Jewish Family Service of the Desert

What it reported doing in 2024

Jfs offers many additional programs that benefit coachella valley residents. For instance: jewish family service of the desert (jfs) is a nonsectarian provider of social services to coachella valley residents that offers several low- to no-cost services to help stabilize households, financially and mentally. Throughout the fiscal year, 17,132 services were provided to 4,045 unduplicated clients. Approximately 55% of clients identified as female, and 45% identified as male. Ethnicity and race demographics closely mirror the coachella valley's overall demographics. Approximately 92 agency volunteers provided 3,985 volunteer hours. The jfs auxiliary, a group of self-governed volunteers, successfully coordinated its annual fundraising event, "the aging brain," on sunday, november 17, 2024, at the indian wells country club. Author and lecturer, dr. Marc milstein, author of "the age-proof brain," offered helpful tips and lifestyle advice to help stave off the deleterious effects of aging, helping participants understand how to better retain their cognitive abilities. Proceeds from the event support the auxiliary's family giving circle and the jfs angel fund, used to provide emergency financial assistance to residents. Jfs helped coordinate the valley's first "healthy desert healthy you" environmental summit, september 20-21, at the westin mission hills resort. The event, sponsored by the desert healthcare district and foundation, provided updates on state, county, and regional efforts to improve soil, air, and water quality throughout the area. Through generous grants provided by the anderson children's foundation, bighorn cares, California department of social services, champions volunteer foundation, city of indian wells, city of indio, city of palm desert, coeta and donald barker foundation, houston family foundation, the morongo band of mission indians, and philanthropic givers, approximately 213,304 in funds were disbursed for emergency needs for those with low incomes. To help reduce incidences of fraud, disbursements were made directly to vendors for necessities such as overdue rent and utilities, food, and medications. A generous grant from the houston family foundation supported a collaboration between the mizell center, desert healthcare district & foundation (dhcdf), and jfs to offer in-person case management services at mizell once a week, maintain a list of currently available community resources available via the dhcdf website and jfs website with a link to the connect ie website for greater program information. The agency's mental health counseling program continued to partner with local agencies to provide no-cost, no-wait counseling services to partner agency clients and members of their households. During the year, jfs partnered with sixteen local agencies, and 897 no-cost counseling sessions were provided to their clients. Further, jfs offered 56,000 in clinical scholarships, making no-cost connections to therapists possible for those who were uninsured or unable to afford insurance copayments. Jfs case managers continued to help residents gain access to available benefits such as calfresh (food stamps), low income home energy assistance program (liheap), and medi-cal applications. During the fiscal year, 2,666 unduplicated clients were provided with 5662 services. Of the 2,666 clients, 667 were seniors 55+ years of age. Jfs case managers also provided supervision to two health career connection (hcc) interns during their 10-week preceptor programs, helping to inform future care providers about the needs facing many of our coachella valley neighbors. The case management program continues to oversee our engagement with the inland empire health plan (iehp) community supports program by offering housing navigation, housing tenancy, and housing deposit services to iehp clients, and our goal remains to expand that program to the extent possible. Jfs case managers are responsible for adjudicating requests for emergency

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 94%; rating input score 94
• Program expense ratio: 91.4%; rating input score 91
• Fundraising efficiency: $14.22 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 49; 49th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• 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 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • 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: -2.4%; rating input score 26; 26th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.84; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.25; rating input score 38; 38th percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 8.2%; rating input score 36; 36th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 64th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: 6% per year; rating input score 100; 48th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: 9.6% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings