Irish Nonprofits: What Do We Know? – January 2012 /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Income profile of 256 nonprofits concerned with ageing Legacies
€1,233,207
Donations and donations in kind
€3,250,373
Tax relief Grants (State, philanthropic & other)
€853 €92,046,102
Corporate donations
€494,946
Membership subscription and sponsorship
€742,713
Church collection
€153,053
Unspecified voluntary income
€1,711,887
Fund-raising events and activities
€3,900,764
Charity shop
€6,400,853
Unspecified activity for generating funds
€1,629,121
Investment Income (including deposit interest)
€1,357,618
Unspecified incoming resources from generated funds Fees and income from trading activities Other activities Uncategorised and other income Total incoming resources
€369,526 €20,485,689 €3,064,232 €78,577,416 €215,418,353
Data limitations Whereas these data are very extensive, and the most comprehensive yet available, we should nonetheless offer the following caveats: i. Only company data are yet available 32% of the nonprofits in the Database are unincorporated, which means that pending the commencement of the Charities Act, we have no regulatory source of financial information about them. ii. Some nonprofit companies file abridged accounts In contravention of the provisions of the Companies Acts, dozens of guarantee companies still report in a form that provides no analysis of their income.
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iii. Some nonprofit companies only report grants in aggregate There are some nonprofit companies that roll up all their grants and report a single figure, or they itemise one or two grants by source, but aggregate the rest. In 2009, for example, 2,923 nonprofits reported “grants” and 991 “unspecified grants”. In these cases, we do not know whether the source of the grant is private (i.e. philanthropic) or public (i.e. governmental). iv. “Grants” are not always grants In many cases, government procures services from nonprofits, especially in local development, health and social services. These might be reported as grants but in fact, they may be more properly considered as contracts for services. v. Absent agreed common standards, nonprofits use different conventions for reporting For reasons that are entirely legitimate, different nonprofits adopt different conventions for aggregating other items of expenditure, such as legacies and bequests, or the benefits of tax relief from donations by PAYE workers. Once the Charities Act, 2009 is commenced, the Minister for Justice will set the standards for narrative reporting by charities, which will supplement the audited financial statements for companies. Standards for non-companies will cover both narrative and financial reporting aspects. Even without commencement of the Act, however, several factors already in train will improve the quality of reporting in the coming years. These are: a) reforms already in process in International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) are soon likely to introduce a new reporting profile for ‘Public Benefit Entities’, which will require a breakdown of income sources. These standards will be mandatory for all company reports, rather than optional, like the SORP for Charities. b) the provisions of Department of Public Expenditure and Reform Circular 17/2010 will come into force for accounts prepared after 1st January 2011, requiring much greater specificity in the reporting of income from