The Museum of Jewish Heritage

Mission:
Opened in 1997, the Museum of Jewish Heritage (MJH),
www.mjhnyc.org, is a living memorial to the Holocaust.
It honors those who died by celebrating their lives -
cherishing the civilization that they built, their
achievements and faith, thier joys and hopes, and the
vibrant Jewish community that is their legacy today.
In the museum's core exhibition, personal objects,
photographs, and original films illustrate the story of
Jewish heritage in the twentieth century. In addition,
the collection provides source materials for permanent
and temporary exhibitions, and for traveling exhibitions.
Special exhibitions afford the museum the opportunity to
complement the themes expressed in the core
exhibition in greater detail.

Financial Efficiency Evaluation:
According to Charity Navigator
(http://www.charitynavigator.org/), America’s leading charity
evaluator, MJH has an overall rating of 2 stars (four stars is the
highest rating.) Charity Navigator provides the following
breakdown of MJH based on 990 tax returns through 2006:

Overall Rating: 2 stars **
Organizational Efficiency: Efficiency Rating 3 stars***
Program Expenses: 70.8%
Administrative Expenses: 17.1%
Fundraising Expenses: 11.9%
Fundraising Efficiency: $0.06

(MJH spends $0.06 to raise $1)
Organizational Capacity: Capacity Rating 2 stars**
Primary Revenue Growth: 13.4
Program Expenses Growth: -4.6%
Working Capital Ratio (years): 0.68
(MJH can sustain itself for 0.68 years without
generating new revenue.)
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.

MJH has net assets of $71,655,407. Compensation for
its Director, David Marwell, was $265,617 which
represents 2.07% of expenses. For comparison purposes,
compensation for the President of the American Jewish
World Service (AJWS), Ruth Messinger, was $191,000
which represents 0.79% of expenses.

Recent News:
1)20^th annual Generation to Generation Dinner:
Director Dave Marwell wrote in his November 10 blog
on the museum’s website about last week’s dnner which
honored Rosa Stryler, who did so much to establish the
museum. Following is an excerpt from his remarks at the
dinner: “In so many ways, Rosa’s story is our story, the
story that we teach in this museum…Surely the most
profound, indeed heroic, phenomenon in the context of the
Holocaust is that those who had been confronted with
unimagined and unimaginable trauma…were able to choose
and lead lives that followed a different path than their
experience might have defined for them…That Rosa and
others found their way to distill from life an essential spirit
that looked away from dark despair and sought out the bright
light of vitality and service and the pursuit of good works
must undoubtedly be one of the most inspiring stories of the
human spirit.”
2) To discover your heritage, visit www.jewishgen.org to
learn more about your family’s ancestral heritage. JewishGen
became an affiliate of the museum in 2003 and it has brought
together thousands of individuals worldwide in a virtual
community centered on discovering their Jewish roots.

Recommendations:
In order to improve its overall rating from Charity Navigator,
MJH needs need to improve its organizational capacity rating.
It presently has a two star rating because it has experienced a
decrease in program expenses growth over the past three years.
This decrease can be reversed by spending more on its
programs. As organizational capacity is important to foundation
in awarding grants to non-profits, then improving its capacity
rating would help the museum win more foundation grants.

Next week’s blog: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum