Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center
Legal name: Jewish Community Center of Somerset Hunterdon And
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 223681640
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2010–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Bridgewater, NJ, United States
- Phone
- 908-725-6994
- Rating
- 70
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Neighborhood Centers
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $11,126,480
- Expenses
- $8,726,631
- Assets
- $17,236,803
- Liabilities
- $1,333,643
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
32 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Laura Friedman (Executive Director)
Highest reported compensation
- Laura Friedman (Executive Director): $276,464 total reported compensation
- Paige Silberfein (Assistance Executive): $175,437 total reported compensation
- Robert Wojciechowski (Maintenance): $146,567 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
MISSION: The Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center will provide a wholesome, nondiscriminatory facility with a wide range of services and diverse programming. This center is committed to preserving, enhancing and strengthening Jewish identity, fellowship and will work to enrich the Jewish community and the community at large. The JCC will encourage enthusiastic support within the community and will identify and cultivate leaders, volunteers and professional staff for benefit of the community. Board of Directors President: David Bernstein. The Shimon and Sara Birnbaum Jewish Community Center will provide a wholesome, nondiscriminatory facility with a wide range of services and diverse programming. VISION:.
What it reported doing in 2024
Summer camp program located at the community center. The camp sits on over 14 beautiful acres of land encompassing multiple summer activities and program for preschool through teen travel.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Earned-program. 73% 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 total spending goes to programs and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and few specific pay-setting methods are documented in the filing; unanswered boxes are not proof of absence.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 60
- Transparency & Controls: 62
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 69
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.9%; rating input score 57
- Program expense ratio: 76.7%; rating input score 77
- Fundraising efficiency: $6.44 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 94.1%; rating input score 94; 20th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 0 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 0
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Missing
- Compensation survey or study: Missing
- Board or committee approval: Missing
- 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: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 21.6%; rating input score 83; 83rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.98; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.08; rating input score 78; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 9.5%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.1% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 5.4% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 4.7% per year; rating input score 100; 34th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 1 operating location identified
- Where the money goes: 56.9% of revenue deployed · 76.7% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 27 of 27 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $6.7M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $276K · 32 people listed · 0 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 31 of 32 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 6 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 57/100.
- High — Transparency & Controls: Pay-setting controls scored 0/100.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 26/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 22/100.