International Fellowship of Christians and Jews 
The information on this page was last updated 4/14/2023. If you see errors or omissions, please email: [email protected]
Summary
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews ("IFCJ") was founded in 1983 to promote greater understanding between Jews and Christians and to build Christian support for Israel and other shared concerns. Based in Chicago and under the leadership of its founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the Fellowship is governed by a national Board of Directors comprised of leading Christians and Jews. Its motto is: cooperate whenever possible, oppose whenever necessary, and teach and sensitize at all times.
Contact information
Mailing address:
International Fellowship of Christians and Jews
303 East Wacker Drive
Suite 2300
Chicago, IL 60601-5224
Website: www.ifcj.org
Phone: 800-486-8844
Email: [email protected]
Organization details
EIN: 363256096
CEO/President: Yael Eckstein
Chairman: Bishop Paul Lanier
Board size: 7
Founder: Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
Ruling year: 1983
Tax deductible: Yes
Fiscal year end: 12/31
Member of ECFA: No
Member of ECFA since:
Purpose
Guardians of Israel program delivers food, medical care, and other essentials to more needy people than ever, while our bomb shelter renovation project ensures that more Israelis will be safe in case of war or terrorist attack.
The Fellowship's Isaiah 58 program provides food, medical care, housing and other basic assistance to poor Jews in the former Soviet Union, and finances a network of safe children's homes throughout the area.
On Wings of Eagles assists needy Jews in making aliyah (immigrating to Israel). They come from all over the world - Russia, Argentina, India, Muslim countries and elsewhere - to escape anti-Semitism and extreme poverty...
Stand for Israel aims to engage people both spiritually and politically on behalf of Israel and the Jewish people, by encouraging them to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" and providing them with the facts...
Mission statement
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is the leading non-profit building bridges between Christians and Jews, blessing Israel and the Jewish people around the world with humanitarian care and life-saving aid.
Statement of faith
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews express that they have no written Statement of Faith.
Donor confidence score
Transparency grade
C
To understand our transparency grade, click here.
Financial efficiency ratings
Sector: Advocacy
| Category | Rating | Overall rank | Sector rank |
| Overall efficiency rating | | 822 of 1107 | 27 of 40 |
| Fund acquisition rating | | 816 of 1108 | 31 of 40 |
| Resource allocation rating | | 827 of 1108 | 30 of 40 |
| Asset utilization rating | | 474 of 1107 | 16 of 40 |
Financial ratios
| Funding ratios | Sector median | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
Return on fundraising efforts Return on fundraising efforts = Fundraising expense / Total contributions | 9% | 12% | 14% | 11% | 12% | 17% |
Fundraising cost ratio Fundraising cost ratio = Fundraising expense / Total revenue | 7% | 12% | 14% | 11% | 12% | 16% |
Contributions reliance Contributions reliance = Total contributions / Total revenue | 94% | 100% | 100% | 99% | 99% | 97% |
Fundraising expense ratio Fundraising expense ratio = Fundraising expense / Total expenses | 8% | 15% | 14% | 14% | 14% | 17% |
Other revenue reliance Other revenue reliance = Total other revenue / Total revenue | 6% | 0% | 0% | 1% | 1% | 3% |
| Operating ratios | Sector median | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
Program expense ratio Program expense ratio = Program services / Total expenses | 80% | 74% | 75% | 74% | 73% | 70% |
Spending ratio Spending ratio = Total expenses / Total revenue | 96% | 84% | 101% | 80% | 84% | 97% |
Program output ratio Program output ratio = Program services / Total revenue | 77% | 62% | 75% | 60% | 61% | 68% |
Savings ratio Savings ratio = Surplus (deficit) / Total revenue | 4% | 16% | -1% | 20% | 16% | 3% |
Reserve accumulation rate Reserve accumulation rate = Surplus (deficit) / Net assets | 8% | 30% | -2% | 41% | 43% | 10% |
General and admin ratio General and admin ratio = Management and general expense / Total expenses | 10% | 11% | 11% | 12% | 13% | 13% |
| Investing ratios | Sector median | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
Total asset turnover Total asset turnover = Total expenses / Total assets | 0.98 | 1.32 | 1.88 | 1.42 | 1.67 | 2.16 |
Degree of long-term investment Degree of long-term investment = Total assets / Total current assets | 1.36 | 1.10 | 1.15 | 1.05 | 1.05 | 1.07 |
Current asset turnover Current asset turnover = Total expenses / Total current assets | 1.83 | 1.45 | 2.17 | 1.49 | 1.75 | 2.31 |
| Liquidity ratios | Sector median | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
Current ratio Current ratio = Total current assets / Total current liabilities | 16.14 | 19.45 | 10.79 | 9.28 | 6.32 | 3.53 |
