Jewish Family Services
Legal name: Jewish Family Services Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 390806291
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Milwaukee, WI, USA
- Phone
- (414) 225-1344
- Rating
- 74
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Standard
- Sector
- Human Service Organizations
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $9,214,822
- Expenses
- $5,353,362
- Assets
- $20,612,264
- Liabilities
- $1,479,196
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOHN A YOPPS (PRESIDENT/CEO)
Highest reported compensation
- JOHN A YOPPS (PRESIDENT/CEO): $209,395 total reported compensation
- JOSEPH SYKORA (CFO): $113,875 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Provide supportive services that strengthen families, children, and individuals throughout the life cycle within the context of their unique needs and traditions, with programs that are not exclusive to the Jewish community. Our early programs addressed the basic life needs of resettled individuals, families, and children through a range of services that included vocational training and employment services, education, outpatient medical care, family counseling, foster care, orphanages and adoptions, and housing. We also played an integral role in founding other Jewish-based organizations such as the Federated Jewish Charities, now known as the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, Jewish Children’s Home, Outpatient Department for Sinai Samaritan Medical Center, and Jewish Vocational Services, now known as Milwaukee Center for Independence. Over the years, JFS expanded our mission to serve the...
What it reported doing in 2024
Supportive and case management services - the organization provides case management and supportive services to individuals and families experiencing disability, mental illness, substance use disorders, aging-related challenges, poverty, and displacement. Services include disability case management and representative payee services; culturally informed services for russian-speaking older adults and holocaust survivors; jewish community case management and advocacy; and emergency assistance and case management for jewish individuals and recent ukrainian immigrants. Additional services include supportive services for adults with serious mental illness, community-based educational and social programs supporting housing stability, and comprehensive community services (ccs), a voluntary community-based program for children and young adults with mental health or substance use needs.
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 98% 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 - 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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 54
- Transparency & Controls: 80
- Accountability: 95
- Sustainability: 79
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 43.1%; rating input score 43
- Program expense ratio: 70.3%; rating input score 70
- Fundraising efficiency: $21.26 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 61; 61st 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: 100%; rating input score 100; 72nd percentile among comparable filings
- Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
- Related-party transparency: Yes; rating input score 100
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: 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: 41.9%; rating input score 90; 90th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.85; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 65; 65th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 6%; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 1.3% per year; rating input score 100; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 0.6% per year; rating input score 100; 14th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 0% per year; rating input score 100; 12th 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: 43.1% of revenue deployed · 70.3% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 12 of 12 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $3.8M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $209K · 13 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 36 of 36 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, executive pay, and related organizations
- Filing history: 16 filing years from 2009 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 2 filed money-flow records
- Related organizations: 1 filed related-organization link
- 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.
- Staff and benefit plans: Retirement and health plans the organization files with the Department of Labor, and the people in them.
Key Signals
Signals prioritize questions for review. They are not findings of misconduct.
Grant-readiness screening is separate from the live rating, not a measure of program quality. Review the source records before making a grant decision.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 43/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Form 990 shared with the board not reported.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 47/100.
- High — Grant Readiness: Federal audit findings: this organization reported findings in its latest federal Single Audit.