It May Be Boring, But Worth Reading Anyway
by on January 16, 2012
For the last few months, I've had the same primary action item on my agenda every single day: finish Conservancy's FY 2010 audit and Form 990. Those who exchange email with me regularly have probably noticed a slowly increasing lag because of this. Fortunately, as for this past Saturday, this work is finally done. Conservancy has publicly posted our FY 2010 Form 990, FY 2010 Independent Auditor's report and our FY 2010 NYS CHAR-500. I know these documents might seem as boring as reading your own tax filings, but I hope in this blog post to convince you that Form 990s are worth reading, by drawing attention to the interesting parts of Conservancy's filings.
What's a Fiscal Year (FY)?
When I first started working in non-profit management years ago, it took me a while to get used to the idea of a fiscal year (often abbreviated FY). The concept, however, is relatively simple. Conservancy was founded in March 2006. As such, Conservancy's first year of operation ended on 28 February 2007, and every year thereafter, Conservancy completes another year of operation on the last day of February.
Therefore, when you take a look at Conservancy's 2010 Form 990, you'll find that the period described is 1 March 2010 until 28 February 2011. So, when you analyze the documents, you have to put your mindset into that period.
What's a Form 990, and Why Is It Public?
I often point out that 501(c)(3) non-profit charities are a form of a government grant. Think of it this way: 501(c)(3)'s not only pay no taxes on any of their income, but also, donors who give to a 501(c)(3) don't (usually) have to pay taxes on the money they give. The USA government (and by extension, the public), in essence, is subsidizing these organizations in two different ways: the government collects no tax money from these organizations, and the donors don't pay any taxes on their donations.
The government permits this because organizations like Conservancy must meet a high burden: they must advance the public good through pursuit of their mission. Conservancy does this by facilitating, fostering, promoting, developing, and defending Free, Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS) for the general public.
To make sure organizations carry out their mission for the public good, and to allow the public itself to verify this occurs, the USA Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires that, each year, every 501(c)(3) organization file the Form 990, which outlines all the funds received and spent by the organization, and how the organization used those funds to promote its mission. My hope is that if you read the rest of this blog post alongside Conservancy's Form 990 and Auditor's Report, you might be able to better use it as a tool to figure out what Conservancy was up to between the dates of 1 March 2010 and 28 February 2011.
Quick View of Mission, Revenue and Expenses
The first page of the Form 990 has a brief statement of the mission of the organization, and presents the fiscal overview. The most interesting lines related to income are lines 8 and 9, which contain the total contributions, and total service revenue. For a 501(c)(3), “contributions” are gifts and donations given to the organization by donors. That's the type of income with which those who give to non-profits are most familiar.
Program service revenue, which is also sometimes called “related business income”, refers to income that an organization receives while pursuing its mission. Conservancy's most common program service revenue is registration fees for conferences. Those who attend the conference get something in return (e.g., getting to see the talks live), but these conferences are still within Conservancy's mission (e.g., educating the public about Open Source and Free Software). Thus, the IRS considers the income related to Conservancy's mission.
The interesting lines on expenses are probably lines 15 and 17. Line 15 is salaries, which I'll talk about later, and line 17 is all the other expenses. The best places to get more information on what goes into this line is to jump to Part IX of the Form 990 (page 10), or to look at Page 5 (PDF page 6) of the Independent Auditor's Report.
Expenses By Mission Work
On Page 2 of the Form 990, you'll find Part III. This is perhaps the most interesting part. Specifically, it matches up specific expense totals with parts of Conservancy's mission. Included are texts describing the work that was done with those funds. I think this page is particular interesting, because it provides an easy overview of specific mission work and how much the organization spent on that specific work. In other words, it's a cross-section of the expenses totaled against specific mission work, rather than types of expenses (the latter of which is the default elsewhere on the Form 99).
The Public Support Test
In Schedule A, Part II of the Form 990 (PDF page 14), you'll find the public support test. Since this is Conservancy's fifth year of operation, for the first time, Conservancy must take a public support test. There are various ways of calculating the public support test. Conservancy used the 33⅓% test, which requires that at least 33⅓% of the organization's support come from the public. Conservancy's public support percentage is 45.3%.
Earmarked Funds Summary
I've focused here mostly on the Form 990. However, it's worth noting that FY 2010 was the first year in which Conservancy was required to have an independent audit. This is a New York State Requirement (you can see the detail of this requirements on page 4 of the CHAR-500), but even when it's not mandated, it's good for non-profits to have an independent audit anyway. Despite the amazing amount of work our first audit took (it'll get easier in future years, fortunately, now that Conservancy is used to it), I'm very glad that NYS required us to do it, as there's always the temptation to avoid something that's difficult and not mandatory.
Anyway, the most interesting page of the audit's report, in my view, is page 6 (PDF page 7), which shows the exact totals of all earmarked project funds in Conservancy. Individual Conservancy member projects will probably like to be able to see a third-party confirmation on the amount that was given, spent, and remains for their projects.
Yes, You Can See How Much I'm Paid
Part of public filings include the salaries paid to officers, directors, and key employees of the organization. Part VII of the Form 990 (Page 7) has these details. As you can see, I was the only person that Conservancy paid in FY 2010. When you look at the numbers in this section, note that my role changed over the course of the fiscal year: From 2010-03-01 through 2010-09-30, I was a nights/weekends part-time volunteer. From 2010-10-01 to 2010-12-31, I was a full-time volunteer. For the last two months of the fiscal year, from 2011-01-01 until 2011-02-28, I was a full-time employee.
Feel Free to Ask Me Questions
I've started a thread on identi.ca to discuss Conservancy's Form 990. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have there.
Please email any comments on this entry to info@sfconservancy.org.
