Aggregator

The Supreme Court's June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade was a seismic event in this country, one whose aftershocks will be felt for years to come. That the highest court in the land would vote to strip away an essential human right and open the door to the criminalization of a basic health-care procedure was seen as an appalling development by a majority of the country — and an ominous sign of that court's radicalization. But while many despaired, St. Louis activists got to work.

Not to kick the city when it's down, but controlling crime is not one of its strong suits. This year was especially bad — almost eye-poppingly so, with the massive rash of 69 restaurant and small-business burglaries that happened throughout the fall.

Sometimes we need to be forced into self-care. The ongoing pandemic has done so much to injure our mental health, but the ways we've found to cope will stick with us forever.

There's no soft way to say it: The pandemic really lobbed a loogie at the arts. After all, if we're all staying inside to avoid contagion, then we can't be sitting thigh to thigh in a packed theater or breathing in each other's bacteria in a concert venue.

October 24, 2022, is a day St. Louis will never forget. That day, we lost an innocent and vibrant young woman who, before a broken 19-year-old shot and killed her, had big dreams for the rest of her life. That day, we lost a beloved teacher and mother who gave her life to save her students.

By the spring of 2021, it seemed like restaurants had reason to celebrate. Vaccines were readily available, dining rooms were back to unrestricted capacity, and hungry diners with money to spend were eager to return to their favorite spots.

For years, St. Louis has clamored for an MLS team. Nearly begged.

Cannabis companies are finding increasingly creative ways to get us high, and it's been one of our favorite things about 2022. Even if you don't partake, you have to admire the entrepreneurial spirit that brought the world treats such as marijuana-infused Red Hot Riplets. Riplets have long been a favorite snack of St. Louis stoners, so to be able to buy Riplets that get you stoned is just efficient, really.

There's a lot to celebrate when it comes to Missouri's recent approval of legal recreational weed. The notion that we'd no longer lock people up over putting a relatively harmless substance into their own bodies is at the top of the pile; that those who've already run afoul of the legal system over a plant will have their records expunged is right up there with it. But while we'll certainly be among those partaking now that it's legal to do so, we still think the road to legalization could have ended in a better place.

In 2022, St. Louis stank — often quite literally. The problems seemed to start way back in June 2021, when a worker shortage had the city throwing away the alley recycling and asking residents to bring their recyclables to designated drop-off points.

In June, two Starbucks, one in Ladue and one at Kingshighway and Chippewa, voted to unionize, becoming the first in the St. Louis area to do so. At the time, they were joining 150 other Starbucks locations across the country that had voted to unionize, but that number has since grown to over 250.

St. Louis should consider itself lucky that when Norwegian Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen lobbed thinly founded cheating allegations at San Francisco-born professional chess player Hans Neimann, our fair city was the metaphorical board upon which these greats would play their ultimate match. The brouhaha began in September when Carlsen abruptly withdrew from the Sinquefield Cup tournament held here, making cryptic remarks that were widely interpreted as accusations against Neimann for cheating.

St. Louis already had its fair share of problems when three now-former aldermen were indicted in June for accepting bribes from a local developer. The city was still reeling from the aftermath of the worst of the pandemic.

From the moment gun dumbass Mark McCloskey waddled his ass out onto his front yard holding an AR-15 to threaten a crowd of people who were doing nothing more than walking past his house, it's been clear that he's not quite playing with a full deck. In the fever dream that is the Republican Party in 2022, though, that's not exactly what you'd call a liability — it's a prerequisite to hold public office.

In August, 17-year-old Matthew Nikolai was walking across Chippewa Street to get some Ted Drewes when a pickup truck struck the Christian Brothers College High School student. He fell into eastbound traffic, where a Ford Fusion also struck him.

We have a lot of secrets here in St. Louis. We don't tell people that our ravioli is actually fried, not toasted. We don't tell people that we're judging them because of what high school they attended.

To absolutely no one's surprise, as Missouri continues its red-ward trend, Republican Eric Schmitt bested Democrat Trudy Busch Valentine in November's Senate election. But at least the Republican primary provided a little bit of 11th-hour excitement as both Schmitt and former Governor Eric Greitens fiercely courted an endorsement from Queens-born family businessman Donald J. Trump. The primary had drama not unlike that between two boys vying for the same prom date.

This year was a magical one to be a St. Louis Cardinals fan: the final year of Albert Pujols. It was the cliché storybook ending that, if you wrote for a movie, would seem fake.

by Sophia Kovatch

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published.

Here’s what we’ll go through in this guide:

• Why Should You Research a Nonprofit Before You Donate?
• How to Find Out Where Charity Money Goes
• How to Evaluate a Nonprofit’s Effectiveness
• Questions to Ask Yourself Before Donating to a Nonprofit

Why Should You Research a Nonprofit Before You Donate?

In general, nonprofit organizations exist to further a social cause or provide a public benefit.

While many do, some don’t live up to the values and mission they claim.

How nonprofits spend their money may be different than what you expect. For instance, ProPublica has reported on how the Red Cross built just six homes after raising millions for Haiti disaster relief, how St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital keeps billions of dollars in reserves and how a nonprofit college spent more on marketing than financial aid.

Since nonprofits are required to file a document called a Form 990 with the IRS every year, you can check out a nonprofit’s finances for yourself with a few online resources. By taking the time to evaluate the charity before you donate, you can see how effective your donation will be and get peace of mind knowing it’s more likely that the organization effectively spends your donation and does what it says.

How to Find Out Where Charity Money Goes

Any organization with tax-exempt status that takes in over $50,000 per year has to file a Form 990. The annual report shows how a nonprofit spends its money.

Once the IRS makes the Form 990s public, you can find it in ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer, a Form 990 lookup tool. Search for a nonprofit by name or browse by state or type.

