Svara
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 200292435
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2017–2024
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2024, Form 990-EZ 2015
- Location
- Chicago, IL, USA
- Phone
- 8478647863
- Rating
- 69
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- Judaism
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $2,534,238
- Expenses
- $2,163,331
- Assets
- $670,296
- Liabilities
- $118,715
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
13 people listed
Highest reported compensation
- BENAY LAPPE (DIR/ROSH YESH.): $250,204 total reported compensation
- AYANA MORSE (Executive Dir.): $184,400 total reported compensation
- ELLI KRANDEL (DEVEL. DIRECTOR): $154,868 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2024. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
SVARA’s mission is to empower queer and trans people to expand Torah and tradition through the spiritual practice of Talmud study. & Vision []( mission is to empower queer and trans people to expand Torah and tradition through the spiritual practice of Talmud study. We envision a future in which liberatory expressions of Judaism equip individuals and communities to realize a just and healed world. []( understand the Jewish tradition not as a static inheritance but rather a flexible, adaptive legacy committed to change. By studying the ways the Rabbis overturned and upgraded their laws to create a more just society for _their_ time, our students uncover pathways to make similar change in our own time.
What it reported doing in 2024
SVARA supports a growing, intergenerational learning community in deepening their study of, and connection to, the Talmud and Jewish tradtion.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 97% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Direct operator. The filing allocates 99% 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.
- Includes noncash contributions: Reported contributions include donated property or goods.
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 fundraising costs are high for each dollar raised.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 56
- Transparency & Controls: 75
- Accountability: 86
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 100
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 55%; rating input score 55
- Program expense ratio: 64.4%; rating input score 64
- Fundraising efficiency: $8.86 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 34; 34th 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: Limited
Accountability
- Independent voting board: 90.9%; rating input score 91; 21st percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 7 of 9 controls in place; rating input score 78
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- 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: 14.6%; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 0.31; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.18; rating input score 47; 47th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 27.2%; rating input score 7; 7th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 14.4% per year; rating input score 100; 76th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 19.2% per year; rating input score 100; 87th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: 20% per year; rating input score 100; 84th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 1 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 55% of revenue deployed · 64.4% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 10 of 11 board members independent · 7 of 9 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $1.4M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $250K · 13 people listed · 1 of 6 pay-setting controls reported
- Consistency: 30 of 30 current checks pass
- Schedules: 8 filed schedules · includes major donors, grants, and executive pay
- Filing history: 6 filing years from 2017 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.
- 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.
- Review — Financial Efficiency: Mission deployment rate scored 55/100.
- Moderate — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 34/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 9 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Total-asset coverage ratio scored 10/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 7/100.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 47/100.