From the NICAR library
NICAR offers a number of federal government databases. Here is a list of our growing collection:
Federal Election Commission contributions data, including donations by individuals and political action committees. Federal Aviation Administration data, including airplane maintenance work documented in the service difficulty report, pilot licenses and grades, and aircraft registration. Home Mortgage Disclosure Act records, for tracking who gets loans and who gets turned down, and finding redlining patterns. Federal procurement data, 1992-1994, includes breakdowns by agency. Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms gun dealer records. National Bridge Inventory System data, includes inspection grades. FBI Uniform Crime Reports, a detailed compilation of crime data that includes statistical breakdowns of individual murders. This includes the new 1994 data. Social Security death records, by name and social security number, going back to 1937. Occupational Safety and Health Administration violation data includes worker accidents and exposures to hazardous chemicals by companies. U.S. Department of Transportation truck accident and census data. It includes accidents by company and road. U.S. Small Business Administration loan guarantees, 1989-1995. This includes the name of the business, address, amount covered by the SBA, and status, including whether the loan went bad. U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loan guarantees, 1989-1994. This includes individuals and businesses, the amount covered by the SBA, and the status, including whether the loan went bad. U.S. Small Business Administration's list of minority companies certified for SBA assistance in seeking federal contracts. It includes the name of the company, its address, the owner, type of business and phone number. NEW U.S. Department of Transportation hazardous materials accidents database, a collection of roadway, rail, air and waterway accidents from 1971 to 1995. NEW U.S. Department of Transportation fatal accident reporting system. It includes all roadway accidents from 1988 to 1994. U.S. Coast Guard directory of U.S. merchant vessels. It includes the name of the ship, the managing owner, home port and various descriptive information. NEW National Endowment for the Arts, grants, 1989-1993.
For up-to-date prices and more information, call (314) 882-0684, or send e-mail to nicar@muccmail.missouri.edu.
There are several ways to get into the IRS' bulletin board, known as IRIS. You can dial direct with a modem. The phone number is (703) 321-8020. Set your modem to no parity, 8 bits, 1 stop bit. The system runs at a 9600 baud rate. The terminal emulation should be set to ANSI. Set the duplex connection to full. If you see odd graphics, you can turn them off by typing this at a command line:
You can also connect to IRIS via telnet and ftp. The telnet address is fedworld.gov. The ftp address is ftp.fedworld.gov. Indicate at the prompt that you want to hook into IRIS. The logon for the public is "anonymous." The password is your e-mail address. The IRS keeps the site running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The systems operator is at (202) 874-0277. Once you're in the system, there are instructions on how to use it.
In 1913, when income tax began, nonprofits were born. Since then, Loeb, Pound and Cohen reported, Congress has recognized 24 categories of tax-exempt organizations, besides charities. Covered are professional and trade groups that promote the welfare of their members, colleges, health-care providers, retirement funds, real-estate boards, credit unions, civic leagues, and more.
Inquirer's analysis
Philadelphia Inquirer reporters Gilbert Gaul and Neill Borowski were the first reporters to analyze nonprofits as a whole sector. The result was a seven-part series published in 1993, which became a book called "Free Ride."
Gaul and Borowski spent two years poring over federal budgets, tax returns and federal and state economic statistics. They went through 50 years of economic data to track the growth of nonprofits. And they examined 6,000 organizations picked from the IRS' master list of nonprofits.
Their selections included the nation's largest nonprofits (those with revenues and assets valued at $10 million), those of regional interest to their readers and others, such as the NFL, that were "just plain interesting."
'Grow your own'
Gaul and Borowski gathered paper 990 forms, which nonprofits are required to file with the IRS, and built numerous spreadsheets and databases.
"I call it 'grow your own,'" Borowski said. But, several years later, Loeb found the quickest way to get data is to download it from the IRS bulletin board.
"It's free, but you have to dial it directly," Loeb said. "The IRS data is in seven files, one for each region of the country, and someone doing their own city can get their own region zipped in ascii."
It took two to three hours to download one region, Loeb said.
"It's very basic data: assets, their most recent year of income, name and address, category of nonprofit, their three chief interests - what they support," Loeb said. "I would say it's some of the cleanest data I have seen. The queries were very simple, sorting by category and adding up; summing total for assets and incomes."
Gathering 990s
Like the Inquirer reporters, Loeb, Pound and Cohen also spent time collecting 990s from the nonprofits. They all found that getting that data can be a little tricky.
"The rule is the nonprofits have to allow you to read the three most recent years of their 990s," Borowski said. "They don't have to make copies for you. They don't have to do anything but let you see them and copy them down."
Both Loeb and Borowski said the best way to deal with this is to take blank 990 forms to the organizations you are interested in.
"Simply take that copy in and fill out the form based on the way they filled it out," Borowski said. Blank 990s can be obtained from the IRS or from the IRS web site at http://www.ustreas.gov/treasury/bureaus/irs/fwforms.html. You also need to download the Adobe Acrobat reader to open the forms.
Borowski cautioned reporters to view completed 990s skeptically. "You have to realize that some organizations clearly did not take the forms very seriously and weren't that careful in the way they filed them," he said. "Each 990 is a mystery, and you have to unravel it."
But the result is worth the trouble.
"Every tax exempt organization has a cost to the taxpayer," Borowski said. "They are not benefiting the public; there is a cost involved. You have to read the form with that in mind."
Jo Craven can be reached at (314) 882-0684 or send e-mail to c6.55034@mizzoul.edu