Maryland · Nonprofit
JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC
JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC (Maryland) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $254,670 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($134,500). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- Revenue FY2025
- $132k
- Funders on record
- 9
- Grants received
- $255k
- Net assets
- $59k
What Jewish Spiritual Literacy Inc does
Mission
Educational products and services, including seminars, printed materials, electronic materials, audio and visual materials.
As stated on its FY2025 Form 990-EZ.
Programs
TORAH HEALTH AND FITNESS - Launched last year, Torah Health and Fitness is a response to a growing awareness that the Jewish community has not paid enough attention to this mitzvah. We have the same health stats as the general public including tragic levels of preventable conditions such as diabetes and cardio-vascular disease. Our mission as the Jewish People is greatly handicapped because we are not meeting this challenge. In addition to medical knowledge we have 3,000 years of Torah wisdom on this subject, but until now it has been scattered across many books, most of which have never been translated. In partnership with doctors and dietitians, the program includes current medical information (with references to medical literature) on what is known about nutrition, exercise, weight loss and longevity. We know from ten years of R&D that this combination of Torah wisdom and medical knowledge can increase awareness of how vital and easy it is to eat and exercise (etc.) healthfully and to increase the holiness with which we treat our bodies, and thereby keep Jews out of the hospital, nursing homes, and wheelchairs for preventable reasons. While Jewishly-focused, our long-term goal…
$44,000 spentof which $5,780 as grants44% of program spendingJTI - JEWISH TEACHERS INSTITUTE - In its eighth year, this project to train and mentor teachers for Jewish day schools continued with a cohort of 7 teachers. The JTI "Boot Camp / Recharge" includes: model and practice a Harry Wong-informed classroom management method, simple concrete indicators of successful teaching (following Thomas Sergiovanni's and Elliot Eisner's models of professional standards), lesson planning and assessments, principles of visual and differentiated instruction and hands-on engagement, effective use of textbooks A/V resources and other technologies; with specific curricular support as well. All participants increased their knowledge and skills in one or more of the above categories. Reduced annual participation reflects success: JTI-trained teachers increased their classroom effectiveness and were more likely to continue teaching.
$24,000 spentof which $4,313 as grants24% of program spendingEDUCATING EDUCATORS - We continued to expand the quantity and quality of the J-IDEA teacher training program's 10 major content categories: Jewish Holidays, Art of Amazement, Esoteric, Marriage, Ritual, Ethics, Meditation & Prayer, Texts, History and Miscellaneous. In addition, we directly trained and mentored a new cohort of educators, increasing their skills at implementing experiential learning, and their thousands of students. JSLI pedagogy provided them with fresh and innovative ways to motivate students in learning and develop their respect and love of Judaism.
$3,200 spent3% of program spendingMEDIA DISTRIBUTION - Our worldwide book distribution continued, including the best-selling "Art of Amazement: Discover Judaism's Forgotten Spirituality" in two languages, the "Art of Amazement Haggada", and "Restoring the Kuzari;" plus the Bar Mitzvah Album, found at https://barmitzvahalbum.com. Thousands of visitors found quality books and toys via our searchable site, https://bestjewishbooks.com and thousands of new users are learning a daily nugget of Jewish wisdom and inspiration with our popular iPhone app - The Amazing Jewish Fact-a-Day Calendar.
$5,100 spentof which $180 as grants5% of program spendingE-LEARNING - Our daily, weekly, and monthly video Torah classes continued, including "Zoom Talmud." Our weekly "Table Talk" entered its fifteenth year, bringing food for thought and discussion to thousands of Friday night dinner tables worldwide.
$24,000 spentof which $1,430 as grants24% of program spending
The 5 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ. Program spending in total: $100,300.
The organization over time
Each line starts at 100 in 2017, so what you read is the shape rather than the size: 150 means half as much again as 2017, 50 means half. The number beside each label in the key is where it ended. The shaded band is where the middle 50% of its peers' revenue would sit, given their growth.
Balance sheet
Total assets and total liabilities at each year end, in dollars. The largest one-year move in total assets was 2021 to 2022, from $45k to $90k (+101%).