Current liabilities ratio Current liabilities ratio = Total current liabilities / Total current assets | 0.06 | 0.05 | 0.09 | 0.11 | 0.16 | 0.28 |
Liquid reserve level Liquid reserve level = (Total current assets - Total current liabilities) / (Total expenses / 12) | 5.64 | 7.83 | 5.02 | 7.21 | 5.76 | 3.72 |
| Solvency ratios | Sector median | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
Liabilities ratio Liabilities ratio = Total liabilities / Total assets | 20% | 15% | 21% | 15% | 23% | 40% |
Debt ratio Debt ratio = Debt / Total assets | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% | 0% |
Reserve coverage ratio Reserve coverage ratio = Net assets / Total expenses | 77% | 65% | 42% | 60% | 46% | 28% |
Financials
| Balance sheet | |||||
| Assets | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Cash | $67,037,432 | $26,387,211 | $43,857,398 | $36,488,599 | $11,461,847 |
| Receivables, inventories, prepaids | $6,504,868 | $3,990,431 | $4,560,823 | $2,652,134 | $1,608,688 |
| Short-term investments | $83,008,740 | $75,306,409 | $70,619,857 | $35,979,932 | $36,665,022 |
| Other current assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total current assets | $156,551,040 | $105,684,051 | $119,038,078 | $75,120,665 | $49,735,557 |
| Long-term investments | $4,716,866 | $4,707,307 | $4,316,127 | $3,521,179 | $3,256,274 |
| Fixed assets | $5,810,716 | $5,559,366 | $1,506,610 | $355,853 | $315,859 |
| Other long-term assets | $5,360,349 | $5,816,144 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total long-term assets | $15,887,931 | $16,082,817 | $5,822,737 | $3,877,032 | $3,572,133 |
| Total assets | $172,438,971 | $121,766,868 | $124,860,815 | $78,997,697 | $53,307,690 |
| Liabilities | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Payables and accrued expenses | $8,048,304 | $9,798,560 | $12,831,463 | $11,892,319 | $13,492,612 |
| Other current liabilities | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $580,000 |
| Total current liabilities | $8,048,304 | $9,798,560 | $12,831,463 | $11,892,319 | $14,072,612 |
| Debt | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Due to (from) affiliates | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Other long-term liabilities | $17,391,968 | $16,110,455 | $5,904,099 | $6,170,113 | $7,133,638 |
| Total long-term liabilities | $17,391,968 | $16,110,455 | $5,904,099 | $6,170,113 | $7,133,638 |
| Total liabilities | $25,440,272 | $25,909,015 | $18,735,562 | $18,062,432 | $21,206,250 |
| Net assets | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Without donor restrictions | $85,677,749 | $51,129,474 | $76,796,261 | $53,608,386 | $25,725,322 |
| With donor restrictions | $61,320,950 | $44,728,379 | $29,328,992 | $7,326,879 | $6,376,118 |
| Net assets | $146,998,699 | $95,857,853 | $106,125,253 | $60,935,265 | $32,101,440 |
| Revenues and expenses | |||||
| Revenue | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Total contributions | $271,606,565 | $228,400,302 | $216,741,280 | $156,294,559 | $115,073,908 |
| Program service revenue | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Membership dues | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Investment income | ($114,918) | ($1,076,169) | $3,081,017 | $1,257,732 | $1,111,703 |
| Other revenue | ($14,201) | $282,288 | $81,835 | $24,070 | $1,950,261 |
| Total other revenue | ($129,119) | ($793,881) | $3,162,852 | $1,281,802 | $3,061,964 |
| Total revenue | $271,477,446 | $227,606,421 | $219,904,132 | $157,576,361 | $118,135,872 |
| Expenses | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Program services | $168,220,172 | $171,749,741 | $130,927,876 | $95,806,739 | $80,467,533 |
| Management and general | $25,861,980 | $24,423,118 | $21,131,717 | $17,489,059 | $15,077,068 |
| Fundraising | $33,643,616 | $32,899,850 | $24,711,982 | $18,351,837 | $19,343,940 |
| Total expenses | $227,725,768 | $229,072,709 | $176,771,575 | $131,647,635 | $114,888,541 |
| Change in net assets | 2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 |
| Surplus (deficit) | $43,751,678 | ($1,466,288) | $43,132,557 | $25,928,726 | $3,247,331 |
| Other changes in net assets | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Total change in net assets | $43,751,678 | ($1,466,288) | $43,132,557 | $25,928,726 | $3,247,331 |
Compensation
| Name | Title | Compensation |
| Yael Eckstein-Farkas | President & CEO | $769,244 |
| Robin van Etten | Global Chief Operating Officer | $464,155 |
| Laurel Simkovich | VP of Finance | $342,255 |
| Lucas Puzan | Chief Information Officer | $331,997 |
| Kristin Henning | Senior Dir. of Finance | $224,867 |
| Erica Prescott | Sr Dr Integr Fr & Donor Retention | $214,216 |
| Tewahedo Seyoum | Director of Information Services | $209,786 |
| Travis Deramcy | Sr Dr Integr Fr & Marketing | $209,403 |
| Christine Jespersen | Philanthropy Adviser (thru 12/23) | $202,304 |
| Eric Frans | VP of Philanthropy (thru 08/23) | $181,967 |
Compensation data as of: 12/31/2023
Response from ministry
No response has been provided by this ministry.
