We are thrilled to share this historic news about open, nonprofit data.
Just three years after the Aspen Institute’s Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation (PSI) published its groundbreaking report, Information for Impact: Liberating Nonprofit Sector Data, the IRS has released electronically-filed nonprofit tax forms in bulk, as open, machine-readable data to the public.
These electronically-filed tax forms comprise approximately 60% of Form 990s and are available through the public data sets on Amazon Web Services. Data for each Form 990 filing is provided in an XML file, which can be used by coders to gather and aggregate information on the nonprofit sector.
Form 990s are full of valuable information on nonprofit mission, governance and finances for a sector that comprises over 10% of private sector employment and over 5% of GDP.
But until now, even electronically-filed 990s were only available and sold by the IRS as non-searchable images. A year’s worth of 990s, both e-filed and paper-filed, cost $2,850 for a set of DVDs. Once purchased, the 990s had to be re-typed to render them searchable and more useful.
The potential of open data is great. Form 990 information, when searchable and available in bulk download, allows for analyses and visualizations that transform data into knowledge and useful applications for our society. Open Form 990 data increases transparency, reduces fraud, improves efficiency and accuracy, and provides more opportunities for innovation.
Now, after several years of pressing from PSI’s Nonprofit Data Project and many of you in the nonprofit, public and private sectors, 990 data are moving into the 21st Century. We are grateful for the work of Carl Malamud and his 2015 federal court victory, Public.Resource.org v. IRS, which was a major factor in today’s news.
Many thanks to PSI’s Nonprofit Data Project partners: GuideStar, Urban Institute, Foundation Center, Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, as well as our funders, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the authors of our Form 990 report, Beth Noveck and Daniel Goroff. They, and many other partners in this effort, have helped to lay the groundwork and lead the way.
Our work is not over, however. Paper-filed 990s, about 40% of the forms, are still unavailable as open data. Fortunately, this new development joins a growing chorus favoring open 990 data. For example, federal lawmakers have put forth provisions in bi-partisan legislation – such as the Charities Helping Americans Regularly Throughout the Year (CHARITY) Act, and the Taxpayer Protection Act of 2016 (recently approved by the Senate Finance Committee) – which would require all nonprofits to file their tax forms electronically and the IRS to release the data in an open, machine-readable format.
As always, we will keep you informed of breaking developments on nonprofit data. Please contact me atcschuman@aspeninstitute.org with any questions.
More information can be found here.