[9]January 27, 2012www.kirklandreporter.com

There are many worthy animal nonpro� ts to

consider for dona-tions. Some charities worth considering are local and others national or inter-national. Do your homework.

A charity should make it easy for donors and potential donors to review the budget. Depend-ing on how much money a nonpro� t takes in they may be required to � le speci� c forms with the IRS. � ese forms such as Form 990 are open to the public. Form 990 gives a breakdown of revenue, expenses and service accomplishments. Ask to see Form 990 and analyze it to ensure you are comfortable with the charity’s operations. Some private charities are not required to � le Form 990s and do not have to provide a copy of their IRS tax � lings to the public upon request. You will have to do other research on these organizations.

Find out if the charity is audited yearly by a reputable accounting � rm and ask for the latest report from an independent certi� ed public accountant.

Although most charities abide by strict standards and ethics with � nances, unfortu-nately some nonpro� ts may misrepresent how funds are used when presenting � nan-cial records.

Are the board of directors active or passive. Are sta� and volunteers respected and heard and is the charity actu-

ally living its mission. A nonpro� t is a

business. Do people run-

ning the charity have the skills to e� ectively run their department or the total organization? Skills should include fund raising ability

and people skills since the heart and soul of nonprof-

its are the volunteers and donors.

Is there any con� ict of in-terest with a board member, the president or sta� and their outside interests that may in� uence them when making decisions for policies or procedures for the charity?

Are there con� icts of inter-est if people are running both a nonpro� t and for pro� t business that may overlap?

Diane Rich Dog is owner of Training,LLC in Kirkland. Contact Diane at askdiane@spokesdog.com. For more information, visit www.spokesdog.com, or follow her blog at www.kirklan-dreporter.com.

Thinking about donating to an animal nonprofit?

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Good news, Decembers pet of month Charlie was adopted.

Meet Muf� t!

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