Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale
Legal name: Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life At
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 061257354
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2013–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024
- Location
- New Haven, CT, USA
- Phone
- 2034923209
- Rating
- 75
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,705,879
- Expenses
- $5,243,527
- Assets
- $53,744,223
- Liabilities
- $4,707,579
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
28 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- PETER BENSINGER JR (PRESIDENT)
- EVAN K FARBER (VICE PRESIDENT)
- URIEL COHEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR)
Highest reported compensation
- URIEL COHEN (EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR): $230,118 total reported compensation
- MELINDA PAPOWITZ (DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR): $177,311 total reported compensation
- ZIV EISENBERG (MANAGING DIRECTOR): $146,408 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
Slifka center is an independent self supporting non-profit that serves yale university students, faculty and staff, and the greater new haven community.
What it reported doing in 2024
Student and yale community programming: the slifka center produces and supports many programs for the jewish community on campus as well as programs geared to sharing judaism and jewish culture with the non-jewish community. These programs create opportunities for interaction and dialogue between the jewish community and other religious and cultural groups across campus. Programming categories include social justice, arts/culture, israel programming and various other student and community programs. Typically, around 2,000 undergraduate and 500 graduate students participate in slifka center programming throughout the year. The slifka center also typically hosts religious programs and services for the campus jewish community throughout the year and during jewish holidays. This can include from 10 to 25 people at daily service and 50 to 400 people for holiday services and programs during the year.
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 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 available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. Fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised and expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 63
- Transparency & Controls: 71
- Accountability: 100
- Sustainability: 63
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 73.3%; rating input score 73
- Program expense ratio: 64.2%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $2.78 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 8; 8th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 17th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: 2 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 33
- Compensation committee: Missing
- Independent consultant: Missing
- Other Form 990s reviewed: Missing
- Written employment contract: Pass
- 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: 8.1%; rating input score 58; 58th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 10.25; rating input score 91; 91st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.09; rating input score 61; 61st percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 15.7%; rating input score 18; 18th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 7.3% per year; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 7.6% per year; rating input score 100; 57th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 6.2% per year; rating input score 100; 41st percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: Mission, programs, and operating context captured from the official website.
- Where the money goes: 73.3% of revenue deployed · 64.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 21 of 21 board members independent · 9 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 2 filed program accomplishments · $3.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $230K · 28 people listed · 2 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Highest-paid contractors: 1 contractor listed · $126K reported
- Consistency: 28 of 28 current checks pass
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and executive pay
- Filing history: 12 filing years from 2013 to 2024
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 5 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.
- High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 8/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 58/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 18/100.