A key to completing or reviewing a private foundation’s Form 990-PF is to have the required source documents available and organized before you start—even if you are hiring someone to complete the form for you.
For easier access to what you need, it can be helpful to categorize expenses in certain ways and keep certain files throughout the year.
Categorizing Expenses
For easier access to what you need, it can be helpful to categorize expenses throughout the year as follows:
- Administration and management (e.g., office supplies, rent, staff salaries, benefits)
- Expenses incurred to produce income (e.g., investment fees, portion of board meeting expenses attributable to time spent discussing investments)
- Grants and charitable programs
Organizing Files
It also helps to maintain the following files:
Banking and Investments
- All monthly bank statements for the current tax year and a final monthly statement from the prior year
- All investment schedules (custodial statements usually are sufficient), including interest income, dividend income, realized gains and losses, ending cost, and market values
- All monthly investment statements for the current tax year and a final monthly statement from the prior year
Expenditures
- A schedule detailing legal, accounting, and other professional fees
- A list of grants paid during the current tax year, noting the grantee’s name, address, and status (e.g., public charity, private operating foundation) and the purpose and amount of the grant; if the recipient is an individual, report any relationship to a foundation manager or substantial contributor
- A list of all approved, but unpaid, grants as of the last day of the current tax year; provide the same disclosure as for grants paid
Taxes
- A schedule detailing the amount of excise tax paid during the current tax year and amount credited from the previous year; indicate whether you want any overpayment of excise tax to be refunded or credited to the following year
- Details of any unrelated business income during the year, including type of activity, gross receipts, directly related (offsetting) expenses, and copies of K-1 reports
Trustees, Staff, and Substantial Contributors
- Names of all trustees, their titles, and hours per week devoted to their positions
- Names of trustees who are compensated, amount of compensation, contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation, and expense accounts and allowances
- Names and addresses of all employees (do not include trustees again) who were compensated more than $50,000 during the year, amount of compensation, contributions to employee benefit plans and deferred compensation, and expense accounts and allowances
- Names of independent contractors, if any, paid more than $50,000 for professional services during the year, addresses, total compensation, and type of service
- Names of all individuals and entities that contributed more than 2% of the total contributions received by the foundation before the close of any tax year (or indicate that no contributions were made)
Grants Program Information
- How grantseekers can apply for funding, including contact information for sending proposals
- The form by which applications need to be submitted and the information to be included
- Any submission deadlines
- Any restrictions/limitations on awards, such as geographical areas or charitable fields (or an indication that the foundation does not accept unsolicited proposals)
Organizational Documents
- Copies of organizing documents (e.g., articles of incorporation, bylaws)
- Minutes of board meetings in the current tax year and any subsequent meetings
Miscellaneous
- List of states in which the foundation is registered or needs to report
- Foundation’s Web address, if any
- Contact information for bookkeeper
- A copy of the foundation’s detailed general ledger and trial balance at end of the prior tax year
Although this list is intended to be as comprehensive as possible, it does not necessarily include all items that may be required to complete the Form 990-PF.
See Our Publication “Filing the Form 990-PF” to Learn More »Still have questions?
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