American Friends of Hebrew University

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem is Israel’s premier center
for higher education and research. It has 24,000 students and
1,200 faculty. American Friends of The Hebrew University (AFHU)
http://www.afhu.org/ is the American arm of the university
that exists to raise awareness of, and support for, the university.
Its mission statement states that it “provides programs, events,
and fundraising activities in support of The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. By forging a meaningful partnership between American
Jewry and the people of Israel, AFHU helps to ensure the nation’s
well being by nurturing Israel’s greatest asset: the intellectual
strength of its people.”

The research and scholarship done at Hebrew University often
attract international interest. Following are two recent examples
of such cooperation:
1) Last week, the first ever conference on Sino-Israeli cooperation in
water technologies took place at Hebrew University. The conference,
entitled, "Water Management in China: Mitigation of Challenges and
Prospects for Sino-Israeli Cooperation", brought together leading
Chinese officials and experts and Israeli government and industry
representatives to discuss new Israeli investments in the multi-
billion dollar Chinese water sector.” China has a severe water
shortage that is threatening its fast growing economy. As Israel is a
world leader in advanced irrigation, desalinization, and other water
technologies, the conference provided both countries the opportunity
to explore further cooperation and investment in the field.
2) Last December, Five young Hebrew University of Jerusalem
scientists were awarded five-year research grants under the
European Union’s first competition for outstanding starting
independent investigators. The amount awarded to the five Hebrew
University winners totals 6,380,000 euros. The winners were chosen
on the basis of having presented excellent, ground-breaking research
ideas, plus having displayed proven potential to establish
independent research careers and to become world leaders in their
fields. These fields included using optical imaging to examine
neurophysiological changes, how the planets formed and evolved,
and new methodologies for designing drugs for cancer and AIDS.

According to Charity Navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/,
America’s leading charity evaluator, AFHU has an overall rating of
two stars (four stars is the highest rating.)Charity Navigator provides
the following financial breakdown of AFHU based on 990 tax returns
through 2006:

Overall Rating **

Organizational Efficiency
Program Expenses 73.0%
Administrative Expenses 8.0%
Fundraising Expenses 18.9%
Fundraising Efficiency $0.26
(AFHU spend $0.26 to raise $1)
Efficiency Rating *

Organizational Capacity
Primary Revenue Growth 2.2%
Primary Expenses Growth - 6.5%
Working Capacity Ratio (years) 8.6
(AFHU can sustain itself for 8.6 years
without generating new revenue.)
Capacity Rating **

Organizational Capacity refers to an organization’s ability to
sustain itself over time. Charities that exhibit consistent
revenue and expenses growth are more likely to sustain its
programs and services over the long haul.

To receive a higher efficiency rating from Charity Navigator, AFHU
would need to decrease its fundraising expenses by approximately
10% so that it could increase the amount of funding given to Hebrew
University. To receive a higher capacity rating from Charity
Navigator, AFHU needs to reduce a trend in which its rate of revenue
and expenses growth has been shrinking.

American Friends of Hebrew University has net assets of
$446,995,435. The compensation of its national executive director,
Peter Willner, is $370,253 which is 0.85% of expenses.

For comparison purposes, the New York Philharmonic has also been
given an overall two star rating from Charity Navigator.

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