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A Portrait of the Independent Sector:
The Activities and Finances of Charitable Organizations
Virginia
A. Hodgkinson, and Associates (Independent Sector, 1994) (Report and Study)
A Portrait of the Independent Sector
is the first
in-depth look at the nonprofit sector, and is the result of a two-year
study in 1992 and 1993. Using a national sample of 990s as their primary
database (and augmenting that with supplemental surveys), the authors
of the study have produced an interesting overview of America's charitable
organizations and provide unique information on the size of charitable
organizations by type of charity, employment, board of trustees, and volunteers,
including detailed information on source of revenues, expenses, and assets.
In addition to providing a statistical panorama of the nonprofit world,
one of the stated purposes of the study was to evaluate the utility of
the 990 form. Acknowledging that the 990 has value for accountants and
government regulators, the authors claim it fails to provide adequate
descriptive information about charitable organizations for the public
at large. The book offers several specific suggestions for revising the
form so that it more accurately describes the purposes, finances and program
activities of nonprofits, making it more useful to donors and policy makers,
as well as those who work in the sector and those who study the sector.
Among the recommendations are to: (1) include information about
affiliations with other groups, (2) include information about clients
served or the beneficiaries of services provided, and (3) create a lexicon
of common definitions and interpretations to facilitate accuracy in reporting.
The book suggests that nonprofit leaders work with the IRS to revise the
990 form to make it more useful and informative for the general public.
Softcover, 97 pages, $12.00 (Nonmember), $8.00 (Member)
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