, and tax attorneys who advise high-net-worth families in the Philadelphia region. Members of the Network are positioned to recommend JFGP and its Jewish Community Foundation as recipients of bequests, charitable trusts, and complex planned gifts, making it a sustained source of future endowment capital.