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Some 80 years ago in Canton, Ohio, a man named Paul Heller chaired the Jewish Welfare Fund, a precursor to the modern-day Jewish federation. Now Heller’s granddaughter, Laura Lauder, is following in his footsteps as the next board chair of the Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund. Her term begins Jan. 15.

Lauder is a nationally recognized philanthropist, with ties to the San Francisco-based Federation going back four decades. She formerly chaired its endowment committee and is a current member of the endowment executive committee. Last year, she received the Federation’s highest honor, the Robert Sinton Award for Distinguished Leadership.

Why step into the top role now? For Lauder, it’s about meeting the moment.

“This is one of the most important moments in my lifetime of being Jewish and coming together as a community,” the 63-year-old Atherton resident said. “We have to take on roles of leadership. We have to work together to strengthen Jewish life. There are tens of thousands in the Bay Area who want to connect with the Jewish community in this troubled time.”

As the Federation board announced Lauder as chair-elect on Wednesday, the move was applauded by Federation CEO Joy Sisisky, a longtime friend and colleague.

“Laura is the exact right person to guide us in the next phase of our work,” Sisisky said. “I appreciate her enthusiasm and passion for all things Jewish. She can inspire a lot of people to think about how they can advance their philanthropy through a Jewish lens and into the wider Bay Area community.”

Lauder will take the helm after current Federation board chair Eileen Ruby completes her two-year term. During those two years, Ruby and the Federation not only handled the ongoing impact of the Covid-19 crisis, but they rolled out a new strategic plan that overhauled the Federation’s business model. And in the aftermath of the Oct. 7 Hamas massacre in Israel — an emergency that mobilized the Federation and the Jewish community like nothing before — Ruby knows Lauder will have her hands full.

“There’s no question that she’s impressive,” Ruby said. “She’s visionary and creative. When she wants something to happen, she’s relentless. Pretty much everything about Laura makes her the right person for this time.”

Lauder laid out several objectives for her term as chair, all centered on implementing the Federation’s strategic plan. Launched late last year, it shifts the organization’s emphasis to serve not only as a fundraiser and grantmaker but also as the community’s primary philanthropy adviser.

“We are now becoming the center for Jewish philanthropy in the Bay Area,” Lauder said, “and being the center, now we’re an adviser, catalyst and convener for the community. Our overarching goals are to be responsive to individuals, Jewish agencies and institutions.”

She cited the growth of giving circles as an example of encouraging collaborative philanthropy. She also pointed to the Federation’s impact-investing initiative, launched in 2020. As an example, through the donor-advised funds and supporting foundations it manages, the Federation loaned $5.6 million to Hebrew Free Loan to “provide essential financial lifelines in the local Jewish community at the beginning of Covid.”

“We make impact loans to a plethora of projects,” Lauder added. “We have some in Israel, some for small business in Israel, for housing, literacy, through Hebrew Free Loan and non-Jewish organizations. We encourage family philanthropy, which is advising and supporting families who wish to use Jewish values to do strategic philanthropy.”

Lauder also stressed another asset of the Federation: its longevity. 

“We have been at this for over 100 years,” she said, “We have enormous amounts of data, and we need to be data driven.”

Philanthropy is a way of life for Lauder and her family. She and her husband launched the Laura & Gary Lauder Family Venture Philanthropy Fund in 1995. Gary Lauder, grandson of Jewish cosmetics pioneer Estée Lauder, has been a venture capitalist since 1985, serving as managing director of Lauder Partners, a Silicon Valley-based VC firm. Laura Lauder joined the firm in 1992. Their family foundation has been the core of the couple’s philanthropy over the years, but her knack for tzedakah began much earlier.

She’s visionary and creative. When she wants something to happen, she’s relentless. Pretty much everything about Laura makes her the right person for this time.

Eileen Ruby, Federation chair

Raised in Canton amid a tight-knit Jewish community, Lauder grew up steeped in Jewish values and culture. In a 2014 J. op-ed, she recalled one warm night at a NFTY summer camp, sitting “side by side hundreds of teens like me, singing and clapping, and brimming with an overwhelming feeling of pride in my Jewish identity.”

After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she moved to the Bay Area. When she was working as a 25-year-old software sales representative, Lauder made her first gift of $5,000 to the UJA-Federation. That got her started in the art and science of giving.

She was recruited early on to get involved by former Federation endowment director Phyllis Cook. Lauder served as South Peninsula campaign chair and, later, on the Federation board multiple times. From 2016 to 2020, she served as endowment chair and was instrumental in creating the impact-investing program. Among her proudest achievements, Lauder co-founded the Jewish Teen Foundation Board Incubator, which develops community-based teen philanthropy giving circles throughout North America, Australia and Israel. 

In partnership with Brandeis University and Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, she also launched DeLeT, a Teach for America-type program for Jewish day school teachers.

Lauder describes her style of giving as venture philanthropy. 

“It’s a question of having a commitment to tzedakah and making the world a better place,” she explained. “That has to be strategic. Strategic philanthropy is more than just writing checks. You have to measure the impact and have goals. Venture philanthropy uses venture capital models to identify gaps and make those investments.”

Sometimes, large institutions have to respond to emergencies. In the aftermath of Oct. 7, the Federation mobilized donors and the community at large to raise $22 million in aid to Israel. The subsequent surge of antisemitism and anti-Zionism also spurred it to action. As part of its response locally, the Federation is granting $860,000 to Bay Area Hillels, which are on the front line of anti-Israel activism on college campuses. That’s a 40% increase over last year. 

The importance of supporting Israel will remain a significant focus.

“This is a priority for the Federation,” Sisisky said. “I can’t imagine that changing. There are many Israelis who are reservists serving in combat and in other duties that take them away from their homes, families and businesses for months at a time, and they are suffering. One of the programs Laura spearheaded nationally with Jewish Federations of North America [JFNA] is a loan program to help businesses in Israel.”

Several weeks after Oct. 7, Sisisky called Lauder to see if she would be willing to join a JFNA solidarity mission to Israel, and “without hesitation she went.”

“It was devastating,” Lauder later told J. “And yet there were silver linings that were so uplifting. The country unified around this horrible event. More than 50 percent of Israeli adults were volunteering. You could feel the tremendous commitment to patriotism.”

Lauder has a few months to prepare for her new post. Despite the challenges of the job, and the challenging times, she remains bullish on the Bay Area Jewish community and hopes philanthropists with donor-advised funds will consider coming aboard the Federation to cast a Jewish light on their giving.

“The JCCs have been thriving,” she noted. “We have strong synagogues. We have 30 preschools. We work closely with JCRC. These folks are the operators on the ground, and we will be the catalyst. My call to action is to show your solidarity to the community.”