Lester & Jewell Morris Hillel Jewish Student Center at Msu
Legal name: Congregation B'nai B'rith Hillel
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 383034766
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2011–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- East Lansing, MI, USA
- Phone
- 517.332.1916
- Rating
- 76
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,512,111
- Expenses
- $2,238,153
- Assets
- $2,927,331
- Liabilities
- $308,297
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
35 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PATRICE PHILLIPS (PAST PRESIDENT)
- SAM SCHIFFER (VICE PRESIDENT)
- SANDY SOIFER (PRESIDENT)
- ROBYN HUGHEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- ROBYN HUGHEY (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $218,229 total reported compensation
- JONATHON KOENIGSBERG (ASSOC. EXEC DIRECTOR & DIRECTOR OFDEVELOPMENT): $168,976 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
MSU Hillel is "the place to be" for more than 3,500 Jewish students at MSU. Our mission is to enrich the lives of Jewish students so that they may enrich the Jewish people and the world. Together, we are building a new generation of Jewish leaders. With the opening of the new Lester J. Morris Hillel Jewish Student Center, student interest continued to surge. Students flocked to Hillel to study, for meetings and events, Shabbat dinners and Sunday brunches, or just to hang out. Once again, Hillel outgrew its dining, office and chapel space. In 2006, Cindy’s efforts to transform MSU Hillel were recognized by Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life when she received the Richard Joel Exemplar of Excellence Award. In 2008, Hillel launched a second capital campaign. With the support of generous donors, the building expanded by 25% and was rededicated as the Lester and Jewell Morris...
What it reported doing in 2024
Shabbat, holiday meals and services are offered as appropriate. Student growth and leadership development.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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
SUPPORTED - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 70
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 52
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 70%; rating input score 70
- Program expense ratio: 78.3%; rating input score 78
- Fundraising efficiency: $12.95 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 1 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 17
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Pass
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: Limited
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 8 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 89
- 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: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 10.9%; rating input score 64; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.31; rating input score 46; 46th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.11; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 17.3%; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.9% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.8% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 8.7% per year; rating input score 100; 53rd percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 70% of revenue deployed · 78.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 33 of 33 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $218K · 35 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2011 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 2 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.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 46/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 46/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 15/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 58/100.