How Revenue is Spent at the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (2021)

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) 3 founded by a rabbi in 1983 as a way to “bless Israel and the Jewish people around the world with humanitarian care and life-saving aid” while “building bridges between Christians and Jews.”

How is revenue spent at IFCJ?  The short answer is that about half of revenue is spent on grants to Jewish organizations – in the US and in Israel – while about one third is spent on fundraising, printing and postage, television and radio airtime, staff compensation, fees for services, office-related expenses, and travel,, with the remaining put into savings.  For more detail, read on.

Based in Chicago, Illinois, IFCJ raised $220 million in 2021 (compared to $158 million in 2020, $118 million in 2019 and $119 million in 2018), most of which came from contributions, gifts, and grants.

Expenses of $177 million ($43 million less than the organization raised) and 81% of revenue – can be categorized as follows:

• $104 million (47% of revenue):  Grants
• $ 41 million (19% of revenue):  Printing,Postage, TV and Radio, Telemarketing, Adv & Prom
• $ 15 million (7% of revenue):  Compensation
• $ 10 million (5% of revenue):  Fees for Services
• $  7  million (3% of revenue):  Office-Related Expenses

Using the above information, every $100 in revenue was spent as follows:

$100:  Revenue

-$ 19: Printing, Postage, TV, Radio, Programs, Telemarketing, Advertising and Promotion

-$  7:  Compensation

-$  5:  Fees for Services

-$  3:  Office-Related Expenses

-$ 34: Subtotal: Organizational Expenses

 $ 66: Remaining Revenue

-$ 47:  Grants

$   19:  Remaining Revenue:  To General Fund

As illustrated above, the largest expense for the IFCJ is grants, which totaled $104 million in 2021.

GRANTS

The Form 990, Part IX, Statement of Functional Expenses reports IFCJ made $36 million in grants to domestic organizations and $68 million in grants to foreign organizations.  However, Schedule F, Part 1 reports $71 million in grants to foreign organizations (primarily in the Middle East to Hakeren L’Yedidut, which operates as the Israeli representative of the IFCJ in Israel (“The  Amutah”),  a non-profit in Israel.

The Form 990, Schedule I, Part II, reports 11 grants greater than $5,000 totaling $36 million were made to 11 organizations in the US primarily for food and humanitarian support:

• $10 million: The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
• $ 7  million:  The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
• $ 4 million: Friends of the IDF
• $ 4 million:  American Committee for Shaare Zadek Hospital in Jerusalem
• $ 3  million:  Colel Chabad
• $ 3  million:  Friends of United Hatzalah
• $ 1  million:  Chamah
• $ 1  million:  Tikva Corporation
• $ 1  million:  Jewish Agency for North American Council
• $700,000:  American Friends of Orr Shalom
• $250,000:  American Friends of Leket Israel

So, it appears that nearly all grants of the IFCJ were made to Jewish organizations: about $70 million was awarded in grants to foreign entities primarily in Israel and about $36 million was awarded to domestic Jewish organizations.

FUNDRAISING

The IFCJ participates in a variety of fundraising methods (i.e. mail, internet, e-mail, phone, and in-person solicitations and also solicitation of non-government grants) but relies primarily on direct mail. The Form 990, Schedule G, Part I reports outside organizations raised $116 million, retained $7 million, netting IFCJ $109 million.

COMPENSATION

Compensation is the second largest expense. 133 employees received $15 million in compensation, which equates to an average compensation of $113,000.  However, only 26 employees received more than $100,000 with the most highly compensated employee reported to be Yael Eckstein – Farkas, whose total compensation was reported to be $776,301.  

NET ASSETS

IFCJ had $106 million in net assets at the end of 2021 (compared to $61 million at the beginning of the year). This increase is attributable to not spending as much as the organization raised ($43 million in 2021 and $26 million in 2020) and also net unrealized gains on assets ($3 million in 2021 and also in 2020).

In summation, IFCJ appears to raise money to support Jewish organizations, primarily in Israel but also in the US.  The organization relies heavily on fundraisers with about half of the revenue coming from these outside organizations.  However IFCJ spends heavily for these dollars spending $41 million in printing, postage, advertising, promotion, television and radio ads, and telemarketing fees.   About half of revenue is awarded in grants while the other half is used to support the organization (i.e. pay employees, fundraise, pay office-related expenses and fees, etc) and increase the general fund.

To read the IRS Form 990 (2021), click here.