Sefaria Inc

Nonprofit profile at a glance

EIN
464406454
IRS 990 coverage
2014–2025
Forms available
Form 990 2025, Form 990-T 2025
Location
New York, NY, USA
Phone
3477730077
Rating
76
Verdict
SUPPORTED
Rating confidence
Moderate
Sector
Education N.E.C.
Affiliation
Judaism

Reported finances

Revenue
$6,828,518
Expenses
$7,778,376
Assets
$6,629,016
Liabilities
$356,357

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Amounts in USD.

Leadership & pay

21 people listed

Executive titles in this filing

  • DANIEL SEPTIMUS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER)

Highest reported compensation

  • DANIEL SEPTIMUS (CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER): $378,207 total reported compensation
  • LEV ISRAEL (CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER): $253,014 total reported compensation
  • ANNE LUMERMAN (CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER): $236,068 total reported compensation

Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2025. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.

Overview

Mission

Sefaria, inc. (sefaria) is building a digital library of jewish texts and their connections, in hebrew and in english, to transform jewish publishing, technology, education and scholarship.

What it reported doing in 2025

Sefaria is building and maintaining a digital platform that lowers the barriers of engagement with jewish texts, creates interactive opportunities for teaching and learning, and provides educators, scholars, and technologists with an open source database of texts to make new educational application simpler and more viable to develop.sefaria's work involves digitizing hebrew texts, acquiring translations of texts and designing and engineering digital interfaces and products for exploring them.

Operating model

Revenue model
Donor-supported. 98% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
Distribution model
Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 66% for direct work, and 34% for grants.

The verdict

SUPPORTED - A large share of available resources goes toward mission work and the filed numbers largely add up. The filing reports few safeguards for money sent abroad and fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.

Rating breakdown

  • Financial Efficiency: 73
  • Transparency & Controls: 74
  • Accountability: 95
  • Sustainability: 20
  • Growth: 100

Detailed rating inputs

Financial Efficiency

  • Mission deployment rate: 84.1%; rating input score 84
  • Program expense ratio: 73.7%; rating input score 74
  • Fundraising efficiency: $6.06 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

  • Consistency checks: 93.3%; rating input score 93; 18th percentile among comparable filings
  • Pay-setting controls: 5 of 6 controls in place; rating input score 83
    • Compensation committee: Missing
    • Independent consultant: Pass
    • Other Form 990s reviewed: Pass
    • Written employment contract: Pass
    • Compensation survey or study: Pass
    • Board or committee approval: Pass
  • Foreign activity oversight: 0 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 0
    • Claims monitoring procedures: Fail
    • Requires narrative reports: Fail
    • Conducts field audits: Fail
    • May suspend future funding: Fail
    • Requires financial reports: Fail
    • Conducts site visits: Fail
    • Requires grant agreements: Fail
    • May require repayment: Fail
  • Grant itemization coverage: 100%; rating input score 100; 75th percentile among comparable filings
  • 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 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: Fail
    • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
    • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
    • Audit committee oversight: Pass
    • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

  • Operating margin: -13.9%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
  • Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.85; rating input score 29; 29th percentile among comparable filings
  • Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.05; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
  • Officer compensation ratio: 21.4%; rating input score 14; 14th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

  • Program expense growth: 13.5% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings
  • Revenue growth: 11% per year; rating input score 100; 69th percentile among comparable filings
  • Asset growth: 13.7% per year; rating input score 100; 71st percentile among comparable filings

Details

  • Where the money goes: 84.1% of revenue deployed · 73.7% of spending went to programs
  • Governance: 13 of 13 board members independent · 8 of 9 filing controls reported
  • Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.7M in reported program spending
  • Leadership: top reported pay $378K · 21 people listed · 5 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
  • Consistency: 28 of 29 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
  • Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, foreign activity, and executive pay
  • Filing history: 11 filing years from 2014 to 2025
  • Contacts: How to reach this organization
  • Money network: 8 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 — Transparency & Controls: Foreign activity oversight: 8 of 8 not reported.
  • High — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 19/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 7/100.
  • High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 29/100.
  • Review — Accountability: Governance controls: Other executive compensation review process not reported.
  • High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 14/100.
  • Review — Transparency & Controls: Foreign grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
  • Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.