At the Jewish Federation of Delaware, the new calendar year is the start of another annual campaign to raise vital funds to support initiatives and organizations across the local Jewish community. It’s also a chance to recap a “successful” 2025 campaign.
The Federation raised $1,985,000 in 2025 and increased its annual total by approximately $50,000 from 2024, according to Federation President and CEO Seth Katzen.
Beyond the dollar increase, Katzen added that the organization was able to add some new donors this year, which helped contribute to the year’s success.
“I do think we’re successful for a number of reasons. One is strong leadership who have been supportive the entire year, an engaged young adult division, an engaged women’s philanthropy group and really a strong staff with a culture of philanthropy, meaning it really becomes an inherent part of who we are and what we do,” Katzen said.
The CEO explained that the money raised by the annual campaign helps support five local beneficiary agencies and partners in Israel.
The beneficiary agencies include the Siegel JCC, Albert Einstein Academy, Jewish Family Services of Delaware, the Kurtz Senior Living Campus and University of Delaware Hillel.
Katzen said the Federation has an allocations committee that gets updated annually, but it always supports its local agencies. He also added that the Federation paired with a new sister city in Israel during 2025, Mitzpe Ramon.
“We have a new sister city, a new energy and a new focus for specific projects. We do shift dollars year to year based on how the world changes, and we want to adapt and evolve with it. So, we’ll always look at different ways or new endeavors or initiatives for us to support,” he said. “Our process has been roughly the same, but we are finishing a four-month strategic visioning initiative that started in the fall, and we’re presenting findings and recommendations to our board in late January, and that will basically lay out some key impact areas for our Federation to focus on in 2026 and forward.”
Katzen said that the Federation serves as a “community convener” and “cornerstone” of Jewish life, and with the strategic plan, its leaders are evaluating and finding ways to address the needs of the community.
One area in which the organization is already looking with its 2026 campaign is Super Sunday, held in February, the week before the Super Bowl. Super Sunday is the Federation’s largest fundraising event of the year, and Katzen said it raised around $400,000 dollars during the event in 2025.
He added that this year, the Federation is launching a separate fundraising campaign outside of the typical yearly effort.
The Community Security Campaign in 2026 will attempt to raise $2 million to support the “increasing and ongoing community security needs,” according to the campaign website.
The campaign comes during a time of increasing antisemitism, and its goal is to further bolster security for Jewish institutions across the region.
With the annual campaign, Katzen reflected on the success the Federation had in the past year, but he added that the need for more funding is still pressing if the Federation is going to continue improving what it can offer to the community.
“As successful as we have been, we still do not raise enough funds to fully allocate the dollars needed or requested by our agencies. The more dollars we raise, the more dollars we are able to allocate to our agencies and partners to provide the services that make up the Federation. Also, with an increase in dollars, we can do more programming and different types of programming, ongoing outreach initiatives,” Katzen said.
As 2026 gets going, Katzen reiterated the importance of unity within the Jewish community.
“With what has happened over the last three years, and with what continues to happen, it is more important than ever for the Jewish community to bond together and support one another,” he said.
