Jelf
Legal name: Jewish Educational Loan Fund Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 580568686
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2012–2025
- Official website data refreshed
- Jun 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2025
- Location
- Atlanta, GA, USA
- Phone
- 7703963080
- Rating
- 73
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $3,517,998
- Expenses
- $2,483,792
- Assets
- $20,921,434
- Liabilities
- $883,583
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
48 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- STAN LOWENSTEIN (VICE PRESIDENT)
- DR MARIANNE DANIELS GARBER (VICE PRESIDENT)
- GREG GAYLIS (VICE PRESIDENT)
- JANE ARONOFF (VICE PRESIDENT)
- JENNA LEOPOLD SHULMAN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFI)
Highest reported compensation
- JENNA LEOPOLD SHULMAN (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFI): $222,148 total reported compensation
- CATHY MILLER (CHIEF OPERATING OFFI): $169,932 total reported compensation
- JOSHUA SCHAIER (DIR OF DEVELOPMENT): $151,512 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
About JELF JELF has one mission. We lend with a heart. JELF provides no-interest loans to Jewish students who demonstrate financial need as they pursue higher education. College costs are rising, and JELF helps bridge the gap through support for undergraduate, graduate, vocational, and technical programs. The Home benefited from the financial and material support of the included Jewish communities, especially Atlanta, as well as B’nai B’rith, and several organizations that were formed specifically to support the Jewish orphanage movement. In 1899, B’nai B’rith relinquished its official control of the Home, though B’nai B’rith members remained independently involved in the Home’s funding, operations and volunteer leadership for years to come. The Home’s first endowment fund was established in 1901. Its pillar, the Simon Wolf Endowment Fund, was chartered in 1916 in Goldsboro, NC. The...
What it reported doing in 2025
Jelf partners with jewish students in need in a five-state region to provide last-dollar, interest free loans for higher education.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 66% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
The verdict
SUPPORTED - The filed numbers largely add up and most voting board members are independent. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 58
- Transparency & Controls: 70
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 73
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 56.7%; rating input score 57
- Program expense ratio: 74.8%; rating input score 75
- Fundraising efficiency: $4.92 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 14; 14th 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: 9 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 100
- 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: Pass
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 29.4%; rating input score 81; 81st percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 8.42; rating input score 87; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.04; rating input score 63; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 21.9%; rating input score 13; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 10.7% per year; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 10.3% per year; rating input score 100; 67th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 56.7% of revenue deployed · 74.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 45 of 45 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.9M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $222K · 48 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 34 of 34 current checks pass
- Schedules: 6 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 14 filing years from 2012 to 2025
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 3 filed money-flow records
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 14/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 13/100.