Ok guys, let me ask you all a question.

Does your non-profit group print a detailed treasurers report in your magazine or put it on your website for review?

The reason I ask is until now, the CRHS has printed the treasurers report twice a year in the Conrail Quarterly magazine, a magazine that is distributed to members, but also sold to the public. Is it better to make that info "available upon request"? What does your group do?
Thanks! Russ Swinnerton

For my organization the answer is no. However, every non-profit must file a federal 990 form, which are public record and freely available from a number of web sites, Guidestar.org being one example.

Well, yeah. By the time it hits Guidestar it's in the IRS format, which is relatively sanitized and condensed. My experience with nonprofits is that they instantly want more detail from the members, so you need to be prepared to deal with that rather than the 25,000 ft. view. Everybody seems to want to know what it cost to run the Volcano Limited, or paint Ol' No. 57 blue; ie. fund project accounting.

That's usually not something you want to put out on a wide-open webpage; I've seen 'members only' logins on a number of pages and I think that's the appropriate way to deal with that. The members do have right to know, but it's the answer to a completely different question than either the IRS or a donor view.

Just for fun you really want to check the Guidestar views on your own organization, if you don't I guarantee you that others are, including me!

A verbal treasurer's report is given to all members who attend the AGM and a hard copy is available upon request both at the AGM and all other times. The Canada Revenue Agency annual charitable report is published online as well.

Steve Hunter
RMEO

And if you do go to Guidestar, upload some additional info. to the site so they can see more than just your 990s. That site is an opportunity for you to put your best foot forward, so use it.

Electric City Trolley Museum Association publishes a treasurer's report in their Newsletter.
Northern Ohio, Arden, Branford, Baltimore and others distribute to the members the accountant's or auditor's annual report, sometimes as a supplement to the newsletter. In some cases, it's also used as a tool to get outside donations and grants.

It's been my observation that while a few members may be interested in a detailed financial report, most members of the groups I belong to are satisfied with a verbal report of "We're solvent". Only when there's a major brouhaha does a wider percentage get curious about the numbers with $$ in front of them. "I'm a streetcar mechanic, not an accountant!"

Some States require that certain reports be published annually to the membership of a non-profit. These may include some form of financial report. Also the requirement may include a required time period (like 90 or 120 days after the end of the fiscal year).

Some organizations may follow these to the letter, others may meet some interpretation of the requirement, and others may unknowingly (or knowingly) not follow these requirements.

Best to check your State corporation code. If you use an CPA knowledgeable about not-for-profits they also should be able to tell you.

The WW&F Museum used to have quarterly treasurer's reports in the newsletter, but these ended some time in the mid-to-late 1990s. I think it got too much for our treasurer at the time, who was doing everything on paper.

Now I'm treasurer (and we computerized finally), and after my first full year as treasurer I presented a pretty detailed report at our annual meeting. It ended up in our newsletter, the first such report in quite a number of years. I'm planning on doing similar such reports every year for every annual meeting.

Previously, and currently of course, there's a financial report at every board meeting. The contents of board meetings are available to any member that asks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edlpn3CnqaQ

dave