Subject: Fwd: Chron. of Phil.: 'unusual' AIDS watchdogs post $$ data on line!!
From: M Petrelis <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Apr 1998 18:40:04 EDT

[dear friends,
please remember to ask your local aids service organizations for its three
most recent i.r.s. 990 forms, especially now that the aids beg-a-thon season
is gearing up.  soon we will see aids charities staging bike, dance, walk
marathons across the nation.  before you give another dollar to these
charities, examine their tax returns.  know where your money is going and
become a voluntary auditor.

also, ask your local gay newspaper to inspect and write about 990s.  encourage
the gay press to start reporting the facts in 990s.  of course, activists in
d.c. know the washington blade maintains a policy of willfully ignoring 990
forms so any efforts to educate this paper's owner, don michaels, about the
way his editor, lisa keen, censors news by omitting any references to 990s is
futile.  all other gay papers are more likely to know the value of 990s.

lastly, drop a not of thanks to paul demko at the address below.  without
straight 
publications like the one he writes for, and reporters like him, there would
be no aids accountability news in washington.  thanks.  --mp]

AIDS Watchdog Group Posts Financial Data On Line

By Paul Demko
The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 1255 Twenty-Third St., NW, Washington, DC
20037.  
Phone, 1-202-466-1200.
Cover date April 23, 1998

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.