Beyond the 990 Form: Exploring generosity trends and donor behavior through tax data

Session Submission Type: Professional Development Workshop

Abstract

The US 990 database is a collection of tax returns filed by tax-exempt organizations with the IRS containing over 2.7 million tax-exempt organizations, including charitable organizations, private foundations, and social welfare organizations. GivingTuesday has developed an open central repository of historical 990 data from foundations, data platforms, charity regulators etc. in collaboration with Aspen Institute’s Nonprofit Open Data Collective. The GivingTuesday Data Commons is also building a prototype large language model on top of the 990 data which will allow a user to type a question and unlock information contained in sections of the form that aren’t standardized, such as descriptions of nonprofit missions.

The 990 form can be used as a benchmark for researchers in other countries and also for governments that want to collect data from the sector.

A panel of speakers from GivingTuesday Data Commons and partner organizations will share how they advocated for and built this resource, the challenges they faced, and the importance of open data access. Attendees will have the opportunity to see an exclusive demo of how AI can be used to extract information and augment the usability of the database

Facilitators: GivingTuesday Data Commons and partner organizations

Audience: Researchers and practitioners interested in tax data, nonprofit infrastructure, and open source knowledge building

Keywords: Database, tax, 990, nonprofit infrastructure, open source knowledge

Sub Unit

• Special Sessions

Presenters

• Jesse Bourns, DARO

• Samir Khan, GivingTuesday