April 23, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Financial data about AIDS charities — including salaries paid to top officials — are now available on the Internet.
The AIDS Service Provider Accountability Project, a group in San Francisco started by several AIDS activists, has posted financial data for at least 29 AIDS organizations on its Web site. The information is culled from the charities’ Form 990 informational tax returns.
Michael A. Petrelis, one of the organizers of the site, says that his group’s motivation is to hold charities accountable to the public. “I’m convinced that a lot of money that people give ostensibly for AIDS services is being diverted into six-figure salaries,” Mr. Petrelis says. He notes that the accountability project has a “milk crate” full of additional tax returns that it plans to post as soon as possible.
Other Web sites — most notably Philanthropic Research’s GuideStar site (http://www.guidestar.org) — have posted portions of financial information from charities’ tax returns. But the AIDS Service Provider Accountability Project is unusual in that it discloses salaries. An attachment to the 990 form, which is available to the public, provides the salaries of the five highest-paid employees of a non-profit organization, as well as any compensation provided to trustees.
Officials at AIDS organizations that have their salaries listed on the site say that they are not concerned about having that or other financial information disclosed.
“The whole point of having to file a 990 is for public disclosure,” says Charles King, co-executive director of Housing Works in New York.
Terry M. Stone, executive director of the> Northwest AIDS Foundation, in Seattle, says that his only worry is that the charities are not given an opportunity to explain to people what the numbers mean. “I’m an accountant and I’ve actually done 990s,” he says. “It’s a bunch of numbers that don’t mean a whole lot unless you have the context of the services provided.”
To get there: Using World-Wide Web software, type http://www.accountabilityproject.com.
