Executive Compensation at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (2021)

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (also known as “The Joint” or the JDC) is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) (3) with about 135 employees in New York City, NY. The governing board – 154 independent board members although 161 board members are listed on the Form 990 (the difference appears to be due to timing issues and is comprised of 83 males and 78 females.  That there are more board members than employees is interesting to note.

As one of the leading humanitarian organizations that works in 70 countries, the JDC works to rescue and provide aid to Jews in the advancement of Jewish life across the globe, primarily through awarding grants:  in 2021, $219 million, or 55% of revenue was used for grants (primarily to foreign organizations).

The JDC has $602 million in net assets – a nearly $100 million increase over the past year due to not spending as much as the organization raised and net unrealized gains on investments.

In 2021, the JDC reported total revenue of $398 million, most of which came from contributions and gifts ($286 million), government grants ($69 million), and investment income/gains on the sale of assets ($40 million).

Expenses totaled $337 million (including $2 million in depreciation) with the two largest expenses reported to be grants ($219 million) and compensation ($77 million).

134 employees received $77 million in compensation, which equates to an average compensation of $575,000 (an unusually high average compensation). However, only 40 employees received more than $100,000 in compensation with the 15 most highly compensated reported to be:

• $786,370:  Ariel Zwang, CEO
• $492,662:  Pablo Weinsteiner, Chief HR Officer
• $492,654:  Ophir Singal, CFO
• $365,130:  Itamar Albek, CIO
• $358,697:  Sarah Eisenman, Exec Director of Entwine
• $351,343:  Sigal Shelach, Director General, JDC, Israel*
• $308,292:  Andrea Fram Plotkin, Chief of Staff
• $290,858:  Aliyah Kozirovsky, Director of Finance
• $289,312:  Stefan Oscar, Executive Director, FSU*
• $285,864:  Guy Billauer, General Counsel
• $281,585:  Linda Tarlow, AEVP, Director of Global Archive
• $279,387:  Amir Shaviv, AEVP, Special Operations
• $272,110:  Gideon Herscher, Director, Financial Resources Development*
• $265,104:  David Zackon, Director, Financial Resources Development*
• $249,079:  Diego Ornique, Chief Program Officer*

As illustrated above, the 15 most highly compensated employees received nearly $6 million, which means the remaining 119 employees received $71 million, or an average of $597,000.  Given that only 40 employees received more than $100,000, 25 employees of the 119 received more than $100,000 in compensation and 94 employees received less than $100,000 in compensation.   So, there appears to be an error in either the number of employees or the total compensation.

A “*” above the names above means the compensation (whole or part) was paid by a related/affiliated organization.

14 independent contractors received more than $100,000 in compensation with the five (5) most highly compensated reported to be:

• $823,354:  Grant Thornton, of NY, NY for audit and tax
• $404,706:  KPMG, of Dallas, TX for internal audit
• $344,880:  Crewcial Partners, of NY,NY for investment advisory
• $201,405:  Covington and Burlington LLP, of Washington, DC for legal consulting
• $174,656:  Baker and McKenzie, of Chicago, IL for legal consulting

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