On October 7, 2025, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign became a microcosm of the global reckoning with the two-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel and the subsequent war in Gaza. The campus was alive with emotion and activism, as Jewish student groups gathered to honor the victims of the Hamas assault, while pro-Palestinian activists marched for divestment and humanitarian support for Gaza. The day’s events captured not only the ongoing pain and division wrought by the conflict but also the broader challenges facing Israeli and Palestinian communities, as well as the nonprofits and donors striving to address the fallout.
According to eJewishPhilanthropy, the aftermath of the October 7 massacres saw an unprecedented mobilization of Jewish philanthropy worldwide. Within weeks, donations for relief efforts soared past $1 billion, with the Jewish Federations of North America and its 146 member organizations raising over $900 million for Israel alone. This wave of generosity supported some 800 different NGOs, ranging from medical and emergency services to mental health support, aid for terror victims, and economic assistance for those whose lives were upended.
“There is no question that the events of Oct. 7 were a clarion call for many Jews in the U.S. as they realized that events in Israel impacted them personally on many levels,” said Ariel Zwang, CEO of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which raised $102 million for its Israel Emergency Campaign. “They responded with an outpouring of support, and we raised $102 million for our Israel Emergency Campaign, which was above and beyond regular Israel giving over the subsequent 2-year period.”
Yet, as the war sparked by those attacks appears to be drawing to a close, the needs created and exacerbated by the crisis have not faded. Instead, millions of Israelis now face vulnerabilities ranging from mental health issues and unemployment to homelessness and hunger. “Those who were already vulnerable before the conflict are now joined by new populations of vulnerable who never needed support before or have numerous challenges that require multiple interventions to aid them,” Zwang told eJewishPhilanthropy. “Think of someone who survived the Oct. 7 atrocities, lost a business, and now has children serving in the military.”
The initial surge of donations has ebbed, and Israeli nonprofits that emerged or expanded after the attacks are struggling to transition from crisis mode to long-term sustainability. Naomi Eisenberger, executive director of the Good People Fund, described the “enormous fatigue” after years of crisis, from the pandemic to Ukraine and now Israel’s wars. “You can only cry wolf so many times,” Eisenberger said, noting that some donors now restrict their giving, while others have grown wary of supporting organizations with explicit Israeli connections.
Organizations like Saki, which works with at-risk youth, and Kaima, which expanded to serve soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder, are emblematic of the sector’s dilemma. Emergency funding allowed them to broaden their reach, but as Eisenberger explained, “now it’s two years later, that unprecedented giving isn’t there. And they’re running programs in places where they no longer have the money to support it.” Many nonprofits founded in memory of terror victims or fallen soldiers, she warned, risk becoming dormant once the emotional surge passes and sustainable funding proves elusive.
The crowded NGO field only compounds the challenge. As Eisenberger put it, “There’s an unprecedented number of programs,” with mental health services and therapeutic farms for veterans proliferating. Larger, established nonprofits with robust fundraising capabilities are often better positioned to weather the storm, while smaller organizations must fight over the same exhausted donor pool.
Still, some groups have managed to maintain their momentum. Ten Gav, which provides basic needs to struggling Israeli families, simply added emergency financial assistance for reservist families and has kept its donors engaged. “We don’t sense the fatigue — yet!” said Anna Menzies Hecht, director of development for Ten Gav. “We have upped our communications and kept closely in touch, introducing more regular reporting.”
Jay Shofet, director of partnerships and development at the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, credits decades of strategic planning and diversification for his organization’s stability. “For 30 years or more, we have been talking about how we can’t rely on Diaspora funding,” Shofet said. By cultivating domestic donors and attracting new environmental funding, SPNI has buffered itself from political divides that can challenge other Israeli nonprofits.
Yet, the influx of emergency funding has produced its own set of problems for some organizations. IsraAid, a humanitarian group that raised $20 million and hired 200 people for Israel relief work, now finds it “extremely challenging” to secure support for its multi-country operations. CEO Yotam Polizer observed, “People with strong ties to Israel now focus all their giving on the current crisis. It’s extremely challenging to secure support for our multi-country work when donors are laser-focused on Gaza and Israel.”
Policy research groups face similar headwinds. Nir Kedar, CEO of the Taub Center, noted that fundraising has become “much more difficult since the war,” with donors prioritizing direct assistance or at-risk Diaspora communities. The Taub Center has shifted research toward mental health, reflecting both donor interest and the pressing needs of Israeli civil society.
The question facing Israeli nonprofits, then, is how to sustain themselves through both emergencies and periods of relative calm. As Zwang put it, organizations must “handle both short and long term simultaneously.” This multilayered reality—immediate needs of evacuees, long-term trauma care, and fresh emergencies—hinders the traditional transition from emergency to recovery that many philanthropic models anticipate.
These complexities were mirrored in the events at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign on October 7, 2025. According to IPM Newsroom, Jewish student groups gathered in the afternoon to remember the victims of the October 7, 2023 attack, singing prayers for the hostages still held by Hamas. “I’ve seen all the causes that I support and champion turn on us, turn on Jews, turn on Israel,” said political science senior Jayden Fogel. “And I now call myself a struggling Democrat, because it is hard and I feel that I need to take that passion and take those skills and pivot towards Israel.”
Later that evening, about 100 protesters led by Students for Justice in Palestine UIUC marched through campus and blocked an intersection, calling on the university to divest from military companies and support the Palestinian people. “For the past two years, we have watched the annihilation of Gaza with horror, with grief and with rage, while our UIUC administration conducts cost benefit analyses, weighing human suffering and death against dollars and cents,” the group said in a statement. Community members like Hamad Mahmoud, who lost relatives in Gaza and Lebanon, and Marcie Davis, who stepped off her bus to observe the protest, voiced anguish over the ongoing violence and the world’s apparent indifference.
The campus events unfolded as Israel and Hamas held peace talks over a plan brokered by former President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Meanwhile, local activists were returning home after attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea, only to be detained by Israeli forces—a stark reminder of the siege and humanitarian crisis that continues to grip the region.
The persistent cycle of crisis and response, both in Israel and among its supporters abroad, has left many organizations and individuals grappling with how to sustain compassion, funding, and activism over the long haul. As the dust settles on another anniversary, the challenge of moving from emergency to recovery—while still bracing for the next upheaval—remains as daunting as ever.