Limmud Bay Area

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
453663857
IRS 990-EZ coverage
2012–2024
Forms available
Form 990 2018, Form 990-EZ 2024
Location
Cupertino, CA, USA
Phone
4083431217
Rating
48
Verdict
MIXED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Judaism
Affiliation
Judaism

Official website

Reported finances

Revenue
$7,200
Expenses
$5,325
Assets
$17,578
Liabilities
$0

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

5 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • MILA WICHTER (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)
  • LIKI ABRAMS (VICE PRESIDENT)
  • VERA HARTFORD (CO-PRESIDENT)
  • SHELLEY ZAK (CO-PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY)

People named in this filing

  • MILA WICHTER (IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT)
  • STEPHEN FARBER (TREASURER)
  • LIKI ABRAMS (VICE PRESIDENT)

Selected names, not a complete roster or a statement of current roles. Open leadership details for the complete filed list.

Source: IRS Form 990-EZ. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Provide jewish education and cultural services to the jewish community of the s.f. Bay area

What it reported doing in 2024

Limmud is an international jewish phenomenon that began in 1980 in the united kingdom and has now expanded to 90 communities in 42 countries on 6 continents. Conferences/festivals are held in israel, europe/uk, russia, africa, asia, australia, canada, central and south america and the us. An estimated 40,000 people participated in a limmud event somewhere in the world in 2017. Limmud is now a world-leader in cross-communal, multi-generational, volunteer-led jewish learning experiences, and has become regarded as one of the most vibrant, dynamic and successful examples of alternative educational projects in the jewish world. It is undoubtedly british and european jewry's premier adult education initiative, with over 2,000 participants from 40 countries attending the 2021 uk limmud festival, which was an online event due to the covid-19 pandemic. Limmud bay area was established in january 2012 for the purpose of offering educational programming based on the limmud method to the jewish community of the san francisco bay area. The primary program is designed to be an annual conference, taking place over several days each year, with participation by up to about 500 people of diverse ages and backgrounds at each conference. The program is a learning conference, a festival, a gathering of jews from all parts of the bay area, from all walks of life, all jewish backgrounds, all lifestyles, and all ages. Those several days of lectures, workshops, text-study sessions, discussions, exhibits, meditations, cultural events, performances and more, are planned and produced by a network of volunteers organized by limmud bay area. The first such conference was held over two days in february 2012 at the asilomar conference grounds in pebble beach, ca with about 360 participants.in subsequent years conferences were held in february 2013, with about 525 participants, and in july 2014, at sonoma state university, with about 430 participants. Conferences were also held at sonoma state university in june 2015 and 2016. Following a year of non-residential one-day "taste of limmud" conferences in june 2017, the three-day conference at sonoma state university resumed in 2018 with about 260 participants and was held there again in 2019 with about 210 participants. During fiscal 2020, the limmud bay area board and management agreed to assess how limmud could best serve its constituents going forwarding and also decided to suspend production of the annual conference that would have been held in june 2020. Had this decision not been made, the conference would have had to be cancelled due to the covid-19 pandemic. During fiscal 2021, the limmud bay area board and management continued to assess how limmud could best serve its constituents going forward and also suspended production of the annual conference due to the covid-19 pandemic. Since then, the board and management have agreed to resume a hybrid conference with in-person and online attendees and presenters, which is being planned for the 2022 labor day weekend.in fiscal 2022, planning activities commenced in preparation for the hybrid, two-day conference scheduled for the 2022 labor day weekend. Fiscal 2023 saw the return of a successful hybrid two-day conference held in a hotel in san ramon, ca, attended by 77 participants, including 51 on-site and 26 remote online. During fiscal 2024, we held an in-person antisemitism summit at two locations in the bay area attended by 70 people. This event was presented in partnership with temple emanu-el's streicker cultural center in New York, which featured some of the brightest minds to wrestle with this timely topic. In fiscal 2025, limmud bay area entered into a fiscal sponsor agreement dated april 2, 2025 with the jewish emancipation project (the sponsored organization) and its rootz program, consistent with limmud's mission to provide education to the jewish community. The rootz program will be modeled along the lines of the scouting movement and pilot progra

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 100% 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

MIXED - The filed numbers largely add up and revenue comfortably covers expenses. A relatively small share of available resources goes toward mission work and a relatively small share of total spending goes to programs.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 24
  • Transparency & Controls: 82
  • Sustainability: 74
  • Growth: 0

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 20.8%; rating input score 21
  • Program expense ratio: 28.2%; rating input score 28

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 100%; rating input score 100; 52nd percentile among comparable filings
  • Major donor itemization: Limited

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: 26%; rating input score 79; 79th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 3.3; rating input score 76; 76th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 68; 68th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 0%; rating input score 56; 56th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: -25% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: -19% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: -11.6% per year; rating input score 0; 15th percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 20.8% of revenue deployed · 28.2% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: Filed governance answers
  • Accomplishments: 1 filed program accomplishment · $2K in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $0 · 5 people listed
  • Consistency: 8 of 8 current checks pass
  • Schedules: 2 filed schedules
  • Filing history: 9 filing years from 2012 to 2024
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 4 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: Mission deployment rate scored 21/100.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Program expense ratio scored 28/100.
  • High — Growth: Program expense growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
  • High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
  • Review — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 56/100.