· Public charity
Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County
Federation convenes, engages, and leads the orange county jewish community and its partners, leverages resources to enhance and sustain jewish life, assists jews in need, and mobilizes on issues of concern to the local jewish community, and strengthens its bond with israel and jewish people globally.
Read this first · the figures below need context
59% of Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County’s FY2024 grant dollars went to The Jewish Federations Of North America Inc, not to grantees.
Its money now reaches organizations through that sponsor, which does not report who recommended each grant. FY2024 names 10 organizations directly, so a portfolio cannot be read from it. Everything below is therefore FY2018, the last year Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County named its own grantees at scale: 16 organizations, $1M. It is dated, not current.
Organizations named directly on the return
Amber years are those where most dollars went to a sponsor.
What it funded, over time
Every grant placed by its stated purpose and the recipient’s mission, by year, FY2017 to 2024.
Where the money goes
Grants by size, and the largest recipients.
How this is measured
By grant size · FY2018
- Under $10k6 grants · $40k
- $10k–50k7 grants · $123k
- $50k–250k5 grants · $539k
- $250k+1 grant · $358k
| Recipient | Amount |
|---|---|
| MERAGE JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY | $358,000 |
| BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION | $176,750 |
| HILLEL FOUNDATION OF ORANGE COUNTY | $162,750 |
| SHEVET TAPUZ THE ISRAELI SCOUTS OF ORANGE COUNTY | $79,967 |
| HONEYMOON ISRAEL FOUNDATION | $70,000 |
| THE HEBREW ACADEMY | $50,000 |
| UC REGENTS | $48,037 |
| JEWISH FEDERATION OF GREATER LOS ANGELES | $16,805 |
| EZRA CENTER | $15,000 |
| ORANGE COUNTY MUSIC AND DANCE INC | $12,031 |
| CAF AMERICA | $10,870 |
| CHABAD JEWISH CENTER OF MISSION VIEJO | $10,000 |
| CONGREGATION SHIR HA-MA'ALOT | $10,000 |
| CONGREGATION B'NAI ISRAEL | $7,500 |
| BETH JACOB CONGREGATION OF IRVINE | $7,500 |
Does the money reach high-need areas?
Each grant placed by the hardship in its grantee’s ZIP, against the area’s typical level.
Its human-services grants (FY17–24, $2.0M) land where the poverty rate runs at 10%, against an area that typically sits at 10%. 52% of those dollars go to grantees based in above-average-need neighborhoods. Its grants spread fairly evenly across need levels.
How this is measured
How this is measured
Where the work is directed
The same grants placed two ways: where each recipient sits, and where its stated purpose sends the money.
About 11% of Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County’s grant dollars are earmarked for a different county than the recipient’s own address. By recipient address, 49% of the giving stays in CA; by stated purpose, 39%.
How this is measured
Who it funds again
Organizations funded in more than one year, against those funded once.
25 repeat relationships: 13 still active in FY2018, 12 since wound down; 12 grantees were first funded in FY2018 (too recent to call). Read against FY2018, the last year this funder named its own grantees directly; its giving has since run through a sponsor, which reports no donor behind each grant.
How the two cohorts compare
Organizations
Total granted
Median revenue growth · since first grant
Still filing today
New vs renewed · share of each year
In FY2024, 99% of grant dollars renewed an existing relationship; $7k went to new ones.
Where new relationships form · theme of each grantee’s first grant
How this is measured
Backed again, and grew
- JFJEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF SAN DIEGO4× · 2021–2024 · $990k · revenue +107%
- JCJEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY7× · 2017–2024 · $906k · revenue +35%
HILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE7× · 2017–2024 · $618k · revenue +42%
Funded once
- TOThe Orange County Friendship Circle Incgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $30k · revenue +208%
- TITHE ISRAEL INSTITUTE INCgraduatedone grant, 2017 · $30k · revenue +268%
- SRSOUTHCOAST RECONSTRUCTIONIST HAVURAHone grant, 2017 · $8k
How this is measured
Repeat means funded in two or more distinct years. Growth and survival are read from each grantee’s own subsequent IRS filings.
Closest unfunded matches
The nonprofits that most resemble its grantees but are not funded by it, scored along the direction from the rest of the field toward the portfolio. A resemblance in what they say they do, not a recommendation.
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To further jewish education in israel
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How this is measured
29 grantees tracked through their own filings, 2017–2025.
Each grant beside the grantee’s revenue from every source, year by year.
How this is measured
Counted here: distinct organizations funded across 2017 to 2025, not grant rows in a single year, so this will not match the grant count on the cover. 29 of the 50 grantees resolved in that span have returns of their own we could reconcile.
Each grantee is resolved to its own IRS returns. Association, dated; never a causal claim.
Where the money sits, by cause and then by grantee
Each grantee by its size and the funder’s share of it; top left is load-bearing
Grantee by grantee: a decade per organization, before and after funding
A decade per grantee: revenue shaded, grants as bars, all rows on one timeline.
- Who funds THE JEWISH FEDERATIONS OF NORTH AMERICA INC ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF SAN DIEGO ↗
- Who funds JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER OF ORANGE COUNTY ↗
- Who funds HILLEL THE FOUNDATION FOR JEWISH CAMPUS LIFE ↗
- Who funds BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL FOUNDATION ↗
- Who funds Jewish Educators Association of Orange County ↗
- Who funds TARBUT V'TORAH COMMUNITY DAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds Pacific Symphony ↗
- Who funds SHEVET TAPUZ ↗
- Who funds HONEYMOON ISRAEL FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds ORANGE COUNTY JEWISH COMMUNITY SCHOLAR PROGRAM ↗
- Who funds The Orange County Friendship Circle Inc ↗
- Who funds THE ISRAEL INSTITUTE INC ↗
- Who funds ORANGE COUNTY MUSIC AND DANCE INC ↗
- Who funds HABONIM CAMP KVUTZA INC ↗
- Who funds CAMP RAMAH IN CALIFORNIA INC ↗
- Who funds STANLEY W EKSTROM FOUNDATION INC ↗
- Who funds CHARITIES AID FOUNDATION AMERICA ↗
- Who funds IRVINE HEBREW DAY SCHOOL ↗
- Who funds KAVOD ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FEDERATION COUNCIL OF GREATER LA ↗
- Who funds JEWISH COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL OF SAN FRANCISCO MARIN & PENINSULA ↗
- Who funds Ezra Center of California ↗
- Who funds ONEOC ↗
- Who funds JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S SERVICE OF LONG BEACH AND ORANGE COUNTY ↗
- Who funds JEWISH COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ORANGE COUNTY ↗
Co-funders
Grantmakers whose grantees overlap with this funder’s far more than size alone predicts. Closer means stronger alignment; arcs show where they also fund each other. Here they form a tightly interlocked group: most of these funders back each other's grantees too.
Open a dossier: Jewish Community Foundation of Orange County · Samueli Foundation · Eric and Sheila Samson Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of San Diego · The Morris & Sylvia Trachten Family Foundation · Jewish Community Foundation of Los Angeles · Orange County Community Foundation · Jewish Communal Fund · The Shimon Ben Joseph Foundation Dba Jim Joseph Foundation · Edwards Lifesciences Foundation · National Philanthropic Trust · Morgan Stanley Global Impact Funding Trust Inc
How this is measured
How much its grantees rely on government
Each dot is one organization Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County funds: left to right is the share of its income from government, bottom to top the share from Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County. Bigger dots raise more.
How this is measured
Play a game based on Jewish Federation and Family Services of Orange County’s filings →