Iowa Hillel at the University of Iowa
Legal name: The University of Iowa Louis Shulman Hillel Foundation
Nonprofit profile at a glance
- EIN
- 426084674
- IRS 990 coverage
- 2009–2023
- Official website data refreshed
- Sep 2026
- Forms available
- Form 990 2023
- Location
- Iowa City, IA, United States
- Phone
- (319) 338-0778
- Rating
- 79
- Verdict
- SUPPORTED
- Rating confidence
- Moderate
- Affiliation
- Judaism
Reported finances
- Revenue
- $371,641
- Expenses
- $414,378
- Assets
- $1,694,411
- Liabilities
- $1,651
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Amounts in USD.
Leadership & pay
8 people listed
Executive titles in this filing
- Ashley Holt (Executive Director)
- Debra Carneol (President and Trustee)
Highest reported compensation
- Ashley Holt (Executive Director): $84,782 total reported compensation
Source: IRS Form 990. Selected filing: tax year 2023. Names and roles reflect this filing, not necessarily current officeholders.
Overview
Mission
To connect Jewish students at the University of Iowa and inspire them to enrich the world through meaningful engagement, community, and purpose.
What it reported doing in 2023
Shabbat dinners and Jewish Holidays: Shabbat dinners are the highlight of the week for a lot of our students because they get a variety of meals such as mac'n'cheese, smoked meats, ratatouille, chicken piccata, and many more! The Jewish fraternity on campus hosts a Shabbat dinner at Hillel once a semester where brothers come in to help set up the space and even help out in the kitchen with cooking and serving the meal. Students help with each process of our Shabbat dinners from working with our chef in the kitchen and leading services. Our Shabbat dinners range from 30-80 students on a weekly basis. While most Shabbat dinners are at Hillel, once a semester students have the chance to host Shabbat dinners in their homes, which Hillel staff helps prepare students to do. Iowa Hillel hosts programming, meals, and opportunities for learning around the Jewish holidays during the academic year. Prior to Rosh Hashanah, Hillel students gave out more than 500 apples on the main walkway on campus with informational cards about what the holiday is and how Jewish people celebrate. During Sukkot, staff built a Sukkah with graduate and undergraduate students, which students then decorate. One of our largest Jewish holiday celebrations is Passover. Nearly one hundred students attended our seder at Hillel, and this year we initiated a pilot program with the University of Iowa Housing and Dining to allow students with meal plans through the University to utilize their meal swipes at Hillel during Passover to allow them to incur no cost for the meals.
Operating model
- Revenue model
- Donor-supported. 95% 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
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 some filing-based governance responses are negative or unanswered.
Rating breakdown
- Financial Efficiency: 76
- Transparency & Controls: 86
- Accountability: 84
- Sustainability: 42
- Growth: 80
Detailed rating inputs
Financial Efficiency
- Mission deployment rate: 82.8%; rating input score 83
- Program expense ratio: 74.2%; rating input score 74
- Fundraising efficiency: $11.77 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 44; 44th percentile among comparable filings
Transparency & Controls
- Consistency checks: 91.7%; rating input score 92; 18th percentile among comparable filings
- Pay-setting controls: Limited
- 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: 5 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 62
- Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
- Whistleblower policy: Pass
- Document-retention policy: Pass
- CEO compensation review process: Pass
- Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
- Form 990 shared with the board: Fail
- Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
- Audit committee oversight: Missing
- Independent financial-statement audit: Fail
Sustainability
- Operating margin: -11.5%; rating input score 22; 22nd percentile among comparable filings
- Total-asset coverage ratio: 4.09; rating input score 75; 75th percentile among comparable filings
- Liabilities to assets ratio: 0; rating input score 59; 59th percentile among comparable filings
- Officer compensation ratio: 20.5%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
Growth
- Program expense growth: 22% per year; rating input score 100; 85th percentile among comparable filings
- Revenue growth: 1.7% per year; rating input score 100; 36th percentile among comparable filings
- Asset growth: -3.7% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings
Details
- What they do: 3 programs and campaigns described on the official site
- Where the money goes: 82.8% of revenue deployed · 74.2% of spending went to programs
- Governance: 9 of 9 board members independent · 5 of 8 filing controls reported
- Programs: 4 filed program accomplishments · $308K in reported program spending
- Leadership: top reported pay $85K · 8 people listed
- Consistency: 17 of 18 current checks pass · 1 finding to review
- Schedules: 4 filed schedules · includes major donors
- Filing history: 13 filing years from 2009 to 2023
- Contacts: How to reach this organization
- Money network: 1 filed money-flow record
- Related organizations: Filed and resolved organization relationships.
- 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 — Financial Efficiency: Fundraising efficiency scored 44/100.
- Review — Accountability: Governance controls: 2 of 7 not reported.
- High — Sustainability: Operating margin scored 22/100.
- Moderate — Transparency & Controls: Schedule A contributions reconciliation did not reconcile in the filed values.
- High — Growth: Asset growth scored 0/100.
- High — Sustainability: Officer compensation ratio scored 19/100.
- Review — Sustainability: Liabilities to assets ratio scored 59/100.