Circles for Jewish Living
Legal name: Circles for Jewish Living Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 815079665
- IRS 990-EZ coverage
- 2017–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990-EZ 2025
- Location
- Northampton, MA, USA
- Phone
- 413-559-9208
- Rating
- 86
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Cultural, Ethnic Awareness
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $36,649
- Expenses
- $45,801
- Assets
- $21,592
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
5 people listed
People named in this filing
- Alison Morse (Pres./Director)
- David Marlin (Treas./Director)
- Deb Krivoy (Clerk)
Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.
Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Circles for Jewish Living offers responsive, post-denominational Jewish education and life-cycle ceremonies, meeting participants wherever they are Jewishly, spiritually and educationally. Since 2010, over 100 families have participated in the after school program. We celebrated over 100 B-mitzvahs, 4 weddings, developed multiple teen groups, officiated funerals and shiva minyans, and celebrated with many Valley families and individuals at multiple community and holiday events. In 2017, we received 501(c)(3) non-profit status giving us the capacity to receive significant local support from the Harold Grinspoon Foundation, the Jewish Endowment Foundation and other organizations for many of our programs. In March 2019, ten of us met for a strategic planning session. We envisioned the next five years of CJL. In the first year, we expanded life cycle offerings and clarified our pu.
What it reported doing in 2025
Life Cycle Rituals: Bar/Bat Mitzvah customized coming-of-age experiences for the student and families which include private lessons over the course of a year. Our program hasexpanded to encompass the life rituals of weddings, birth and death.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Mixed. Its operating money came from several sources; no one source provided a clear majority.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 100% of reported program-service expenses outside its grant, affiliate-payment, and member-benefit lines. This expense classification does not rule out separately announced grant awards.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Expenses are high relative to revenue and revenue has declined or grown slowly.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 98
- Transparency & Controls: 82
- Sustainability: 18
- Growth: 60
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 95.5%; rating input score 96
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 51st percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Limited
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -25%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.47; rating input score 30; 30th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: Limited
- Officer compensation ratio: 70.8%; rating input score 1; 1st percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.5% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -2.4% per year; rating input score 0; 41st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10.4% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 95.5% of spending went to programs
- Governance: Filed governance answers
- Accomplishments: 3 filed program accomplishments · $44K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
- Consistency: 6 of 6 current checks pass
- Schedules: 2 filed schedules
- Filing history: 9 filing years from 2017 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 19/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 30/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 1/100.