The Software Freedom Law Show

Episode 0x19: Checking Up on Non-Profits

27 October 2009

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Summary

Bradley and Karen discuss the USA IRS Form 990, which non-profit donors can use to understand and check up on the activities of charitable organizations in the USA.

This show was released on Tuesday 27 October 2009; its running time is 00:49:26.

Show Notes

Segment 0 (00:34)

• We have confirmed that John Sullivan does not have H1N1. (01:58)
• Bradley mentioned that on the 2008-06-21 episode of NPR's Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me covered the salacious issues regarding former Broadcom executives. (06:35)
• Bradley mentioned GuideStar, which is a place you can find Form 990s at no charge for non-profits in the USA. Bradley noted that you have to sign up for an account to use their search, but the 990 downloads are at no charge. (10:15)

Segment 1 (12:24)

• Bradley mentioned the SNL skits that make fun of Clear Channel morning radio shows and their …And We're back! catchphrase. (12:52)
• Bradley further noted that a Family Guy episode included a similar gag. (13:05)
• Listeners may want to follow along on Conservancy's FY 2008 Form 900 (PDF). (14:26)
• Bradley mentioned that the Boost Project, a member project of Conservancy, has has an annual conference, the revenue from which appears on Line 2 of the Conservancy's Form 990. (21:23)
• Karen mentioned Form 990 Line 3 is usually large for 501(c)(6) organizations, since most of their funds come from membership fees (23:30)
• Bradley mentioned that the Twisted project had work funded that was blogged about publicly. Here's an example of that from February 2009. (32:30)
• Bradley mentioned he was previously the Clerk of the Free Software Foundation, which can be confirmed by looking at the Annual Report Commonwealth of Massachusetts filings for FSF in 2003 and 2004. (35:19)

Segment 2 (43:38)

• Organizations have to file a form with the State or Commonwealth where the organization is incorporated. (43:55)
• New York has more requirements than many states and commonwealths. New York organizations often need a limited review or an audit by an accounting firm. Conservancy made its New York State FY 2008CHAR-500 (PDF) available as well (44:32)
• Bradley uses jwiegley's program, Ledger to keep Conservancy's books. (44:55)
• Bradley mentioned you can get annual reports for Massachusetts non-profits at the Massachusetts Secretary of State website. (46:30)
• Bradley mentioned the discussion we had with Stormy Peters about giving more to non-profits that support FLOSS. (47:50)

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Tags: bkuhn, karen, conservancy, non-profits

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