Executive Compensation at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (2022)

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (also known as “The Joint” or the JDC) is a tax-exempt, non-profit 501 (c) (3) with 148 employees in New York City, NY. The governing board – 144 independent board members although 151 board members are listed on the Form 990 (the difference appears to be due to timing issues and is comprised of 78 males and 73 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 2022, $272 million, or 60% of revenue was used for grants (primarily to foreign organizations).

So, if you made a $100 donation to the JDC in 2022, $60 was allocated to grants, $27 was used for organization expenses and $13 was allocated to savings.

The JDC has $601 million in net assets at the end of 2022 – nearly the same amount as in 2021.  Even though the JDC did not spend as much as they raised ($58 million was not spent), net assets did not increase because of $67 million in unrealized losses on investments that were partially offset by $8 million in changes to net assets (primarily adjustments to the pension and non-qualified retirement funds).

In 2022, the JDC reported total revenue of $456 million, most of which came from contributions and gifts ($382 million), government grants ($69 million), and investment income/gains on the sale of assets ($3 million).

Expenses totaled $398 million (including $3 million in depreciation) with the two largest expenses reported to be grants ($272 million) and compensation ($80 million).

148 employees received $80 million in compensation, which equates to an average compensation of $540,000 (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:

• $788,253:  Ariel Zwang, CEO
• $501,858:  Pablo Weinsteiner, Chief HR Officer
• $478,190:  Ophir Singal, CFO
• $452,724:  Asher Ostrin, Former Interim CEO*
• $387,265:  Guy Billauer, General Counsel
• $371,100:  Lisa Gurwitch, Chief Advancement Officer
• $353,327:  Stefan Oscar, Executive Director, FSU*
• $344,037:  Andrea Fram Plotkin, Chief of Staff
• $341,012:  Amir Shaviv, AEVP, Special Operations
• $339,328:  Itamar Albek, CIO
• $336,169:  Sigal Shelach, Director General, JDC, Israel*
• $307,718:  Aliyah Kozirovsky, Director of Finance
• $298,826:  Rachel Rubert, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer
• $294,180:  Linda Tarlow, AEVP, Director of Global Archive
• $180.774:  Diego Ornique, Former Chief Program Officer* thru 7/31/22)

As illustrated above, the 15 most highly compensated employees received nearly $6 million, which means the remaining 133 employees received $74 million, or an average of $556,000.  Given that only 40 employees received more than $100,000, 25 employees of the 133 received more than $100,000 in compensation and 108 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.

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

• $742,435:  Grant Thornton, of NY, NY for audit and tax
• $706,013:  KPMG, of Dallas, TX for internal audit
• $364,956:  Ann Cohen and Associates, of Potomac, MD for governance consulting
• $270,415:  Indian Asset Management LLC, of Westport, CT for investment management
• $256,733:  Crewcial Partners, of NY,NY for investment advisory

To read the IRS Form 990 (2022), click here.