What is clear wtc911 is that you do not know enough about accounting principles to understand that you cannot discern what you are trying to with the statements you are looking at.
You also seem to have some resistance to getting to the facts as you fail to mention going to the Charity Navigator site and see what independent rating experts say...you will be impressed and maybe your org is on there or you can present it to them. Will help with your fundraising.
I helped set up a 501(c)3 (economic development), but you are right that I have never been involved with that kind of org tax filings. But, I have been intimately involved with my own which are some years several inches thick...and I understand what a tax statement filing compared to a cash flow statement is. You cannot discern what you are trying to discern with any clarity from a tax statement. That is why Schlussel is using them and not mentioning the fact that there are other programs Freedom Alliance does that has nothing to do with grant scholarships, in fact...some have to do with mailing expenses (shipping care packages to service men and women abroad), and travel (sending families of wounded military overseas to visit them). Over 80% of their money goes into their programs...that is efficient!
What is your “not-for-profit” about?
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Mailing expenses? Yep, there was a line item for mailing expense but a full reading of the return indicates that they were involved in a massive fund-raising through the mail effort. They paid over $420K to rent mailing lists (that's a lot of names requiring lots postage) and an additional $112K in caging services (for those who don't know - caging is third-party collection and tracking of donations received from mass mailings). I see no evidence that the mailing expenses were related to anything else...please point it out to me.
As for your assertion that 80% of their money (donors money in reality) goes into program services exactly how did they end the year with a net $5.2 million higher than they recorded at the beginning of the year ($10.9 million - $5.7 million)?
I said in my earlier post what my activity involves.