The information below was provided to MinistryWatch by the ministry itself. It was last updated 4/14/2023. To update the information below, please email: [email protected]
History
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews was founded in 1983 to promote greater understanding between Jews and Christians, to build Christian support for Israel and other shared concerns. Based in Chicago, under the leadership of its founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the Fellowship is governed by a national Board of Directors comprised of leading Christians and Jews.
The Fellowship's dream is that Christians and Jews would reverse their 2,000-year history of discord and replace it with a relationship marked by dialogue, better understanding, respect, fellowship, and active cooperation on issues of common concern. Through our programs and publications, we attempt to foster better relations and understanding between Christians and Jews, help build Christian support for Israel, and cooperate in building a more moral society through open dialogue, education, and sensitization of people of faith around the world.
All of our work is guided by the Rabbi's personal motto "Cooperate whenever possible; oppose whenever necessary and teach and sensitize at all times."
From its very inception, the Fellowship has organized dialogue programs between Christian and Jewish leaders, setting the stage for the ambitious projects that followed. Over the years, the Fellowship has hosted "Solidarity with Israel" programs featuring noted speakers such as Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, Pat Boone, Donald Rumsfeld and Federal Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz.
We have also coordinated and participated in a number of important conferences between Christians and Jews both here in America as well as in Europe, Australia and Israel. These have included special tours of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. and briefings at the Israeli Embassy. The Fellowship has developed a variety of educational resource materials that are widely used by churches, synagogues, individuals and study groups to further Christian and Jewish understanding of one another and appreciation of their respective faiths.
The Fellowship has, over the years, organized a variety of leadership programs fostering Christian and Jewish support for the State of Israel. These have included tours to Israel with celebrities like Pat Boone and with groups like Pat Robertson's CBN, the National Religious Broadcasters, and a special trip for Christian media leaders in the immediate aftermath of the Gulf War.
The Fellowship also helped coordinate activities for the Government of Israel's "Operation Brainstorm" to increase Christian tourism to Israel as well as "Operation Independence" which assisted Israel economically.
More recently, we arranged for key Christian leaders to receive briefings from Israeli government officials including the President and the Prime Minister.
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is trusted and respected by leaders in both communities and has, over the years, frequently been called upon to serve as peacemaker and troubleshooter, mediating disputes between the communities and replacing acrimony with dialogue.
Rabbi Eckstein addresses the US Congress: In pursuit of its goal of building bridges of understanding between Christians and Jews, when Evangelical-Jewish tensions were particularly high in 1994, the Fellowship organized a historic Evangelical-Jewish Leadership Congress at the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C. For the first time ever, leaders from both communities gathered behind closed doors for an all-day meeting to reconcile their differences and begin building an agenda for the future based on shared values and concerns rather than on historical prejudices.
Participants in the Evangelical-Jewish Leadership Congress included: Dr. Ralph Reed, Executive Director of the Christian Coalition; Dr. Jerry Farwell, Chancellor of Liberty University; Dr. Richard Land, President of the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention; Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League; Philip Baum, National Director of the American Jewish Congress; and Rabbi David Saperstein of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, among others.
Speaking at a news conference following the meetings, Rabbi Eckstein said, "We agreed to disagree without maligning or impugning the motives or characters of one another... We've come a long way in just one day of dialogue. There was a real spirit of Shalom in this meeting."
Today our bridge building work continues in the United States, Israel and the former Soviet Union. As recently as December, representatives of the Fellowship's Christian supporters held the first ever dialogue between Christians and representatives of the Jewish community in Odessa, Ukraine. Fellowship staff, in cooperation with METV, a division of the Christian Broadcasting Network, is developing a video/discussion series on the Jewish Roots of Christianity.
Our bridge building is not one sided. At its first meeting of the new millennium, the Fellowship's board voted to commit substantial resources to reach out to the American Jewish community.
Program accomplishments
For years International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has helped build bridges for greater understanding and cooperation between people of the Jewish faith and Christian faith. Among other things they have helped hundreds of thousands of Jews escape poverty and anti-Semitism and return to their biblical homeland Israel, funded humanitarian assistance to millions of Jews in Israel and around the world, provided life-giving aid to Israel's victims of war and terror thus fulfilling God's promise to Abraham and his descendants in Genesis 12:3: "I will bless those who bless you."