The Jewish Education Project
Legal name: Board of Jewish Education Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 131632519
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Aug 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New York, NY, USA
- Phone
- 6464725375
- Rating
- 87
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $36,757,803
- Expenses
- $38,163,655
- Assets
- $25,978,836
- Liabilities
- $13,122,906
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
43 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- LOIS KOHN-CLAAR (PRESIDENT)
- KAREN EVERETT (VICE PRESIDENT)
- DR DAVID BRYFMAN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)
- SUSAN WACHSSTOCK (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
- SIMON AMIEL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROOTONE)
Highest reported compensation
- DR DAVID BRYFMAN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $508,407 total reported compensation
- SUSAN WACHSSTOCK (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $363,395 total reported compensation
- SIMON AMIEL (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ROOTONE): $341,383 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Our mission:** The Jewish Education Project inspires, strengthens, and propels the Jewish educational ecosystem to deliver innovative, timely, and continually meaningful educational experiences—today and tomorrow. Our vision:** fostering pride, purpose, and the skills to thrive as Jews and in the world. Our Values [](. and Vision[]( female teacher stands over a table with students Jewish education has always been the foundation of a thriving Jewish future. Yet in a world that is rapidly changing—amid rising antisemitism, evolving communal needs, and shifting learning environments—our work has never been more urgent. At The Jewish Education Project, we recognize that meeting today’s challenges requires not only equipping educators with the best tools and resources but also reimagining what Jewish education can be. By fostering innovation, embracing new technologies, and building...
What it reported doing in 2024
The organization advances multiple program areas that collectively strengthen jewish learning ecosystems: early childhood education: supports over 140 centers in the New York area through professional development, consulting, and leadership initiatives that promote high-quality, family-centered early learning and broaden access to diverse jewish families.congregational learning: partners with approximately 175 congregations and engages 300400 educators annually to design and implement new models of jewish learning that are relevant, flexible, and responsive to contemporary family life.teen engagement: has trained over 1,000 professionals across nearly 300 institutions to build a more skilled field of teen engagement, improving program quality and increasing meaningful participation for jewish teens.school food and government programs: serves as a liaison between public agencies and approximately 125 schools and yeshivas, facilitating access to nutrition funding and ensuring compliance with program requirements.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 86% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 69% for direct work, and 31% for grants.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 87
- Transparency & Controls: 87
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 22
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 92%; rating input score 92
- Program expense ratio: 88.5%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: $19.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Pass
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Pass
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Claims monitoring procedures: Pass
- Requires narrative reports: Pass
- Conducts field audits: Limited
- May suspend future funding: Limited
- Requires financial reports: Pass
- Conducts site visits: Pass
- Requires grant agreements: Pass
- May require repayment: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 99.8%; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: Pass
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -3.8%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.68; rating input score 23; 23rd percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.51; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.6%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.6% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.4% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 9% per year; rating input score 100; 60th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 92% of revenue deployed · 88.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 30 of 30 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $33.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $508K · 43 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $3M reported
- Consistency: 42 of 42 current checks pass
- Schedules: 9 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 42 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 29 filed related-organization links
- Grant readiness: Federal tax and exclusion status, award history, and grant-maker relationships.
- People: Everyone the filings name, and which of them the filings identify by more than a name.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 56/100.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 23/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.
- High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 28/100.