Merage Jewish Community Center of Orange County
Legal name: Jewish Community Center of Orange County
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 330016661
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Irvine, CA, United States
- Phone
- 949.435.3400
- Rating
- 84
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Neighborhood Centers
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $17,795,136
- Expenses
- $19,558,558
- Assets
- $44,728,388
- Liabilities
- $2,383,944
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
34 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- SCOTT BRASWELL (CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- SCOTT BRASWELL (CEO): $319,000 total reported compensation
- JULIE HOLDAWAY (CHIEF STRATEGY & LEARNING OFFICER): $201,378 total reported compensation
- LEE TRINGALI (CFO): $179,271 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Ensuring Jewish continuity in Orange County. Onsite We’re dedicated to keeping our community active and connected with on-site experiences that support your needs and goals. On Demand From creative programs to exciting events, there’s something for everyone—join us whenever it’s convenient for you! Happening Today. At the Merage Jewish Community Center, we deeply value your trust and are committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard the personal information you choose to share with us. Information Collection and Use Our website is designed to respect your privacy. We do not collect or distribute personal information about our visitors. However, we do gather anonymous data—such as page views, browser types, and the number of new and returning visitors. This helps us improve your online experience and ensure we’re sharing relevant...
What it reported doing in 2024
The purpose of the center is to provide community wide social, cultural, educational, and recreational activities. The various programs have allowed membership to grow and to increase the programs available to senior citizens. At december 31, 2024, the center had 2,900 active members.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 74% 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
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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 84
- Transparency & Controls: 84
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 39
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 91.1%; rating input score 91
- Program expense ratio: 82.1%; rating input score 82
- Fundraising efficiency: $18.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 54; 54th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 62nd percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 4 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 67
- Compensation committee: Pass
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
- Written employment contract: Pass
- 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; 66th 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: -9.9%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.29; rating input score 66; 66th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 82; 82nd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 5.4%; rating input score 48; 48th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 3.2% per year; rating input score 100; 27th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 3.6% per year; rating input score 100; 31st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.9% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 91.1% of revenue deployed · 82.1% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 29 of 29 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $16.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $319K · 34 people listed · 4 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $2.5M reported
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 7 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2010 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 filed money-flow records
- 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 10/100.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 54/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 48/100.