How it's funded, over time
Each bar is one year's revenue split into where it came from, and every bar is the same height — these are shares, not amounts, so a year that raised twice as much looks the same size. Hover a bar for the split.
88% of JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (100% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 9 reported years ran a deficit.
reserve
Leadership and staff
The officers, directors, trustees and key employees listed on each return. Joined and no longer listed compare each filing with the year before, matching people by surname and first initial; a year after a gap, or a roster under three people, has no comparison.
Board chair
Alexander Seinfeld
Chairman
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990-EZ.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 2 funders to 3 funders, grant income rose $17k → $20k.
7 of 9 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 99% of grant dollars received. That money is really individual donors directing a sponsor; the institutions to cultivate are the non-DAF funders.
From the IRS filings of JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Association, not causation. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How concentrated its funding is
JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 53% of grant income and the top three 83%; half comes from just 1 funder.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 1 funder to its left
99% of the income these shares are computed over arrives through pass-through sponsors or from payers whose filings do not say what kind of payment it is. Concentration is still measured over all of it, because the money is real; what it does not support is a claim about how many institutions have chosen to fund JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 94% · 2018 75% · 2019 62% · 2020 54% · 2021 56% · 2022 36% · 2023 50% — diversifying over time.
“Effective funders” = inverse Herfindahl index (1 / Σ shareᵢ²) — the number of equal-sized funders that would give the same concentration. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
How long its funders stay
50% of JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 78% give in more than one year at all.
Share of funders still giving k years after their first recorded grant, pooled across every acquisition cohort. A funder counts as retained in a year only if it made a grant that year. Measured to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving — a funder cannot be counted as lapsed in a year most filers have not reached.
Where its funders are
99% of JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC's grant income arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors, whose addresses record where the money is held rather than where the donor is. Of the $4k that is directly attributable, 72% of it comes from Maryland funders.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $251k arriving through sponsors registered in 6 states is excluded from the map and the split above: a sponsor holds money on a donor’s behalf, so its registered address would place those dollars somewhere no donor need ever have been. Trends are read to FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving. FY2024–FY2026 are still being filed and are shown unshaded; they do not move any figure on this page.
Against its field
JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC runs a healthier operating margin than half of the 7,334 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 7,334 religion nonprofits $100k–$1M, FY2025
Organizations like JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC
Organizations whose mission and program text most resemble this one, by semantic similarity over every organization in the US filings — the closest peers, and often the clearest route to shared or prospective funders.
In Maryland
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Public support
73%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC: IRS status (Business Master File, Publication 78, auto-revocation), the OFAC sanctions lists, the Internal Revenue Bulletin, and California registration, with the Rev. Proc. 2018-32 §8.01 reliance elements stated element by element. Generated from the current files at the moment you download it.
Screens are triage, not determinations; a source that cannot be read reports not screened, never clear. Screen this nonprofit · How the screen works · on the API as GET /api/screening/{ein}?format=pdf
Questions and answers
- Who funds JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC?
- JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC (Maryland) receives grants from 9 organizations whose IRS filings report $254,670 to it, the largest being AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION ($134,500). 7 of them have funded it in more than one year, and 99% of the money arrives through donor-advised or pass-through sponsors rather than from an institution directly.
- How many funders does JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC have?
- IRS filings report 9 organizations giving $254,670 in grants to JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC, 7 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC?
- AMERICAN ENDOWMENT FOUNDATION is the largest funder on record, with $134,500 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like JEWISH SPIRITUAL LITERACY INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in Maryland. The funding by cause and by state pages list the largest funders for a given area and how to approach them.
Play a game about who funds Jewish Spiritual Literacy →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2025 (financials across 2017–2025), and the filings of 9 funders that report grants to it. “On record” means captured in the filings we have parsed — a funder that does not e-file, or whose grant detail is not itemized, will not appear. Filings run roughly 12–24 months behind. Trends on this page end at FY2023, the last fiscal year that has finished arriving; later years are shown and marked, and move no figure. Data on this page was exported October 14, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing