If you have substantial payments to professional fundraisers, or revenue from fundraising events from gaming, you’ll report details of them on Schedule G. There are 3 parts, each with its own threshold for reporting:
- Part I: more than $15,000 of expenses for professional fundraising services (Part I is not required if you file the Form 990-EZ)
- Part II: more than $15,000 of revenue from fundraising events
- Part III: more than $15,000 of revenue from gaming activities
In Part I, you’ll list what types of fundraising activities you do, what states you solicit funds in, and, if you hire professional fundraisers, the 10 highest paid individuals or entities who you paid at least $5,000. For the latter, you’ll need to report their names, addresses, what kind of fundraising activities they performed, how much revenue they brought in, and how much you paid them.
If a fundraiser’s activities result in revenue in more than one fiscal year, only include receipts during the year you’re reporting on with your Form 990. In column (iii), check “yes” if the fundraiser had possession of the funds, or authority to deposit, direct the use of, or use the funds. In column (v), if you’re paying the fundraiser fees for his or her services, as well as related expenses (e.g. printing, postage, paper), report these expenses in Part IV, as well as how you distinguish these expenses from their fees. Also describe if you have an arrangement where you only pay for expenses and not any professional fees. If you don’t distinguish between fees and expenses, report the gross amount in column (v).
In Part II, list your 2 largest fundraising events that brought in at least $5,000 of revenue. In column (c), list the total of all other fundraising events that raised at least $5,000, or write “none” if you had 2 or fewer events that raised this much.
For each column, list the amount of revenue and direct expenses in the categories given. Line 1 shows the gross amount of revenue from each event. Line 2 is the portion of line 1 that can be classified as a charitable contribution, i.e. the amount for which nothing was given in return. Line 3 shows the fair market value of what attendees received in return. For example, if you have a fundraising dinner, each attendee pays $200 for a ticket, and the dinner is worth $50, you would report $200 on line 1, $150 on line 2, and $50 on line 3. These amounts should tie out to Part VIII of your Form 990; lines 2 and 3 on the Schedule G respectively align with lines 1c and 8a of Section 8. Line 2 should also include non-cash gifts, e.g. if you have an auction and people donate items to be auctioned off, record those items at fair market value.
Be aware that, because of how the net income summary on line 11 is calculated, it can look like your fundraising events lost money when they may not have. It subtracts the total expenses (line 10) from gross income (line 3), which doesn’t include contributions. As a result, the net income summary distorts the financial benefit of the fundraising events being reported. If someone reading your Form 990 questions asks about such a loss and questions the value of the fundraising events, remind them to include the contributions on line 2 for a fuller perspective of what the events contribute to your organization.
In Part III, list the revenue and direct expenses for each type of gaming you have. If you have employees or independent contractors who work on the gaming activities, include their compensation, including the employer portion of payroll taxes, e.g. Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment taxes. For each type of gaming, if substantially all the work is performed by volunteers, check “yes” on line 6. The percentage given is the total number of volunteers divided by the total number of workers, both paid and unpaid. On line 14, if the books and records are kept by an individual at a personal residence, use your organization’s business address rather than the individual’s personal residence.
Schedule G can be found here, and more detailed instructions for filling it out are provided here.