NGOs irresponsible, credential them!

Wojtek Sokolowski sokol at jhu.edu
Tue Jun 20 13:01:53 PDT 2000


At 03:53 PM 6/20/00 -0400, Doug wrote:
>Michael Pollak wrote:
>
>>
>>On Mon, 19 Jun 2000, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>>
>>> Under the US law, all orgs with expenditure over $25k/year must file
>>> the 990 form with the IRS. 990 forms are public records, posted on
>>> the internet. I do not know how much more disclosure is possible.
>>
>>Really? I was under the impression that 990's only show aggregate inflows
>>and expenditures, and that the organizations are under no obligations to
>>disclose the details of where their money comes from or how it is
>>spent. Is this wrong? Could you give me the URLs of some 990's so I
>>could correct my misimpressions?
>
>990s don't have to go into much detail, and entities are only
>required to keep copies available for inspection at their
>headquarters. Some voluntarily disclose more, and distribute copies
>more generously, but they don't have to.
>

Technically, 990 contain quite detailed information, some of it quite sensitive such as amount of public contributions, or executive salaries. But it is also a known fact that this info is not very reliable.

I do know the URL address where you can get 990 - i get my copy from the Urban Institute' Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, they distribute the file on a CD ROM (please contact Elizabeth Boris at EBoris at ui.urban.org for more info).

wojtek



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