GivingTuesday announced today that they are releasing a full set of tools and assets, supported by Schwab Charitable and in collaboration with the Aspen Institute’s Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (PSI), Charity Navigator, CitizenAudit, and Urban Institute, as part of the 990 Data Infrastructure Project. This initiative combines the efforts of nonprofits, scholars, charitable giving data platforms, and many others to more widely share essential information captured on the IRS Form 990.
The IRS Form 990, which nonprofits must file annually, includes data on nonprofit finances and activities, organizational and governance structures, charitable giving levels, and volunteering and employment. Improved access to data contained in these forms will provide a wealth of insights for nonprofit decision-making and research as well as improve transparency. However, nonprofit tax data is notoriously difficult to use due to access, coverage, and reliability issues.
The collaboration aims to save donors and the broader social sector immense time and effort by addressing these obstacles while ensuring free access to the platform. Last November, GivingTuesday published the 990 Data Lake, which holds over 5 million files of indexed and deduplicated 990 tax forms. The Data Lake is regularly updated with new IRS releases collected directly from the IRS site. Using the 990 Data Lake as a foundation, the GivingTuesday Data Commons is releasing additional tools and assets to enable practitioners of different technical levels to access the data, furthering transparency and knowledge sharing in the nonprofit sector:
– Updated Mapper and Parser tools to allow researchers to explore the various levels of data released by the IRS;
– Curated slices of the data, known as Datamarts, which will allow users to download specific extracts of the data, including mission statements, programs, services, officers, directors and grant data;
– And API Access to structured data, which will allow users to easily access and utilize multiple different 990 data sets, including a core set of e-filed fields, the IRS BMF, Pub 78, and the Auto Revocation List.
Updated tools and assets of the 990 Data Infrastructure Project can be accessed here.
“We’re committed to making donors’ giving as easy and efficient as possible as they support their charities of choice,” said Doug Campbell, Managing Director of Strategy, Offer Management, and Analytics at Schwab Charitable. “Creating more transparency and access to nonprofit tax data is a win for donors across the entire sector.”
While the goal of these additional tools and assets is to improve access and facilitate use for immediate research, product team, and practitioner use cases, GivingTuesday is committed to understanding the full breadth of sector needs, so that this initiative adapts to ensure long-term sector issues are addressed sustainably.
“This fundamental sector data is a public utility,” says Woodrow Rosenbaum, Chief Data Officer at GivingTuesday. “This project aims to build a solid foundation of resources to support data-driven decision-making in the nonprofit and social sector – the type of infrastructure that other sectors have benefitted from for years.”
About the GivingTuesday Data Commons
The GivingTuesday Data Commons is a global network that enables data collaboration across the nonprofit sector. The Data Commons convenes specialist working groups, conducts research into giving-related behaviors, reveals trends in generosity and donations, and shares findings among its global community. With more than 100 data partners and 1,500+ collaborators, the Data Commons is the largest philanthropic data collaboration ever built. To learn more, visit www.givingtuesday.org/data-commons.
About Schwab Charitable
Schwab Charitable’s mission is to increase giving in the U.S. with donor-advised funds and philanthropic tools and resources that make charitable giving tax-smart, simple, and efficient. We offer tools, guidance and relationships that empower donors to incorporate charitable planning into their everyday lives and make a bigger difference in the world. Since our founding in 1999 as an independent 501(c)(3) public charity, Schwab Charitable donors have granted more than $33 billion to more than 246,000 charities. Visit SchwabCharitable.org for more information.
Schwab Charitable is the name used for the combined programs and services of Schwab Charitable Fund™, an independent nonprofit organization, which has entered into service agreements with certain affiliates of The Charles Schwab Corporation. Schwab Charitable Fund is recognized as a tax-exempt public charity as described in Sections 501(c)(3), 509(a)(1), and 170(b)(1)(A)(vi) of the Internal Revenue Code.
