Who Determines Where the Sun Shines: Nonprofit Sector Stakeholders and the IRS Form 990 Redesign

Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly · 2025-04-18

Despite the importance of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Form 990 to exempt organizations’ regulation, management, and accountability, scholars and practitioners have overlooked how the form evolved over time. This study uses public comments, submitted during the most recent revision of the form in 2007, to examine who participated, stakeholder priorities, and how the updated form was shaped by the federal rulemaking process. The study finds that (a) the submitters of public comments provide a comprehensive view of the nonprofit sector’s diverse set of stakeholders and (b) the public comments highlight substantive self-identified priorities for the sector that can serve as a guide to future research. Key takeaways include the need to consider for-profit and trade association influence in nonprofit policy formation, to recognize selective transparency in reporting requirements, and to understand how stakeholder interests shape regulatory outcomes. Implications suggest researchers should fully leverage Form 990’s extensive changes while remaining cognizant of information gaps.

Integrating Financing Variables Into Behavioral Health Policy Implementation Research

JAMA Psychiatry · 2025-10-15

This Viewpoint suggests tactics for measuring and analyzing financing variables in behavioral health policy research.

Borrowing for Impact: Leveraging Foundation Endowments with Debt

SSRN Electronic Journal · 2025-01-01

Establishing an Agenda for Public Budgeting and Finance Research

Deleted Journal · 2024 · 20 citations

• Political Science
• Political Science
• Public administration

Public budgeting and finance is a discipline that encompasses communities of research and practice. Too often, however, these communities fail to engage each other, instead choosing to operate independently. The result is that the research being conducted fails to address the questions of the day and our governments’ challenges. In this article, we come together as a community of academics and practitioners to establish an agenda for where future research should be conducted. This agenda aims to align the research being undertaken within the academic community with the needs of those working in the community of practice. After establishing ten areas where research is needed, we followed a ranked-choice voting process to establish a prioritization for them. Based on the outcome of this process, the two primary areas where research is currently needed most are the fiscal health of our governments and the implementation of social equity budgeting.

Applying benefits theory to rationalize property tax exemptions for nonprofit organizations

Public Budgeting &amp Finance · 2024-12-01

Abstract Current public policy grants nonprofits property tax exemptions simply because of their status, often assuming they are “charitable,” “educational,” or “health‐related.” This research note argues exemptions should be based on the public or private benefits provided, and not be given to all nonprofits. According to benefits theory, public funds should not finance private benefits; beneficiaries should cover those costs. Property tax exemptions should be reserved for organizations offering public goods or services. In New York City, these exemptions are costly, yet only a small portion supports nonprofits that produce public goods or services.

An Overlooked Hospital Performance Metric: Bond Ratings

Forefront Group · 2024-02-12

Endowment

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023-12-05

The Elgar Encyclopedia of Nonprofit Management, Leadership and Governance is the ultimate reference guide for those interested in the rapidly growing nonprofit sector. Each insightful entry includes a definition of the concept, practical applications in nonprofit organizations, and discussion of current issues and future directions.

Operating reserves

Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · 2023-12-05

The Elgar Encyclopedia of Nonprofit Management, Leadership and Governance is the ultimate reference guide for those interested in the rapidly growing nonprofit sector. Each insightful entry includes a definition of the concept, practical applications in nonprofit organizations, and discussion of current issues and future directions.

Endowment building and use by nonprofits: An integration of theory and practice

Nonprofit Management and Leadership · 2023-07-17 · 4 citations

Abstract This paper explores issues concerning endowment building, endowment management, and the general perceptions of endowment through the views of leaders of nonprofits that built an endowment. We find that endowment is generally considered meaningful to nonprofit leaders when it provides at least 5% of an organization's annual budget. The initiative for building endowment largely comes from boards of directors, executive directors, or some combination of both. However, external actors—especially foundations—play critical roles. The source of funds for endowments mostly come from major gifts including bequests, even though these gifts often were not solicited. Endowments serve a range of functions for organizations and do seem to alter organizational behavior and outcomes as suggested by the existing literature. Endowment aids organizational sustainability by supporting some reasonable level of annual operating costs. Many nonprofits use the flexibility and freeing up of resources provided by endowment funds for innovation, program enhancement, capacity building, and risk taking. For better or worse, endowments become a key part of a virtuous cycle of legitimacy where the nonprofits' accomplishments, relationships, and reputation attract resources to support activities in perpetuity, thus creating a more capable, stable, and accomplished organization to which additional support is more easily drawn.