Presentation at the National Grants Partnership on June 9, 2009 Linda Lampkin, ERI Economic Research Institute & Denise Francis, Office of the Governor of Texas

 Provides Greater Transparency for Texas Givers, Foundations, and Government Agencies ◦ Users can easily review an organization’s finances and uses of their revenues ◦ Consumers now have a tool – the Form 990 filed annually with IRS – to help assess if a group is using donations wisely ◦ Search and access through TX AG web site 

Click to search for Form 990

Select to download Form 990

 Provides geographic- and industry-specific benchmark compensation data  Subscribers include CIA, IRS, NSA, DCAA, UN, US and Canadian militaries, and federal/state/provincial agencies ◦ US Defense Contract Audit Agency and Department of Interior use to assure that bid rates are based on rational pay expectations ◦ PennDOT requires ERI citations to support executive compensation levels in proposals  ERI uses Form 990 data to calculate average salaries, so database includes all comp data from 1998 on, with access to PDFs of the forms  ERI provides the Form 990 library to TX AG – and also CA, NY (with CO and HI soon to follow)

 Makes financial info on nonprofits easily and instantly available to donors, funders, media, community members, regulators, etc.  TX government grantmakers can make better informed decisions about their grantees  Government agencies everywhere (50 states and 80,000 local governments) should access this decision-useful Form 990 data for their actual and prospective nonprofit grantees

 Linda Lampkin, Research Director ◦ ERI Economic Research Institute ◦ ◦  Denise Stines Francis, State Single Point of Contact ◦ Office of the Governor, Division of Budget, Planning & Policy ◦ ◦ 