Required Disclosure Without Disclosing

An interesting article caught my attention in the Nonprofit Times that discussed a growing commonality amongst IRS 990 filings. Specifically, the article details that a list of grants, and possibly donors, which is required in the filings, is becoming shorter and shorter or just referenced somewhere else.

Specifically, the IRS 990 form requires the listing of awards from grantors and some of the largest donors to a nonprofit organization. This addition was part of the 2009 changes to the 990 form by the IRS. Many of us, a little longer in the tooth, commented that this might be a challenge for some organizations in part because of the anonymity of donors and/or for large organizations just listing many grants and donors could take pages and pages. And according to the article, that’s where we’ve landed.

Specifically, it was noted that even while required for public disclosure, many 990 forms are listing fewer and fewer funders. Some are indicating a challenge with just filling out the form. Some 990 forms now are stating that anyone who is interested in that information should go to the website for a list of all awards and grantors. But the most common is that they’re adding extra attachments to the 990 forms….or while they may add them in the form for formal filing to the IRS, they’re not releasing those attachments to the public, so they don’t show up on places like GuideStar.

While I certainly did not foresee the challenging details of the 990s when the changes were made nearly 15 years ago, I think I did articulate and publicly comment during presentations regarding the changes that there would be issues. Whether it be a small nonprofit’s inability to accomplish all the 990 requirements to the fact that some organizations didn’t want to give out their donor lists, this was inevitable. It will be very interesting to see what the IRS does with this growing trend.