The Realities of the New Form 990

This past Wednesday we had our roundtable on the new Form 990. Most of our attendees were looking at filing the Form 990 for the first time this year. Some of the items we talked about:
• Making sure that the mission description on page 1 and the program descriptions on page 2 fit within the space provided so that the reader of the Form 990 can readily access that information and does not have to turn back to the Schedule O.
• Several of the participants noted that they received contributions from donors who found them on Guidestar, emphasizing the importance of putting your best foot forward with your Form 990
• Reviewing the necessary policies-document destruction, whistleblower, conflict of interest, Form 990 review procedures, compensation setting, gift policy
• Noting that key employees are those with significant management responsibility who also receive more than $150,000
• Compensation reporting also health benefits, the deferral of income-including pension and other retirement pay
• Discussed functional expenses and the importance of reviewing your allocations
• The effect of contributions from special events on the special event income

A few of the nonprofits who do not have to file the new 990 yet, said that they would probably file it instead of the Form 990-EZ because they wanted the extended information available to their stakeholders. Those who had already filed the new form 990 agreed. They noted that even though it was a lot of work to put together, they wanted the information presented.