New York · Nonprofit
YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC
YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC (New York) receives grants from 123 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,566,484 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($6,095,751). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- Revenue FY2024
- $14M
- Funders on record
- 123
- Grants received
- $18M
- Net assets
- $39M
What Yivo Institute for Jewish Research Inc does
Mission
Yivo's mission is to study the thousand-year history of jewish life in eastern europe and russia in all its aspects: language, history, religion, folkways and material culture. Yivo's archive and library preserves a significant collection of materials on this subject. Yivo offers cultural events and programs throughout the year, including lectures, concerts, films, exhibitions and symposia. Yivo also offers adult education and yiddish language programs, scholarly publications, research opportunities and fellowships.
As stated on its FY2024 Form 990.
Programs
Library & archives (collections of judaica) - the yivo library holds numerous books and periodicals in twelve languages. This includes the unique vilna collection with rabbinical works from as early as the 16th century. The library holdings are particularly strong in documentation of jewish history, culture, and religion in eastern europe; the holocaust period; the experience of immigration to the united states; anti-semitism; and the continuing influence of ashkenazic jewish culture today.
$1,531,486 spentof which $5,000 as grants$106,134 earned by the program30% of program spendingEducation & research (max weinreich center) - yivo's max weinreich center for advanced jewish studies, established in 1968, is dedicated to education and to the advancement of research in the area of jewish life and culture. Named after renowned scholar and yivo founder max weinreich, the center works to make yivo's unique resources and its specialized knowledge available to universities and other institutions of higher learning, to encourage study and promote research concerning the life and culture of east european jewry and related topics, to marshal the intellectual resources in the field of scholarship, and to assist young scholars in qualifying for work in this field.
$1,144,380 spentof which $46,300 as grants$477,799 earned by the program23% of program spendingThe bund archives - the bund archives project is a multi-year project to conserve, process, and digitize the 3.5 million pages of jewish labor and political archives that were donated to yivo by the bund archives in 1992. These materials are from eastern europe and america and cover major political, labor, and social movements in various countries. After the project is complete, these materials will be accessible online free-of-charge. Yivo essentially began working on this project in 2022.
$1,192,583 spent24% of program spendingDigital initiatives - includes the functions necessary to develop work processes to ensure the functionality, flexibility, and sustainability of all yivo web and social media. Projects include further development of the online yivo encyclopedia and online guide to the yivo archives as well as a comprehensive redesign of the yivo.org website.
$95,729 spent2% of program spendingPublications and public programs - since its inception in 1925, in parallel with its research, archival, and bibliographic work, the yivo institute has carried out an active program of scholarly publication. In yivo's books, journals, catalogs, newsletters, and brochures, every aspect of the field of yiddish and east european jewish history and culture, as well as many other fields of modern jewish scholarship, has been represented: linguistics, culture and economic history, folklore and anthropology, social studies, theater history and music, literary history and bibliography.
$569,724 spent11% of program spendingOnline museum - the yivo bruce and francesca cernia slovin online museum project provides access worldwide to yivo's archival and library collections, which are meaningful and important archival treasures instrumental in preserving the history and culture of the jewish people. The museum contains extensive original documents and pages ofb ooks that have beendigitized as part of the edward blank yivo vilna collections project to create english language galleries that reflect the spectrum of jewish life in eastern europe and russia from music, literature, and theater to mercantile guilds, municipal organizations, and rabbinic courts; from traditional ways of life and the education of children to zionism and revolution. The online museum serves as a comprehensive historical and educational platform for both jews and non-jews, and also serves as a key resource for europeans who seek to understand their own countries' multicultural histories. This project began in the year ended december 31, 2018 with the support of a major donor and the online museum was launched august 2020.
$283,646 spent6% of program spendingLearning and media center
$236,225 spent5% of program spending
The 7 programs described on its FY2024 Form 990, listed largest first by expense. Program spending in total: $5,053,773.
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 2023 to 2024, from $32M to $40M (+22%).
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.
Government-grant reliance: 2017 3% · 2018 0% · 2019 0% · 2020 12% · 2021 14% · 2022 14% · 2023 2% · 2024 4%. Grants only. Government contracts and fees sit inside program revenue.
69% of YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC’s revenue is contributions — about as donation-reliant as the typical peer (84% for the typical peer).
Surplus & reserves
Operating surplus or deficit each year, and months of liquidity in hand. 3 of the last 8 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.
Chief executive
Jonathan Brent
Exec. Director
Board chair
Ruth Levine
Chairperson
As listed on its FY2024 Form 990.
Who funds it, year by year
2017 → 2023: the base broadened from 20 funders to 40 funders, grant income rose $467k → $3.9M.
19 of 123 of your funders are donor-advised or pass-through sponsors (tagged DAF) — 49% 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 YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC’s funders (the co-funder graph). Top 30 of 123 funders by total. 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
YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC leans on a few funders — its largest provides 35% of grant income and the top three 58%; half comes from just 2 funders.
the vertical line marks half of all grant income — 2 funders to its left
51% 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 YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC.
Largest funder’s share by year: 2017 34% · 2018 22% · 2019 42% · 2020 56% · 2021 55% · 2022 48% · 2023 46% — growing more concentrated.
“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
37% of YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC's funders are still giving 3 years after their first grant; 52% 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
YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC draws 75% of its grant income from funders outside New York, across 20 states in all.
In-state vs out-of-state, by year
Funder states come from each funder’s own filing. $8.6M arriving through sponsors registered in 11 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
YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC runs a healthier operating margin than three-quarters of the 249 religion nonprofits its size.
this organization peer median middle 50% of peers· 249 religion nonprofits $10M–$100M, FY2024
Government funding YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC receives
Grants and contracts to this organization from federal (USASpending) and state checkbooks, reconciled to its EIN. $1.5M on record.
- National Endowment for the Humanities$1.0M
- Institute of Museum and Library Services$343k
- National Archives and Records Administration$150k
Federal grants vs contracts are distinguished; state line items keep their reported category. Matched by name + geography (the BMF), so coverage is partial and precision-first.
Organizations like YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH 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 New York
Nationally
Read directly from this organization’s own Form 990, as neutral context.
Where the money goes
72% of spending goes to programs.
Governance
Public support
66%
Share of support from the public (Schedule A) — the basis for its public-charity status.
Footprint & structure
Files a return copy in 1 state
Part of a family of 1 related entity
- The Center for Jewish History Inc · exempt
Screen this organization
A dated, signed PDF of the compliance screen for YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH 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 YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC?
- YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC (New York) receives grants from 123 organizations whose IRS filings report $17,566,484 to it, the largest being VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM ($6,095,751). 64 of them have funded it in more than one year.
- How many funders does YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC have?
- IRS filings report 123 organizations giving $17,566,484 in grants to YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC, 64 of which have funded it in more than one year.
- Who is the largest funder of YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC?
- VANGUARD CHARITABLE ENDOWMENT PROGRAM is the largest funder on record, with $6,095,751 in grants. The full list of funders is on this page.
- How can an organization like YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH INC find more funders?
- Start with the funders already giving here, then look at the foundations that back similar organizations in New York. 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 Yivo Institute for Jewish Research →
These figures are read directly from IRS Form 990 / 990-PF e-file XML: this organization’s own return for FY2024 (financials across 2017–2024), and the filings of 123 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 22, 2026. What this page cannot tell you · view filing