Garden of Remembrance

Legal name: Garden of Remembrance Memorial Park Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
522198248
IRS 990 coverage
2010–2019
Official website data refreshed
Jun 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2019
Location
Clarksburg, MD, United States
Phone
(301) 428-3000
Rating
75
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Cemeteries
Affiliation
Judaism

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$2,031,040
Expenses
$1,776,149
Assets
$12,706,160
Liabilities
$9,477,243

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2019. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • HANK LEVINE (PRESIDENT)
  • JUDITH KRANZ (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • GLENN S EASTON (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (START 1/1/2020))
  • SHELDON GROSBERG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (THRU 9/2019))

Highest reported compensation

  • DAVID KALER (SALES DIRECTOR): $179,454 total reported compensation
  • SHELDON GROSBERG (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR (THRU 9/2019)): $84,667 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2019. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

To operate a memorial park and provide burial services to the public that support and maintain the basic tenets and beliefs of Judaism through the provision of burial spaces, services, and memorials. When you choose the Garden of Remembrance, you join in a sacred bond with and help strengthen the greater Washington area Jewish community. As the region’s most inclusive Jewish cemetery, the nonprofit Memorial Park offers comprehensive services in accordance with all branches of Judaism, reflecting the full range of Jewish practices and honoring personal preferences. Funeral services are held graveside, in our beautiful outdoor Gazebo, or in our new Memorial Center & Chapel. _Burial Sections_ We are proud to have twenty-nine **Partner Congregations** that have purchased individual sections within the memorial park for their members.

What it reported doing in 2019

To provide burial spaces, memorials, and services to the public in accordance with the tenets and beliefs of judaism. The garden of remembrance is the region's only not-for-profit cemetery open to members of all jewish congregations as well as those unaffiliated with a congregation. It is jewish owned and operated, and managed by a board of community leaders. Congregations and individuals trust the memorial park to carry out burial arrangements with dignity as well as in accordance with jewish values and practices. Each year the memorial park invites the region's entire jewish community to memorial services at the cemetery to mark the high holy days.

Operating model

Revenue model
Earned-program. 69% of the money available for current operations came from fees and other program revenue.
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

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and some filed totals do not add up.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 70
  • Transparency & Controls: 66
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 63
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 88.3%; rating input score 88
  • Program expense ratio: 61.9%; rating input score 62
  • Fundraising efficiency: Limited

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 11th 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
  • Governance controls: 7 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 88
    • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
    • Whistleblower policy: Pass
    • Document-retention policy: Pass
    • CEO compensation review process: Pass
    • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 12.5%; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 7.15; rating input score 89; 89th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.75; rating input score 15; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 14.9%; rating input score 16; 16th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 11.4% per year; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 8.4% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 8.3% per year; rating input score 100; 61st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 88.3% of revenue deployed · 61.9% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 7 of 8 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.1M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $179K · 21 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 31 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 10 filing years from 2010 to 2019
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
  • 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.
  • Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.

Key Signals

Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.

  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
  • Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 15/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 16/100.