As of December 2022, the IRS is delayed in releasing nearly half a million tax records stretching back to 2020, according to a ProPublica review. That makes it difficult to see how charities are faring in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even when the IRS isn’t backlogged, Form 990s don’t provide insight into an organization’s current finances because the documents are typically filed many months after the end of an organization’s fiscal year. For larger organizations such as hospital systems, the wait can be even longer.

To find the most recent tax form for the charities you want to donate to, you can try looking on their websites or reaching out to the organizations to ask for it. Nonprofits are required to share their Form 990 upon request, but not every organization complies.

Form 990s are long and complex documents, but there are a few key things you can look for when researching a charity before you donate. Nonprofit Explorer summarizes these items and also provides the original Form 990 so you can examine it more closely.

IRS Status

Most nonprofits are so-called 501(c)(3) organizations — a reference to the portion of the IRS code that deems those organizations as exempt from certain federal and state taxes. Donations to those organizations are tax-deductible.

But not every nonprofit is a 501(c)(3). The IRS lists many types of nonprofit organizations, and not all of them have the same rules.

Some well-known nonprofit organizations are actually 501(c)(4)s, or “social welfare organizations,” according to the IRS. Donations to 501(c)(4) organizations generally are not tax-deductible, but the group can participate more freely in lobbying and advocacy. Many community-based groups and advocacy groups are categorized as 501(c)(4)s.

Some nonprofits are structured so you can donate to either a 501(c)(3) or a 501(c)(4). For example, you can donate to the ACLU, a 501(c)(4), to support its lobbying and advocacy activities, but you won’t be able to deduct it on your taxes. Or, you can make a tax-deductible donation to the ACLU Foundation, a 501(c)(3), to support litigation and public education initiatives.

If getting the tax deduction is important to you, confirm the nonprofit’s IRS tax status before donating.

You can find a charity’s IRS status in Box I of Form 990.

Program Spending

Most people donate to a nonprofit to support a specific program or service. If that’s the case for you, you’ll want to make sure the program you care about is prioritized when the organization budgets its money.

Understanding how nonprofits allocate money across programs is a good way to see how your donation will be spent. It’s also smart to figure out whether the organization made any recent major changes to its programs or mission.

You can find program spending information in Part III of Form 990. Some nonprofits include program descriptions in supplemental information at the end of the document.

Professional Fundraising

Fundraising is a critical source of cash for most nonprofits, and it’s common to have staff members who work on raising enough money for the organization to carry out its mission.

It’s not a problem for nonprofits to spend some money on their fundraising efforts. But it can be a problem when charities spend far more on professional fundraising than on the programs themselves.

You can see how much a nonprofit spends on professional fundraising in Part I, Line 16a of Form 990.

Executive Compensation

Nonprofits are required to disclose the names and salaries of the five highest-paid employees as well as other key staff and board members. Executive salaries at nonprofits are often heavily scrutinized, in part because of this public disclosure.

Like professional fundraising fees, a higher-than-expected number isn’t necessarily a problem. Nonprofits often compete for employees with for-profit companies, and so many try to pay what they believe to be market rates. High executive salaries can be an issue if they are disproportionate to program spending or aren’t comparable with organizations of similar size and complexity.

You can find executive compensation data in Part VII of Form 990.

Other Items to Look For on a Form 990

Program spending, fundraising fees and executive compensation are three key ways to assess a nonprofit. But you can dive even deeper into nonprofit finances if you know where to look on a Form 990.

Here’s where to find other nonprofit financial information that might interest you:

Employees and Voting Members

• Number of employees: Part V, Line 2a
• Number of voting members in governing body: Part VI, Line 1a
• Number of independent voting members: Part VI, Line 1b
• Individuals with over $100,000 in compensation: Part VII, Line 2

Ad Expenses

• Amount spent on advertising and promotion: Part IX, Line 12a

Lobbying Activities

• Participation in lobbying activities: Part IV, Line 4; Schedule C, Part II
• Fees for lobbying services: Part IX, Line 11d

Business Relationship Disclosures

• Business relationships of board members and their families: Part IV, Line 28; Schedule L, Part IV

Other Financial Health Metrics

• Total functional expenses: Part IX, Line 25a
• Total assets, beginning of year: Part X, Line 16a
• Total assets, end of year: Part X, Line 16b
• Net gain or loss on sale of assets: Part VIII, Line 7d
• Total liabilities, beginning of year: Part X, Line 26a
• Total liabilities, end of year: Part X, Line 26b
• Investment income: Part VIII, Line 3
• Total program service revenue: Part VIII, Line 2g

How to Evaluate a Nonprofit’s Effectiveness

Understanding where a nonprofit’s money goes is only part of evaluating an organization. It’s also important to understand the impact of the dollars spent on programs and services.

Check the nonprofit’s website and social media for information about its impact. Many nonprofits will release newsletters or impact statements about the work they’ve accomplished. You might also find testimonials from people they’ve helped in the past.

You can also use a charity review site to get additional information. Free online resources like Charity Navigator and BBB Wise Giving Alliance aggregate ratings and reviews for nonprofit organizations. They’re all a little different, but they generally rate nonprofits on transparency, finances and effectiveness.

Other Questions to Ask Before Donating to a Nonprofit

Here is a quick list of questions to ask yourself before you make a donation to a nonprofit:

• Do you believe in the organization’s mission?
• Does the nonprofit seem to live up to its mission? How do you know?
• Can you find clear information about the impact of its work?
• Does it spend the bulk of its money on programs?
• Does it have a religious or political affiliation? If so, do you mind?
• Is the website secure and up to date?
• Is there anything about the nonprofit that concerns you?

How much do you remember from 2022? This year brought some wild news stories, but were you paying attention?