Muslim Community-Based Health Organizations (MCBHOs) Form 990s

We collected revenue data since this paper is part of Voluntary Sector Review’s special issue on Muslim philanthropy.[i] We extracted revenue data from two sections of each MCBHO’s Form 990: Part I (“Summary”) and Part VIII (“Statement of Revenue”). In Part I, the total revenue from the current year and from the prior year (line 12) are each broken down into contributions and grants (line 8), program service revenue (line 9), investment income (line 10), and other revenue (line 11). Part VIII provides a more granular breakdown of contributions and gifts and program service fees. In this part, the kinds of revenue a nonprofit received from contributions and grants can be classified according to federated campaigns (line 1a), membership dues (line 1b), fundraising events (line 1c), related organizations (line 1d), government grants (line 1e), and all other contributions, gifts, grants, and similar amounts not included above (line 1f). The filer can specify noncash contributions from lines 1a to 1f in line 1g. The six lines totaled is line 1h. We found, however, that Part VIII data is not as consistently or completely reported by organizations unlike Part I (“Summary”) data. Thus, we were unable to extract any information from part VIII in regards to fundraising.

There was a notable heterogeneity in terms of the availability, completeness, and presentation of tax returns. The majority (86%) of our survey sample reported having achieved 501(c)(3) status with the IRS. Yet, when looking at all 110 MCBHOs, we could only find Form 990s for 47 (43%) that were filed at least once within 2016 through 2020 fiscal years among the databases.[ii] Only 36 out of 110 (33%) MCBHOs filed Forms 990/ 990-EZ/ 990-PF at least once within 2016 through 2020 fiscal years which were used to extract data for our analysis as Form 990-N does not provide any detailed financial information.^[6] In several cases, the parent organization, typically a mosque, under whose aegis an MCBHO was operating, was listed in the databases, but tax return data was unavailable, as religious organizations are generally exempt from filing Form 990, 990-EZ, 990-N, or 990-PF. For example, there were nine clinics that were part of the ICNA Relief network in our sample, and ICNA Relief was listed in the databases, but the available 990s for ICNA Relief aggregated data for not just all of ICNA Relief’s clinics but also their other projects. Therefore, cases like ICNA Relief were excluded from this part of the analysis. Other excluded cases included one Zaman International clinic, four Shifa Healthcare and Community Services clinics, and seven Ibn Sina Foundation clinics. Ultimately, only 32 out of 110 (29%) MCBHOs were used to extract data for our analysis.

The US Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service (IRS) requires all U.S. tax-exempt nonprofits to make public their Form 990/990-EZ/990-N/990-PF (“990s”) annual returns and related supporting documents. Nonprofits must also file Form 1023 to apply for recognition of exemption from federal income tax under the tax code’s section 501(c)(3). The specific return form filed depends on the financial size of the tax-exempt organization: Form 990- PF (for private foundation regardless of asset size); Form 990-N (annual gross receipts less than $50,000); the short Form 990-EZ (annual gross receipts $50,000-$200,000); and Form 990 (annual gross receipts over $200,000). We retrieved data from the forms for all of the 110 MCBHOs that were listed in the master directory, if they were available, from a combination of databases. The databases that we extracted data from include GuideStar by Candid (updated periodically), Open990 (most recent update as of submission of this paper was June 15, 2021), and the IRS tax-exempt organization search tool (most recent update available as of submission of this paper was dated November 20, 2020).