The Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Supporting Foundation is doubling down on its support for Jewish Federations of North America’s talent pipeline, providing an $11.5 million grant — its second such donation — to continue and expand its career development programs, the groups exclusively shared with eJewishPhilanthropy on Thursday.

The three-year grant will help grow programs that were launched with the foundation’s initial $9.5 million grant, including the Executive Accelerator, management and supervision training, the Jewish Federations Fundraising Institute, executive search and efforts to build leadership pipelines.

The first grant, in 2023, focused on mid-career professionals and C-suite executives. The new round extends that across the entire career trajectory, from internships through retirement. Specifically, it adds new spending on early-career professionals, CEO excellence, Jewish and Israel education, and developing leaders below the top executive level, JFNA said.

The investment in JFNA’s talent pipeline has been particularly timely, Liz Fisher, chief talent officer of the Mandel Center for Leadership Excellence at JFNA, told eJP, because “in the same way that we’ve had kind of an engagement surge post-Oct. 7, we’ve also had a professional surge across the Jewish community.”

Extending support for the talent pipeline is especially important for younger employees, Fisher said. Many missed early experiences, such as internships and leading a unit at summer camp, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, or started their jobs remotely and have worked through repeated crises, she said.

JFNA’s professional development programs have grown more than 25% year over year since the first grant began, including 37% growth last year, when 2,300 unique participants took part, Fisher said. She attributed the growth to the first grant.

“Strong organizations are built by high-performing people,” Steve Hoffman, board chair of the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation, told eJP. “This investment in the Jewish Talent Strategy Initiative reflects our belief that developing outstanding professionals and leaders is essential to the future of the Jewish community. We are proud to continue supporting this important work across the federation system.”