Month: May 2013

IRS targeting fiasco gets worse daily. The scary damage. Ponder the causes cited by the TIGTA report.

Using ideological criteria to select organizations for a drawn out review of their exemption application is a serious disaster for everyone.

I want to develop three ideas in more detail but don’t have the time to do so now. Still would like to lay down a marker for the ideas.

First, this disaster is getting worse with every day that passes. Not sure whether the progression is arithmetic, geometric, or exponential. If you need a sinking feeling in your gut, trace the pieces of information as they have emerged. Somebody needs to start giving answers that are accurate past the next sunrise.

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Jim Ulvog

World Help revises 2012 report again to say the 2011 numbers were restated again

My compliments to World Help. They have revised their financial statements to disclose the 2011 numbers were revised again.

My hat is off to them for the courage to revise the report.

The newest report can be found at their website here.

Note 12 is new. It is titled Comparative Statements and addresses the second revision of 2011 information.

The note says management restated the 12-31-11 financial statements.

The reason is provided. Quoting, the report says: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

My visit with telemarketer from the Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation

Children’s Cancer Recovery Foundation (CCRF) is the latest charity to announce the revision of their financial statements.

Chronicle of Philanthropy reported this morning that the organization will revise their 2011 financial statements and 990 for the medicine they received from World Help – Cancer Charity Shrinks Its Revenue.  Mr. Doug Donovan, who wrote the article, indicates there is another donation that CCRF ought to address as well.  You can see CCRF’s announcement at the bottom of this page.

Mr. William Barrett tells of his telemarketing call from CCRF. The call was made by Associated Community Services (ACS). See his blog, New To Seattle, for his experience:  Really? Iffy charity says gift will benefit Seattle hospital. The script for the call he received said a portion of the donation would go to a nearby hospital that he’d not heard of. Some research revealed that hospital actually exists but had changed their name five years earlier.

A bit of research by Mr. Barrett identified the same issues that the Chronicle of Philanthropy has been discussing in their recent articles.

Mr. Barrett mentioned the Chronicle article and CCRF restatement this morning, calling it another shoe dropping in the ongoing issues over valuation. He suggests we may soon have a closet full of shoes – Iffy charity soliciting in Seattle gets more iffy.

Sometime soon I’ll have a series of posts on the accounting concept of joint cost allocation using the CCRF 990 as a case study. Before going into that discussion, it would be helpful to describe my call from ACS

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Jim Ulvog

Accounting ideas in World Help’s revised financial statements

There are some accounting concepts in the most recent financial statements released by World Help that warrant discussion. This post will walk through those items I noticed.

This will be a long post. You might want to get a fresh cup of coffee and settle in.

Efforts to reach out to World Help

I have been asking World Help for their comment for a week and a half. The only reply I have received was when the president’s assistant gave me the e-mail contact for the organization’s outside media consultant. I have sent e-mails to the president’s assistant and the contract media consultant several times and received no replies.

Proper accounting is a broader issue in the R&D community than has been discussed

The focus of conversation on accounting in the relief & development community has been variance power and the valuation of medicine, particularly 500 mg mebendazole.

I perceive there are issues involved in disclosures that haven’t yet been discussed.

In accounting shorthand, the matters I see that have not yet been addressed are disclosures of concentration of contributions, concentration of donors, and estimates with a reasonable possibility of change in the near-term.

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Jim Ulvog

GIK valuation – Things going on behind the scene

Previous posts have discussed an article at Chronicle of Philanthropy: Charity’s Exaggerated Revenue Could Affect Other Groups.

I saw two interesting background comments in the Chronicle’s article that tell me there is more going on than is visible.

The AG task force

The first is a quote from the office of the New Mexico Attorney General: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Impact on downstream charities from World Help revising their financials

As discussed in an earlier post, World Help has revised the amount of 2011 gift-in-kind contribution from $223.7M to $1.6M. That is a 99.3% reduction.

What is the impact on charities who received GIK from World Help? This question is touched on by Aronson Nonprofit Report blog in their post I discussed here. That issue was discussed at more detail in a long article at Chronicle of Philanthropy: Charity’s Exaggerated Revenue Could Affect Other Groups.

The Chronicle article identifies two specific charities which received donations from World Help: (more…)

Jim Ulvog

Webcast for NPO board member orientation

Christian Leadership Alliance will have a webcast on 5/23/13 on board member orientation in a nonprofit organization – Effective and Efficient Governing Board Orientation.

The presentation is from Mr. Michael Batts, CPA, managing partner of Batts Morrison Wales & Lee, P.A. His firm focuses on serving the nonprofit community.

If I’m reading the description correctly, the webcast will cover the material in Mr. Batts’ book, Board Member Orientation.

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Jim Ulvog

Upcoming posts – Thoughts from Christian Leadership Alliance conference, May ‘13

I attended the CLA conference in Anaheim this week. Had a great time. It was a blast visiting with a lot of the lenders and other CPA firms serving the nonprofit community. (Yes, yes, you can pray for me that I enjoy visiting with accountants and bankers.)

General sessions were superb as usual. The selection of breakout sessions was good (not superb as in the past, but still very good).

Here are a few topics for posts to I want to write soon.

Resource books

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Jim Ulvog