Analyzing Poor Peoples CommunityBased Organizations Using IRS990 Forms

1
Analyzing Poor Peoples Community-Based
Organizations Using IRS-990 Forms
Edward T. Walker Department of Sociology Universit
y of Vermont

• Introduction
• Despite much of the scholarly and public dialogue
  regarding declining civic engagement, poor
  peoples organizations remain quite active in
  communities across the U.S.
• As many government services are outsourced to
  public sector organizations, such groups become
  increasingly significant
• How do such groups promote civic engagement, and
  how effective are they? How have such groups
  adapted their practices in light of changing
  relations between the private and public sectors
  in recent decades?

• Research Agenda
• The data contained in the IRS-990 forms will, in
  combination with the survey data, allow for the
  investigation of questions such as
• The effect of changes in funding sources and
  amounts upon a groups tactical repertoire
• How government funding does or does not influence
  the political activities of CBOs
• How organizations negotiate a balance between
  service provision and advocacy
• How multiracial and often inter-faith
  organizations manage issues of difference

• Applying Automated Coding
• The most recent IRS-990 forms for all surviving
  CBOs have been located
• Coder labor without any automated text coding
  would require 100 hours of labor
• However, many 990s have text that can be
  copy-and-pasted, rather than merely scanned
  images requiring direct data entry
• The automated coding of the IRS-990 forms would
  allow much more time for analysis!

• IRS FORM 990
• Required of nearly all recognized tax-exempt
  groups with receipts normally over 25,000
• All IRS-990 forms are available as free PDFs at
  foundationcenter.org
• Forms include information on revenue, expenses,
  assets, activities and program services, funding
  sources, lobbying, staff and board compensation,
  and more