The Mayberg Foundation invites you to join us at the Jewish Funders Network 2026 International Conference. Whether you’re looking to learn, collaborate, or explore new ideas, we’re leading and supporting sessions throughout the conference that reflect our commitment to bold leadership, innovative partnerships, and the future of Jewish life.
Explore our workshops, initiatives, and sponsored programs below. Join us and be a part of the conversations shaping tomorrow’s Jewish philanthropy, Jewish day school education, and transformative community leadership.
SHARING PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Mayberg Foundation staff will lead professional-only workshops on influence, leadership, and network-based grantmaking, sharing practical insights and models from our work in the field.
Mayberg Foundation Managing Director Amanda Mizrahi
Leading from the Middle: The Role of Influence with Living Donors
Monday, March 16, 2:00-4:30 PM
Presented by Amanda Mizrahi, Managing Director, Mayberg Foundation, and Amanda Abrams, Executive Director, The Zalik Foundation
Learn practical strategies for making an impact from the “middle space”—even without formal authority. Explore how models of distributed leadership from the Torah can empower you to lead and influence effectively within your organization.
The Network Advantage: Funding Strategies That Transform Fields
Monday, March 16, 2:00-4:30 PM
Mayberg Foundation Senior Advisor for Education Grants and Programs Rachel Mohl Abrahams
Presented by Rachel Mohl Abrahams, Senior Advisor for Education Grants and Programs, Mayberg Foundation, and Rachel Shamash Schneider, Senior Program Officer, Jim Joseph Foundation
Learn how network-focused grantmaking and cross-organization collaboration can drive lasting change. This session features real-world models, including the Mayberg Foundation’s DEEP Consortium and the Jim Joseph Foundation’s Jewish Teen Education and Engagement Funder Collaborative.
Integrating Jewish Values, Wisdom, and Ritual into Our Daily Work as Grantmakers
Monday, March 16, 2:00-4:30 PM
Amanda Mizrahi, Managing Director, Mayberg Foundation joins moderators Ayalon Eliach, Chief Ideas Officer, Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah, and Josh Miller, Chief Program Officer at Jim Joseph Foundation for this panel discussion
ADVANCING JEWISH DAY SCHOOL EDUCATION
Jewish Day School Affinity group program manager amy schlussel
We are excited to help officially launch JFN’s Jewish Day School Affinity Group, an initiative spearheaded by Mayberg Foundation and our partners. Through both a peer gathering and a working session, this new space will bring funders together to exchange insights and explore opportunities for collaboration around key challenges and emerging solutions in Jewish day school education.
Peer Network Gathering: Jewish Day School Affinity Group
Sunday, March 15, 5:00 PM-6:00 PM PT
Join your colleagues for a celebratory reception marking the launch of JFN’s Day School Affinity Group. Meet Program Manager Amy Schlussel, connect with likeminded funders, exchange insights, and enjoy refreshments in a relaxed setting.
Jewish Day School Affinity Group Working Session: Opportunities for Solutions and Collaboration
Tuesday, March 17, 12:30 PM-2:00 PM PT
At this interactive post-conference session, funders will exchange philanthropic insights with colleagues and surface promising models, gaps, and opportunities for collaboration. Through structured, small-group conversations guided by facilitators, participants will engage around the most pressing issues shaping the day school landscape today, including: affordability, enrollment opportunities, educational excellence, and teacher pipeline policy levers (such as tax credits).
Together, we will translate shared concerns into clearer direction and momentum for future collaborative action through JFN’s Day School Affinity Group. This session is appropriate for individuals who are seasoned in this space, new to it, or simply curious to learn more.
CREATING TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERS
What If Personal Transformation Is The Future of Jewish Leadership?
Tuesday, March 17, 2:30 PM-5:00 PM PT
Hosted by the Mayberg Foundation
the elevation project founder rav doniel katz
Amid growing global instability and social fragmentation, unprecedented numbers of Jews are seeking meaning, healing, and inner connection. The global surge in meditation, emotional mastery, and inner development — now a multi-billion-dollar industry — reflects a hunger Judaism has addressed for millennia. While Jewish tradition holds one of the most sophisticated and time-tested systems for developing the human mind, emotional resilience, and access to elevated states of awareness, it is a system we have rarely led with in modern Jewish leadership.
Expect something personal, surprising and genuinely transformative. This 2.5-hour session explores a forward-looking model of personal transformation rooted in Torah, Chassidic, and Kabbalistic wisdom. Participants will examine how these teachings align with contemporary psychology and neuroscience, and how they can reshape Jewish leadership today. The session concludes with a guided experiential practice offering participants a direct encounter with the depth of these teachings and the higher states of awareness they cultivate. It’s an opportunity to drop out of conference mode and into something personal, meaningful, and energizing.
If you’ll be at JFN, please join us at one or more of these sessions and connect with us during the conference.