The Smarter Giving Guy » charity information

SGO calls for charities to show their EINs

SG Guy — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 16:29:17 +0000

Charity identities matter. Among other things, scam “charities” adopt names confusingly similar to legitimate groups — and siphon off dollars needed for good works.
Using an EIN is the quickest path to successful charity research. While charity names can be similar, no two charities have the same EIN.
Read the SGO call for charities to show their EINs. SGO helps charity donors boost their impact.

Find an Organization’s Form 990

SG Guy — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:55:02 +0000

A wealth of information is available from an charity’s most recent IRS information return (Form 990 or Form 990-EZ).

See the SeriousGivers.org Find a 990 page for a quick route to charity 990s and 990-EZs.

Happy searching!

Check out greatnonprofits.org

SG Guy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:46:22 +0000

There’s a new tool out there to help with evaluating charities: greatnonprofits.org

Here’s a bit of what it says about itself:

GreatNonprofits is a tool that allows you to find, review, and talk about great — and perhaps not yet great — nonprofits. You already know that reviews by other people who have gone to a restaurant or tried out a doctor are the best way to find out about the quality of those services. If you have direct experience with a nonprofit, GreatNonprofits makes it easier for you to share your knowledge so that other people can discover the great nonprofits that are out there.

We don’t review nonprofits ourselves. Much like Amazon book reviews or consumer reviews site (Epinions, Zagats, TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.), the reviews and ratings are posted by people who have been touched by a nonprofit and want to share their story about it. You’ll see on our site stories of people who have volunteered for or donated to nonprofits and stories of people who have received services.

For now, I’ll take strong positive ratings with a cup of salt — given the likelihood of overly-positive ratings from those served (if they want to keep the nonprofit going). On the other hand, if a nonprofit gets bad ratings from many constituents, that probably tells me to stay away.

Take a look. I’d love to hear what you think.

The Smarter Giving Guide to Finding Key Charity Information

SG Guy — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 00:03:49 +0000

2012 UPDATE: All versions of The Smarter Giving Guide are now out of print. The core concepts of the Guide have been incorporated into the free www.SeriousGivers.org website.

Charities publish an immense amount of data in their IRS Form 990 returns each year. The giver’s challenge has been to find and evaluate the key information tucked away in those returns. We’ve created a new guide to help givers meet that challenge.

The Smarter Giving Guide to Finding Key Charity Information helps you find a charity’s Form 990 and navigate your way to crucial performance indicators such as

The focus of the charity’s programs
Spending on programs, fundraising and administration
Financial reserves available to the charity
Staff, board and contractor compensation levels
Fundraising efficiency

The Guide includes performance ratios and indicators, road-map guides to key information, and complete copies of IRS Form 990, Form 990-EZ and Schedule A for both 2008 and 2007.

Look inside (it’ll take a moment to open the Guide): Table of Contents — Surprise Me! — Back Cover

Money Back Guarantee: Follow the guide and screen just one local charity’s Form 990 data and if you honestly don’t believe think you’ve found crucial information about the charity, then simply give us a call and we’ll cheerfully refund your entire purchase price.

Print edition: 8.5″ x 11″, soft cover, 72 pages, ISBN 978-0-9842528. Also available on CD, with live links.

990 Schedules

SG Guy — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 20:47:59 +0000

All 2007 and 2008 IRS-created Schedules related to Form 990 or Form 990-EZ are available for download and printing from this site:

For 2007: Schedule A; and Schedule B.

For 2008: Schedule A; Schedule B; Schedule C; Schedule D; Schedule E; Schedule F; Schedule F-1; Schedule G; Schedule H; Schedule I; Schedule I-1; Schedule J; Schedule J-1; Schedule J-2; Schedule K; Schedule L; Schedule M; Schedule N; Schedule N-1; Schedule O; Schedule R; and Schedule R-1.

Create Your Charity Scout Report

SG Guy — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:18:57 +0000

Use our free Charity Scout Report form to track your charity scouting work. A few tips about using the form:

Organization names are often similar. Obtaining its employer identification number (EIN) can help you be sure you’re focused on the right organization.
Publication 78 is available on-line.
Nonprofits (other than churches and government agencies) raising funds in California are required to register with the CA Registry of Charitable Trusts.
A wealth of information is available from an organization’s most recent IRS tax return (Form 990, for example).

Note: we’re focusing on Internal Revenue Code §501(c)(3) charities; churches, government agencies and other §501 organizations require different scouting approaches.

Print out the Charity Scout Report form (PDF).