Lawmaker Proposes Measure to Bolster Data About Nonprofit Organizations

Many nonprofit leaders and experts have welcomed new legislation in Congress that seeks to get the federal government to pay more attention to the economic impact of the nonprofit world—but the praise is not universal.

The bill—the Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act, or HR 5533—was introduced last month by Rep. Betty McCollum, Democrat of Minnesota. It would create two new bodies to make recommendations about federal policy affecting charities and require federal agencies to step up their collection of data about such organizations.

Noting that nonprofit employees make up 10 percent of the American work force, Ms. McCollum said that no Congressional committee or federal agency exists to help charities succeed—for example, nothing along the lines of the Small Business Administration, which helps for-profit organizations.

“We have a government that counts iceberg-lettuce heads and can tell us how many iceberg-lettuce heads were put in the ground last year,” Tim Delaney, president of the National Council of Nonprofits, said at a Capitol Hill news conference.

“Yet it cannot tell us how many heads of individuals were employed by nonprofits. Why are iceberg-lettuce heads more valuable than the people who take care of America’s communities?”

Some nonprofit experts, however, were unimpressed.

Jack Siegel, a Chicago lawyer who advises charities, said Ms. McCollum’s legislation “would do nothing to improve the sector and spend additional federal money on work that is already being done.” Much data is aleady available through the recently redesigned Form 990 informational tax return, he said—and nonprofit groups might not be so thrilled to face new reporting requirements.

How a House Bill Would Aid Nonprofit Groups

• Create an advisory council composed of 16 nonprofit experts appointed by the president and members of Congress
• Set up a unit to coordinate how federal agencies work with nonprofit groups
• Require annual reports on ways the federal government could aid nonprofit groups
• Require the U.S. Commerce Department to collect and summarize all available federal data about nonprofit groups—and recommend ways to assess and track the size and scope of the U.S. nonprofit world
• Direct the Office of Management and Budget to make available timely data about federal money provided to nonprofit groups
• Instruct the Labor Department to treat nonprofit organizations as a “distinct category of employer” when compiling data
• Ask the Census Bureau to prepare an annual comprehensive report on nonprofit organizations
• Authorize the National Science Foundation to create a $5-million grants program to promote research on ways to improve the relationship between the federal government and nonprofit groups

A copy of the bill, HR 5533, is available at http://thomas.gov.