Jafco

Legal name: Jewish Adoption and Foster Care Options Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
200898587
IRS 990 coverage
2013–2025
Official website data refreshed
Sep 2026
Forms available
Form 990 2025
Location
Sunrise, FL, United States
Phone
954-749-7230
Rating
80
Verdict
STRONG
Rating confidence
Standard
Sector
Residential Care & Adult Day Programs
Affiliation
Judaism

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$8,226,474
Expenses
$7,741,012
Assets
$4,006,682
Liabilities
$1,194,692

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

32 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DR RONALD SIMON (PRESIDENT EMERITUS)
  • MAURICE D PLOUGH JR (PAST PRESIDENT)
  • MATTHEW C LEVIN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (BEG. 07/2025))
  • ROBERT ETZKIN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (THRU 02/2025 - 06/2025))
  • SARAH FRANCO (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (END. 01/2025))

Highest reported compensation

  • WENDY JENKINS (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $295,304 total reported compensation
  • ROBERT ETZKIN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER (THRU 02/2025 - 06/2025)): $239,268 total reported compensation
  • MAHER MALAK (CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER): $221,221 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

JAFCO’s mission is to provide care, safety and support to children and their families within the Jewish community and beyond who are impacted by abuse, neglect, trauma, or developmental disabilities…giving every child a place to belong. JAFCO provides a full continuum of high-quality services including foster care, adoption, family preservation, mentoring, independent living and developmental disability programs. The JAFCO Children’s Village, consisting of an Emergency Shelter and six Group Homes, is one of the most unique and innovative programs in the nation. The JAFCO Children’s Ability Center supports families raising children with developmental disabilities by providing fami.

What it reported doing in 2025

Jafco is licensed as a child placing agency to provide foster care and adoption services and as a child caring group residential group care agency to provide emergency shelter and group home services to children ages birth to 23 (from broward, miami dade, and palm beach counties). During the current year, jafco served 953 individuals. Jafco currently provides an entire continuum of programs and services for abused and neglected children and their families: - family preservation & strengthening/case management & referrals - foster/adoptive parent recruitment, training & licensing/home studies - foster care placement, supervision and support/adoption placement and post adoption support (continued on schedule o) services - emergency shelter (for youth ages birth to 12)/group home program (for youth ages 6 to 23) - senior caregiver program (for grandparents raising their grandchildren) - mst- multi systemic therapy (in home family therapy program), outpatient therapy program, and independent living program for youth aging out of foster care - wellness and trauma education

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 total assets are small relative to annual expenses; liquid coverage is unknown.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 81
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 31
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 81.3%; rating input score 81
  • Program expense ratio: 87.8%; rating input score 88
  • Fundraising efficiency: $23.29 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 63; 63rd 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: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 5.9%; rating input score 45; 45th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.52; rating input score 17; 17th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.3; rating input score 27; 27th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.4%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 5.3% per year; rating input score 100; 38th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 35th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 17.5% per year; rating input score 100; 80th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • What they do: 4 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
  • Where the money goes: 81.3% of revenue deployed · 87.8% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 22 of 22 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $6.8M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $295K · 32 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
  • Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 10 filed money-flow records
  • Related organizations: 3 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 — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 45/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 17/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 27/100.