Philanthropist Jacquie Bayley Creates Fund for Girls’ Leadership With $500,000 Gift to the Hadassah Foundation

NEW YORK, February 26, 2025 (Newswire.com) - The Hadassah Foundation is pleased to announce that philanthropist Jacquie Bayley has made a $500,000 contribution to the Hadassah Foundation to create the Fund for Leadership, Opportunity, and Sisterhood.

The Bayley Fund will support initiatives that offer women and girls in Israel and the American Jewish community the skills and training needed to obtain and excel in leadership roles across all spheres of life. Priority will be given to organizations and programs that support girls and young women ranging from adolescence to young adulthood. Special consideration will be given to organizations that are reaching those who are less likely to have access to opportunities due to their background, race, ability or other factors.

"Women and girls are powerful agents of change, yet too little funding goes toward supporting them, and men remain the majority of leaders in important decision-making positions," said Hadassah Foundation Chair Ellen Soffar Steinberg. "By helping the Hadassah Foundation to underwrite one of the Core grants we award annually, this fund will enable us to provide additional and potentially larger grants moving forward."

Ms. Bayley, who lives in Bellevue, Washington, has been an active supporter of the Hadassah Foundation for many years. She served as a board member from 2017-2022, helping to shape its grantmaking strategies and spearheading fundraising efforts, which more than doubled the Hadassah Foundation's annual contributions. She continues to guide ongoing programming and engage a network of more than 70 former board members. Among Ms. Bayley's numerous involvements, she is a board member of the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America and is a past region president of the Pacific Northwest region of Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America.

"The Hadassah Foundation shares both my feminist and Jewish values, and the network of gender-equity organizations it has nurtured are leading the way to a better future for women and girls," Ms. Bayley said. "I feel very fortunate to be able to help the foundation deepen its impact, and I hope my gift inspires more people to make serious commitments to gender equity in both Israel and the United States."

The Hadassah Foundation leads the movement to revolutionize the role, perception, and impact of all who identify as women and girls in Israel and the American Jewish community. Learn more at hadassahfoundation.org.

Source: Hadassah Foundation