Does Your Form 990 Inspire Donor Confidence?
Are you a church or nonprofit for whom public charity ratings don't apply? The principles in this series still apply. Your contributors and stakeholders are interested in your sustainability and stewardship of resources and actually have limited ways to access relevant information if you don't supply it.
Your Form 990 is more than a tax document — it is a powerful tool for storytelling and transparency because it significantly impacts your ratings and profile on Charity Navigator. Sophisticated donors and grant makers will also scrutinize your Form 990 before making gifts. A well-prepared Form 990 can boost donor confidence and trust, making your organization stand out as a top-rated charity.
Board members play a crucial role in ensuring that key information about governance and financial ratios is correctly submitted on Form 990. However, reviewing and ensuring the accuracy of Form 990 can be daunting - even assuming the reviewer has the right expertise! At Missionwell, we understand your challenges and have a long history of helping nonprofit leaders simplify their financial challenges into manageable work. One way to make your review manageable is to review Form 990 by focusing on what will be extracted from the form to calculate your public Accountability & Finance beacon rating on Charity Navigator.
“This [Finance & Accountability] beacon evaluates a charity’s accountability and transparency as well as its financial health and includes measures of stability, efficiency, and governance. It equips donors with information on how charities operate and how they steward the donations they receive. Charities receive a score for this beacon based on the best practices and policies they have in place and on financial performance ratios.”
To make it simpler for you to focus your review, Missionwell has compiled a list of the line items used for the Finance & Accountability beacon here.
If you have concerns that the story your Form 990 is telling does not connect with your experience at the charity, there may be issues with the organization’s underlying financial reporting. Missionwell’s Stars for Stars assessment will yield robust recommendations and a road map to improved charity ratings for your organization across multiple areas. Missionwell has extensive experience improving financial statements and making them more accurate, which you can select as an add-on service to your assessment. Be sure to check out our article on how your financial statements could be holding back your fundraising here.
Get Started Today
If you missed our latest articles on how your vision and mission can boost your charity ratings, or how your financial ratios can improve donor trust, check them out here and here.
Try Missionwell’s free charity transparency self-assessment for further ideas for improving your public charity ratings.
Request a quote for your Stars for Stars assessment and start improving your ratings.
The road to inspiring donor confidence starts right here, right now! Let your Form 990 work for you, so you get the stars and seals you deserve from Charity Navigator and Candid (GuideStar).
This is article 4 of 6 in our series on improving public charity ratings to increase fundraising.