Sephardic Heritage Museum
Legal name: The Sephardic Heritage Museum Inc
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 203249437
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2014–2023
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2023
- Location
- New York, NY, United States
- Phone
- 2125295730
- Rating
- 80
- Verdict
- STRONG
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Sector
- History Museums
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $5,012,321
- Expenses
- $5,767,959
- Assets
- $15,222,365
- Liabilities
- $3,338,467
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
4 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- JOSEPH J SITT (PRESIDENT)
- GABE ZEITOUNI (VICE PRESIDENT)
Highest reported compensation
- ARYEH WIESENFELD (EMPLOYEE): $101,475 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
The Sephardic Heritage Museum houses the largest known collection of artifacts and archives documenting the history of the Jewish communities of Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and other regions dating back some 3,000 years. Our mission is to preserve the past, in order to educate the future. Get Involved. Volunteer. We wish to instill in our community a strong sense of purpose, identity, and connection to our heritage. We have collected thousands of rare objects, texts and photographs, and hundreds of video interviews and oral histories chronicling the story of our community. And we are actively working to...
What it reported doing in 2023
It maintains and publicly displays objects of historical, cultural, and religious significance to persons with sephardic jewish descent and their heritage. In addition, it provides critical and timely financial support to israeli organizations addressing urgent needs arising from conflict and crisis, inclding humanitarian aid, security assistance, and trauma relief, while fostering long term recovery and resilience.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 99% of the money available for current operations came from contributions and gifts.
- Distribution model
- Hybrid. The nonprofit split its reported program spending across 65% for direct work, and 35% for grants.
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 expenses are high relative to revenue.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 85
- Transparency & Controls: 89
- Accountability: 76
- Sustainability: 40
- Growth: 40
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 100%; rating input score 100
- Program expense ratio: 88.8%; rating input score 89
- Fundraising efficiency: Limited
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 92.9%; rating input score 93; 13th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- Foreign activity oversight: Limited
- Grant itemization coverage: 96.9%; rating input score 97; 33rd 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; 64th percentile among comparable filings
- Governance controls: 3 of 7 controls in place; rating input score 43
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Fail
- Whistleblower policy: Fail
- Document-retention policy: Fail
- CEO compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Fail
- Independent financial-statement audit: Pass
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -15.1%; rating input score 10; 10th percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.64; rating input score 71; 71st percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.22; rating input score 43; 43rd percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 1.8%; rating input score 77; 77th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 15.3% per year; rating input score 100; 78th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: -5.5% per year; rating input score 0; 4th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -1.2% per year; rating input score 0; 10th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site · 2 operating locations identified
- Where the money goes: 100% of revenue deployed · 88.8% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 3 of 3 board members independent · 3 of 7 filing controls reported
- Programs: 1 filed program accomplishment · $5.1M in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $101K · 4 people listed
- Highest-paid contractors: 5 contractors listed · $1.2M reported
- Consistency: 22 of 24 current checks pass · 2 findings to review
- Schedules: 5 filed schedules · includes major donors and grants
- Filing history: 10 filing years from 2014 to 2023
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 26 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.
- Moderate — Accountability: Governance controls: 4 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 10/100.
- High — Growth: Revenue growth scored 0/100.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule D land buildings reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Review — Transparency & Controls: Domestic grant itemization did not reconcile in the filed values.
- Moderate — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 43/100.