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privacy everybody is concerned about privacy and in this online World we're living in now where everything about you is online by your own doing mind you maintaining some semblance of privacy well it matters to all of us but in our company and our YouTube channel here our subject matters nonprofits so where does this privacy come into play with nonprofits or does it at all we'll stick around as we talk about just how public your nonprofit information is [Music] hi I'm Greg McCrae founder and CEO of foundation group and welcome back to our 501c3 University Channel where we strive to make nonprofit issues understandable our video today is not going to be a long one but it is about a very important issue and it's not really privacy in fact it's the opposite and that's transparency in the nonprofit world at least here in the US transparency is the rule of the game what exactly does that that mean I'm going to run down a list of the primary ways that anyone in the general public can access key information about your nonprofit it all starts when you form your nonprofit while a handful of nonprofits they're going to start as an unincorporated association something we strongly advise you not to do by the way the vast majority of startup nonprofits they're nonprofit corporations upwards of 95% in fact and the process of incorporating which is what creates the legal entity to begin with that starts the digital breadcrumb that people can follow every state in the US allows people to go to the corporations division website and search their corporate database if someone thinks your nonprofit is Incorporated in Florida they can search the Florida corporate database to see if your nonprofit is legally Incorporated and if it is or your State corporate filings current some states will just show your nonprofit's name and whether it is active or not Others May list your current officers and directors but for the most part this isn't any more exposing than it would be for any business Incorporated in that that same state at the corporate level the degree of transparency it's pretty Universal but what we're going to talk about next raises the bar quite a bit at the federal level the first meaningful thing your nonprofit is likely going to file is IRS form 1023 the application to obtain 501c3 status now what many filers don't realize is that everything in form 1023 is considered publicly available information now once the IRS approves a nonprofits application they don't post the actual form 1023 online but they do post What's called the determination letter this is the letter the IRS sends a nonprofit informing them that they've been approved as a 501c3 again this is something anyone can search out online at irs.gov did you know that any US citizen can request a copy of your nonprofits form 1023 application and receive it like I said virtually everything about this process is publicly available now it may take months before you actually get a copy of the application you've requested but they will send it to you along with copies of any clarifying correspondence that was sent back and forth and trust me when I say that that paperwork Trail can be infinitely more entertaining than what's in the application itself so what about after a nonprofit has been operating for a while well one of the things we've talked a lot about on our channel is IRS form 990 essentially the tax return for nonprofits we'll link a video or two about form 990 in the description below form 990 is an annual required filing by all 501c3 and other tax exempt entities copies of which will eventually be put online in PDF format for anyone anywhere to see one of the videos will link below is one we did over a year ago about how IRS form 990 it's the window into your nonprofit you should really check that one out because I go into more detail in that one but what I will say here is that depending on which version of form 990 you file and the more money your nonprofit brings in each year the higher the version of form 990 you file that level of disclosure can range from a little to a lot if your nonprofit is really small for example and brings in less than 50,000 per year then you're going to file form 990 in not much for anyone to see there as it's just what we call an e postcard there's no real data made public other than the fact that you filed it you're current with your filings and you bring in under 50K per year but if your nonprofit is filing form 990 EZ or the standard form 990 there's a lot to see income expenses details about the activities you performed last year your asset balance how much you owe creditors who your board members are and if those same board members are paid employees how much they made last year yeah you didn't see that one coming did you essentially it's all public record with the exception of details about your donors donors are afforded a little privacy here but even that has been challenged at the state level over and over again so what else let's double back to the state level 40 states require Charities to register for solicitation purposes in other words you cannot fundraise in any meaningful way until you register and get approved fundraise in multiple States and you're going to have to register in multiple States and just like with IRS form 990 most of that data such as your original registration and your annual reports are publicly accessible the last part I'll mention is probably the most controversial and that is the ability of a member of the public to directly contact your nonprofit and ask for information usually this takes the form of asking for financial data but it can be other things the question is do you have to oblige them their request well like most topics around here it depends if you're a member Organization for example a member has the right to ask for most anything and have a reasonable expectation that it will be granted things like copies of your financial statements board meeting minutes bylaws or other similar things if the asker is a member of the general public it's usually enough to steer them to what's already publicly available but that can vary by state law what no charity has the obligation to disclose to a member of the public however is private information about individuals whether that be employees or donors that information is always considered private unless it's a board members compensation which we've already said is publicly available on form 990 unlike regular businesses just about everything a nonprofit does is publicly available information and it is that way primarily to protect the donating public you want to know that the charity you are supporting isn't misusing your gifts to their cause understanding this requirement for transparency also shows you just how important it is to keep accurate track of your finances governance and activities The public's going to see it so make sure you report it correctly well that's it for today I hope this gives you some useful information now go serve your community hey do me a favor and don't navigate away just yet we would really appreciate it if you would hit the like button below as it really helps get our content recommended to more people subscribe if you haven't already as we have great content coming your way on a regular basis finally you can click the little Bell icon to be notified of new content when we post it to learn more about Foundation group you can visit us on the web at .501.com [Music]