On March 7, 2025, children’s hospitals, schools, and non-profit organizations across the United States, Europe, and Australia received a delivery: more than 500,000 Squishmallows plush toys were distributed as part of the third annual Squishmallows Day. It was the largest single donation in Jazwares Cares’ history.
Jazwares Cares, the philanthropic arm of the global toy company behind Squishmallows, didn’t emerge from a board-level ESG review or an employee recommendation. Founder Judd Zebersky established it at the company’s inception in 1997. Giving wasn’t retrofitted to Jazwares once it achieved scale. It was part of the architecture from day one.
Giving as Infrastructure
Every Jazwares employee receives 16 hours of paid volunteer time annually. The benefit sits in the job description alongside health insurance and PTO as a standard component of employment.
The Jazwares Cares model runs through partnerships with established nonprofits including Toys for Tots, Ronald McDonald House, and The Toy Foundation’s Toy Bank program, while maintaining direct relationships with children’s hospitals and schools. The Adopt-a-School program currently supports Title I schools in communities near Jazwares’ offices, partnerships that go beyond toy donations. Employee volunteers run holiday parties, organize educational activities, and provide direct support to teachers. Squishmallows mascot Cam the Cat appears at many community events too.
Sara Rosales, Senior Vice President of Communications at Jazwares, described the company’s expansion of its community ties at a recent Adopt-a-School event at the Boys & Girls Club of Mercer County in Trenton, New Jersey.
“We plan to continue our partnerships with the organizations we’ve worked with, and expand our relationships with more community partners near our international offices, including the U.K., Mexico, Canada, Australia, Germany, and more,” she said.
The Squishmallows Day 2025 distribution showed how that expansion looks in practice. Jazwares Cares partnered with The Toy Foundation, Baby2Baby, Toys for Tots, and the First Responders Children’s Foundation across the United States, while simultaneously working with In Kind Direct in the U.K., Innatura in Germany, and Dons Solidaires in France.
Personal Giving on Another Scale
The corporate programs run alongside personal philanthropy that the Zebersky family has pursued independently.
Judd and Laura Zebersky donated $2 million to Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in South Florida, contributing to an expansion project estimated at $170 million that extended the facility from four floors to eight.
“Laura and I firmly support the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital mission,” Judd Zebersky said. “Not only are they a top-notch pediatric facility, but they also provide quality medical care regardless of a family’s ability to pay. We wanted to expand our personal philanthropic giving to the hospital because putting a smile on children’s faces, especially when they are at the hospital, is at the heart of everything Laura and I do in business, family, and life.”
The hospital named both its Pediatric Emergency Department Registration Area and its Outpatient Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Unit after the family. Jazwares also created a custom Lotsy Dotsy doll in honor of the hospital’s resident clown.
Make-A-Wish Southern Florida is another sustained commitment. Laura Zebersky joined the organization’s board in 2019 and was named Chair of the Board of Directors in 2022. Between September 2023 and August 2024, the Zeberskys were recognized in Make-A-Wish’s $1,000,000+ donor tier, the organization’s highest level of acknowledgment. The couple made more than 100 wishes come true and served as wish benefactors at the InterContinental Miami Make-A-Wish Ball, which raised over $5 million.
Jazwares developed Star, a Squishmallows designed specifically for children with severe illnesses and their siblings, and more than 10,000 Star Squishmallows were donated to Make-A-Wish chapters across the United States and Canada.
The Departure and the Foundation
Judd Zebersky steps down as CEO on March 20, 2026, ending nearly 30 years at the company he built from a South Florida startup into a global toy manufacturer with more than 1,500 employees and operations spanning five continents. David Neustein, the company’s Chief Operating Officer for the past 15 years, takes over.
The question for any company organized around a founder’s personal values is whether those values travel. At Jazwares, the mechanisms are already in place. Volunteer time is a contractual benefit. The Adopt-a-School partnerships have years of operational history. Jazwares Cares has run long enough to carry its own institutional identity, distinct from any individual at the top.
