Once Upon a 990-PF: What Story Does Your 990-PF Tell About Your Foundation?

Have you read your institution's 990-PF lately? Have you ever stopped to think what headlines it might inspire? The IRS recently started releasing e-filed Forms 990 and 990-PF as machine-readable, open data. Because the data is now not only open, but digital and machine-readable this means that anyone from journalists to researchers to activists can aggregate this data and make comparisons, correlations, and judgments about philanthropy at lightning speed, all without your input. Investment practices, demographics of beneficiaries, and compensation practices are examples of 990 data that can get easily turned into compelling narratives about your foundation. This has implications for foundations institution-wide, from governance practices to grants data and from staffing to investment management. 

Attend this webinar to learn about sections of the Form 990-PF that present potential risks and vulnerabilities, as well as opportunities to better share your institution's work. You will also learn how to turn an examination of your 990-PF into an opportunity for improving internal practice, policy, and how these are communicated.

Topics covered include:

• How open philanthropic data works
• New efforts by the IRS to make your 990-PF data both free and open
• Highlights of the most commonly used data from your 990-PF
• How to analyze the story your current 990-PF tells about your foundation
• Recommendations for better communicating your foundation’s work through the 990-PF
• Foundation policies that may need revisiting in light of new era of open 990s

This webinar is being offered to Maryland Philanthropy Network members by the United Philanthropy Forum.

Please click here to register.

Presenters
Janet Camarena, Director of Transparency Initiatives, Foundation Center
Janet Camarena serves as the Director of Transparency Initiatives for Foundation Center, working to champion greater foundation transparency. A key part of her role is to provide leadership for Glasspockets.org, which she helped to found and build in 2010. Glasspockets provides a variety of tools and features designed to encourage philanthropic openness. It has been recognized by the Webby Awards and was also selected as one of the Top 100 websites by PC Magazine. Prior to her current role, Camarena served as Director of Foundation Center’s regional office in San Francisco for 15 years. She was among 48 nonprofit leaders selected for the American Express Nonprofit Leadership Academy. She completed her undergraduate work at Mills College and received a master’s degree in library and information science from San Jose State University. 

C. Davis Parchment, Manager of Knowledge Services, Foundation Center
C. Davis Parchment serves as Manager of Knowledge Services for Foundation Center. In addition to managing several special projects for the department, she established and leads the Get on the Map Campaign, a national philanthropy data improvement effort, in partnership with the Forum for Regional Maryland Philanthropy Network of Grantmakers and 26 regional associations. Previously, she was the Manager for Foundation Center’s Electronic Reporting Program, a role in which she oversaw outreach efforts aimed at motivating foundations, affinity groups, regional associations, and software partners to share more timely grants information. She received her BA in Political Philosophy & Economics from Mount Holyoke College, and her Ed.M. in Education from Harvard University. Davis currently is serving on PEAK Philanthropy’s Grantmaking Standards Advisory Council and has served on numerous nonprofit boards including the Development Executives Roundtable, CAP India and Southwest Neighborhoods Inc.