The Great 990 Hunt

Just curious–is Essentia also a nonprofit? Do they have 990s?

Essentia is a nonprofit, and they do file 990s.

I would like to see where all that money the United Way collected after the 2012 flood went. I know many flood victims that never saw anything from the United Way, yet they had many donate money for that cause.

Very good research and reporting. Those 990s will show a lot of information on how money is spent by nonprofits.

John,

The 990s and Conflict of Interest Policy for the Lake Superior Railroad Museum have sat on my desk waiting for you to pick them up for three days now. They were ready, as I said, later in the day after you emailed me back as to which of our three organizations you wanted the information on.

VERDICT: Impatience!

Mr. Buehler, you seem like a decent fellow (more or less), but I’m afraid you are engaging in revisionist history. You did not tell me you would have the 990s available for me the same day. I visited your office at about 1:45 p.m. on Feb. 19, and here is what transpired:

Ken Buehler: What can I do for you?

John Ramos: I’m looking for the most recent three years of your 990s and your conflict of interest policy.

KB: Okay. It’ll take me…I can get those to you tomorrow.

JR: Hmm…tomorrow. Final answer?

KB: Final answer. Well, yeah. The three 990s, you can get those online at the Secretary of State’s office. I mean, I’ll be glad to…

JR: Yeah. That’s what everybody says, and it’s true, to an extent.

KB: But, I mean, I’ll be glad to dig ‘em out. It’s just that it takes a while, and she’s doing other stuff right now.

JR: Because the regulations say when somebody comes in and requests them, to give them copies.

KB: And I’d be more than happy to, but I don’t know where they are, and she’s got other things to do. She’s on her way to the bank. You’re welcome to wait, or I can have them to you tomorrow. It’s up to you.

JR: Get ‘em to me tomorrow.

KB: All right. Very good.

At that point, I departed. At 2:26 p.m., you left me a voice message, asking me to specify if I wanted 990s for the Union Depot, the North Shore Scenic Railroad, or the Lake Superior Railroad Museum. At 3:50, I called you back and left a voice message saying I wanted the 990s for the museum. You also sent me an email asking the same question, and I responded with the same answer. I heard nothing further. If you had them on your desk that same day, I never heard about it. I assumed they would be there the next day, as you had told me they would be, but I never heard anything further about that, either. In any case, the rules say you have to provide them the same day.

Verdict: NONCOMPLIANT!

My main reaction is that there is too much money to be made running small organizations with vague missions. But then I’m one of those guys who thinks billionaires shouldn’t exist.

Love it. Continuing to make friends everywhere you go.

The next time I’m in town, I’ll definitely visit the most egregious non-compliers (Duluth Playhouse, for example), and fire off emails to the regulators if noncompliant, or worse, obstructionist, at that time.

On Feb. 19, Ms. Gradl Seitz did email me copies of the Playhouse’s 2015 and 2016 990s, which landed in my spam folder, where I discovered them today. As the Playhouse’s three most recent 990s would be 2016, 2017 and 2018, this response is enough to move the verdict to PARTIALLY COMPLIANT. I have added an edit to the article noting this.

I guess I don’t understand why some of the organizations were marked as “partially compliant” if they got you the 990 same day. Nowhere in Section 301.6104(d) does it say they have to give it to you on the spot immediately, at least according to your story. To quote your article, ” In response to a request made in person … an organization shall provide such copies to a requester on the day the request is made.”

So why would they be considered only “partially compliant” if you received them same day? That doesn’t seem factual. Yikes…

Thank you for the question. You are correct—many organizations provided documents to me the same day, as required. I gave them credit for that. However, if they were unable to produce the documents while I was present in their offices, they failed to comply with the requirement that the 990s be available in their office for inspection during regular business hours. Almost all the organizations (in this article) failed on that count—most of them didn’t locate the 990s until after I left. Hence their “partially compliant” scores.

I feel like you were unnecessarily harsh to a couple of the organizations. Nowhere in the text you provided for the law does it state that the forms need to be made *immediately* available. Many of the organizations had the forms available to you (meaning they exist), but not necessarily accessible (they exist and you can get to them immediately). I feel as though the organizations who provided copies to you in a timely manner upon request fully complied with the law because the forms were provided to you upon request. You actually added in the word “immediately” to many of your requests to the organizations, which, I believe, actually changes what the organizations are required to do.

Immediately would imply they would need to have it front and center ready to hand to you as soon as you walk in. Available could mean in a drawer in the back to be sent to you. Perfect example is a pizza joint. If I show up there, there is no question the food is available to me when I request (order) it. If it takes 20 minutes for the pizza to come to me, do I assume that the restaurant only “partially” performed their promised service? No. I think you unfairly graded a few of them.

Thank you. As I explained in my previous comment, getting copies was only part of the test. The other part was checking if the organizations had their forms available for public inspection at their office during business hours–which they are required to do under IRS regulations. This means that the forms should be immediately available for anyone to look at. If they had their forms “in a drawer in the back,” it would have been easy for them to show me them on the spot. What was more common was they didn’t know where the forms were, so they promised to get me copies later. This fulfilled the copies part, but failed the immediate inspection part. I applied this measure consistently across the board.

Mr. Ramos

After consulting with my accountant, of 20 years, immediately and first point of contact are two different definitions.
SEEMS like someone woke up with sand in their reproductive organs?

Community Action Duluth is sadly not the same organization since the awesome Angie Miller retired.