Jewish Learning Venture
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 232473518
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2019–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- Jenkintown, PA, USA
- Phone
- 2153200360
- Rating
- 81
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $1,989,870
- Expenses
- $1,643,297
- Assets
- $2,671,367
- Liabilities
- $189,405
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
17 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JONATHON LEVINE (PRESIDENT)
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
We envision individuals and families engaged in dynamic, connected, Jewish life in Greater Philadelphia and beyond. Mission Jewish Learning Venture inspires and empowers people to make Jewish life, learning and community relevant and meaningful. Erin Beser joined JLV in 2024. She hails from Baltimore, Maryland, but now lives on Philadelphia’s Main Line with her husband Ethan, who serves as the Senior Rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El, and her two children, Aldo and Sage. She is a passionate Jewish educator who has worked in a variety of Jewish educational spaces from synagogues and summer camps to Jewish day schools and currently teaches 6th grade Jewish studies at the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr. Erin is also the founder and CEO of Adoughma Dough Play Events, a sensory education initiative working to bring dough and sensory play into Jewish educational and communal...
What it reported doing in 2024
Whole community inclusion - provides direct support to families raising jewish children with disabilities with programs and workshops for parents. Additionally, jewish learning venture trains and consults with jewish organizations to ensure that families raising jewish children with disabilities find the accommodations needed for full inclusion in jewish life.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 82% 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.
The verdict
STRONG - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 73
- Transparency & Controls: 92
- Accountability: 79
- Sustainability: 62
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 72.3%; rating input score 72
- Program expense ratio: 85.8%; rating input score 86
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.59 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 43; 43rd 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: 4 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 50
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: Fail
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: 17.4%; rating input score 73; 73rd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 1.63; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.07; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 8.5%; rating input score 42; 42nd percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 4.5% per year; rating input score 100; 39th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 11.5% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 10% per year; rating input score 100; 59th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 2 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 72.3% of revenue deployed · 85.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 15 of 15 board members independent · 4 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 3 filed program accomplishments · $1.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $140K · 17 people listed
- Consistency: 31 of 31 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2019 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- 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 — Accountability: Governance controls: 3 of 7 not reported.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 43/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 58/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 42/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.