Nonprofit Form 990
Form 990 is the form the IRS requires nonprofits to file each year,
which is similar to the annual reports publicly held companies file
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
These returns "provide basic financial data, a complete grants
list, the names of the foundation's trustees and officers, and other
information." Copies of these returns may be ordered directly from
the IRS (Ogden Service Center, P.O. Box 9941, Mail Stop 6734, Ogden
UT 84409).
The Foundation Center in New York "acquires" 990s on microfiche
for all "private foundations" [40,000+] (not charities,etc.). The
Foundation Center is on the 2nd floor of 79 5th Ave., at 16th St.
As of March 1st, 1999, charities are required to mail their 990
forms to you if you request them; tax-exempt institutions are also
required to allow you to inspect their 990s for the last three years.
Noncomplying nonprofits should be reported to the IRS who apparently
can sanction penalties.
Aggregate 990 Form data is downloadable from the Tax Statistics
section of the IRS Web site:
Finally, some good web sites are:
NonProfit Gateway - "links
to Federal government information and services"
Idealist - "directory of
nonprofit and volunteering resources"
GuideStar - searchable
database of nonprofit organizations including links to IRS Form
990
