A few months ago I went on some rant about scam charities. Recent news is reporting that some of the Haiti charities are less than admirable.
Allow me to post about GuideStar, a website that lets you review the publicly released documents of nonprofit companies. It requires registration, but it’s free and worth the time if you’re out to throw some money around. My paranoia toward everything lends me to wonder what GuideStar gets out of the deal and I find the testimonial data beyond useless, but I enjoy reading the financial statements. It seems to be a damn good deal: now why can’t everything be regulated similarly? If we put a tenth of what we put into any given project making sure the other 90% was spent correctly, I’m convinced the country, the world, the everything, would come out of the deal twice as well as they do now. Alas, I wax depressive, but keep GuideStar in mind the next time you’ve got a nagging urge to donate…
Final rant: GuideStar has a short list of reasons why they might not have the 990 Form from a particular nonprofit. The last one refers to religious organizations that aren’t required to file. I can be convinced sometimes that there is a valid and compelling reason for religious organizations to not be taxed (freedom of religious and that bag), but what exactly frees them from reporting standards? What makes a religion different in the world of honest financial governship? History, I suppose. Phooey.
