NCCS has worked closely with the IRS, State Charity officials, and GuideStar over more than two decades to improve the quality and quantity of information available about nonprofit organizations. Projects include the annual IRS Form 990 meeting, the NASCOnet SuperSchema, and various state database and e-filing systems. To learn more about NCCS e-filing, please view our E-Filing Project home page or go to http://efiling.form990.org to see our IRS-certified Form 990 e-filing system.
Feb. 2006 NASCO Conference Call Materials
These materials were created for the Feb. 2006 conference call.
File: nasconetBackend.doc
File: NCCSstateInterface.doc
File: state-efiling20060215RevA.ppt
State Charity Office E-Filing Implementation Memo (Feb. 2005)
This memo details the issues that state charity offices will need to address as they plan to develop their e-filing systems.
File: ScoImplementationMemo.doc
NASCOnet E-Filing Project Update - May 3, 2006 (Powerpoint presentation)
This presentation provides both an update on the project and background on the project.
File: state-efiling20060502.ppt
State Charity Office Database System (1/2005 presentation)
The NCCS State Charity Office Database System provides a customizable system for state charity registration offices to handle nonprofit registrations, payments, and related tasks.
The system is available in Microsoft Access or as a Microsoft client with a Microsoft SQL Server backend.
Additional features include:
- analysis summarization of data,
- creation of custom ratios or audit checks,
- examination of "outliers" in detail,
- flexible mail-merge capacity for corresponding with registrants and potential registrants,
- correspondence tracking,
- associated organizations and "doing business as" names,
- generation of random samples that can be used for analysis or correspondence,
- importing and exporting data.
The links include a Powerpoint presentation of the system, an Adobe Acrobat version of the same presentation (2 screens per page), and user documentation.File: state-charity-office-system.ppt
File: state-charity-office-system.pdf
File: UserDocumentation.doc
State Charity Office E-Filing Administration System Prototype
This prototype demonstrates some of the functionality that we will build into the back-end pages that state charity offices will use to manage e-filed forms.
Options for payment processing are prototyped on a separate page.
Integrating State Charities Registration Systems with IRS 990 E-Filing: A Non-Technical Overview (3/2005 presentation)
File: nasconet-overview.ppt
NASCOnet E-Filing Overview Memo (Aug. 2004)
This memo discusses the IRS Fed-State system and timetables for e-filing implementation.
File: overview2-200408.doc
Other State E-Filing Resources and Papers
- State Electronic Commerce Information from the Federation of Tax Administrators
- Technology Standards from the Federation of Tax Administrators
- NCCS Payments Option Screen (nonworking prototype)
State Charity Office List (NASCO)
http://www.nasconet.org/agencies/document_view
From XML to State Implementation (NASCOnet Steering Committee Presentation, Feb. 16, 2005)
Covers XML development, XML-based implementation, and payment options.
File: nasconet-feb2005-implement.ppt
NASCOnet XML SuperSchema Website
In collaboration with GuideStar and the National Association of Attorney’s General/National Association of State Charity Officials (NAAG/NASCO), NCCS is developing the XML schema for state charity offices, the IRS and Form 990 tax preparation software developers to use in building systems that will permit charities to complete all their state registration requirements (including the Form 990) and file the information electronically in pilot states. To learn more about this project, click to view a January 2005 Microsoft Word presentation. Registered users can also view the schemas at http://efile.form990.org/state.
State E-Filing Systems: History
NCCS began work on the State E-Filing Pilot Project in early 2000. The core of the project was originally the Desktop 990--a free Windows desktop application that permitted nonprofit organizations to complete their IRS Forms 990 and 990-EZ, their Unified Registration Statements (accepted by nearly 40 state charity offices), and state charity forms for Pennsylvania and Colorado. Since 2002, those states have been able to accept forms electronically using the NCCS Desktop990 and back-end NCCS intermediary server.
State Professional Fundraisers Registration System (1/2005 presentation)
NCCS has developed an online system for Professional Fundraisers and Counsel to register online in Pennsylvania. They can also submit new contracts with charities online. We hope to expand this system to other states in 2004 and 2005.
File: Professional-Fundraisers.ppt
Annual Form 990 Meeting - April 19-20, 2005
NCCS hosts annual meetings with the IRS and state charity officials to make recommendations on ways to improve the IRS Form 990 and related forms. The 2005 meeting will be held at the Urban Institute in Washington DC. There will be an informal meeting on Tuesday, April 19th on the Form 990 Issues Paper. The formal meeting will run from 8:30 am to 4 pm on Wednesday April 20th.
Data Analysis for State Charity Officials
NCCS has assisted a number of state charity offices using our IRS Form 990 data to better understand what charities meet state charity registration requirements in particular states and to identify organizations filing in more than one state.
File: multiStateFilers.pdf
Resources for Better Charity Reporting
Several NCCS projects have been designed to help charities and other nonprofit organizations improve their reporting on IRS Forms 990 and state charity reporting documents:
- The Quality 990 Initiative combines resources from a number of sources to help nonprofits improve their IRS Form 990 reporting.
- The Overhead Cost Study Projecct examined reporting of fundraising and "management & general" costs by nonprofit organizations. A number of guides for donors, financial officers, and board members were created to assist them in understanding this topic.
- The Unified Chart of Accounts provides a model chart of accounts that nonprofit organizations can use to facilitate accurate reporting to the IRS, United Way, state charity officials, and federal grantmaking agencies.
