Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Transparency in American Orthodox Jewish Institutions, Part II

Here is Part II of our look at Institutional Transparency in Tzedakah Organizations. We will list major tzedakah organizations which publicly file their financial information, using the IRS Form 990 for non-profits. Links are to the most recent Form 990 stored on the Guidestar website.

(Part I was here.)

Umbrella Organizations – Torah Education and Program Services
Agudath Israel of America

Agudath Israel of America Foundation

EDAH

National Council of Young Israel - DOES NOT FILE

OU – Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America - DOES NOT FILE

Torah uMesorah - National Society for Hebrew Day Schools


Primarily Fundraisers
AMIT Women

Emunah Women of America

National Council of Young Israel's Yisrael haTzair supporting National Council efforts in Israel

RZA (Religious Zionists of America)


Program-Specific Organizations
Bnei Akiva of the US and Canada

Chabad Lubavitch National Campus Foundation

JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminists of America)

Rabbinical Council of America

Star K Supervision

ZOA (Zionist Organization of America)


Outreach and Educational Programming
AJOP

AOJS (Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists)

Chabad Lubavitch Torah Educational Services

Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation

Merkos l’Inyonei Chinuch (But why nothing since 1998?)

National Jewish Outreach Program

Torah MiTzion Kollelim - St. Louis, Chicago, Detroit


Educational Institutions (Yeshivot and Colleges)
Beis Medrash Govoha (Lakewood Yeshiva)

Drisha

Hebrew Theological College (Skokie) - DOES NOT FILE

Ner Israel Rabbinical College - DOES NOT FILE

Rabbinical College of America (Lubavitch - Morristown, NJ)

RIETS (Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary)

Sh’or Yoshuv - DOES NOT FILE

Touro College

Touro University

Yeshiva Chaim Berlin - DOES NOT FILE

Yeshiva Chovevei Torah

Rabbi Israel Meyer haCohen Rabbinical Seminary of America (Chofetz Chaim) - DOES NOT FILE

Yeshiva Torah voDaath - DOES NOT FILE

Yeshiva University


Note, as we said in Part I, that the following religious organizations are technically exempt:
1. A church, an interchurch organization of local units of a church, a convention or association of churches, or an integrated auxiliary of a church as described in Regulations section 1.6033-2(h) (such as a men’s or women’s organization, religious school, mission society, or youth group).
2. A church-affiliated organization that is exclusively engaged in managing funds or maintaining retirement programs and is described in Rev. Proc. 96-10, 1996-1 C.B. 577.
3. A school below college level affiliated with a church or operated by a religious order described in Regulations section 1.6033-2(g)(1)(vii).
4. A mission society sponsored by, or affiliated with, one or more churches or church denominations, if more than half of the society’s activities are conducted in, or directed at, persons in foreign countries.
5. An exclusively religious activity of any religious order described in Rev. Proc. 91-20, 1991-1 C.B. 524.

Also, organizations are exempt if their annual gross receipts are normally less than $25,000.

(For more information, see the IRS pdf here.)

10 comments:

  1. i think i once saw a 990 for central?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Most of the institutions/organizations on this list are duplicates of the ones on the first list. What is missing for the most part from both lists is what "Joe Everyman" would call a tzedaka organization--things like the various Bikur Cholim groups, Hatzoloh, Yad L'Achim etc. And far too few yeshivas represented.

    Lion, wouldn't Central be subsumed under YU as one of its entities?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lion-
    Listing day schools - I don't have the time to go for the day schools and high schools; there are, thank Gd, hundreds of them.
    Central - Yes, there is a separate 990 listed for Yeshiva University High Schools.

    ProfK-
    Half to 2/3 are yesterday's list, but I found this a better way to organize the information and figured it would make sense to include yesterday's.

    Re: The various tzedakah orgs you mention - True, but (almost) all of those do file 990s.

    ReplyDelete
  4. "I don't have the time to go for the day schools and high schools"

    you'd be wasting your time. most take advantage of the exemption and don't file.

    PROFK:

    personally i'm more interested in seeing in a day school 990 than one for bikkur cholim. i don't give thousnds of dollars a year to the latter

    ReplyDelete
  5. former allentownerJuly 1, 2009 at 3:33 PM

    can you imagine a day school where the principal and (even worse,) the executive director's salary publically known!

    (of course, central's principals salary is listed a bit too high, in my opinion, but i believe they do fundraising, too. and fundraisers command, basically, a percentage of what they raise. perhaps transparency should extend to disclosure of the %age. and standards should be set for the %age.)

    ReplyDelete
  6. former allentownerJuly 1, 2009 at 3:44 PM

    the only real value of 990's is "executive salaries" (and maybe some questionable "consultants" and real estate payments to "principals").

    drisha once listed (havent looked at them for a long while) the names and (home addresses -- too personal) and amounts of their grants -- fellowships.

    perhaps some more info on who / what an organization gives its $ to.

    by the way, the rca, for many years claimed its budget was under $25,000, thus exempt from filing a 990. (of course, it had several well paid executives the whole time)

    ReplyDelete
  7. FA-
    I know you and like you, but please try to keep the lashon hara out. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  8. former allentownerJuly 12, 2009 at 10:39 PM

    please delete the end of my last comment. perhaps it was over the top. (besides, there's nothing wrong with paying executives a good sal, but that was not what i meant. delete this parenth, too.)

    ReplyDelete
  9. FA-
    Sorry, but I can't edit comments, only delete them entirely. Would you like me to do that?

    ReplyDelete