The National Rosacea Society has reported the required Form 990 for 2009 which is late this year. The report stated that “additional time is required to compile all data necessary to file a complete and accurate return.” This is understandable when you review the Form 990 for 2009 and compare it with previous returns, especially the one for 2008. More information is included in the Form 990 for 2009, such as, the salaries for Glendale and Park Employees are included in the report for 2009 which amounted to a total of $183,491 while these salaries were not reported in Form 990 for 2008 by comparison. What do the salaries of Glendale and Park have to do with the NRS? These are private corporations that are reported on Form 990 used by the NRS as independent contractors which three of the board of directors of the NRS are employees of. [1] The Form 990 reports for 2005, 2006, and 2007 also reported these salaries, while reports previous to 2005 never mention these salaries (the report for 2008 also omits these salaries). The Internal Revenue Service obviously wants the NRS to report these salaries so the public can know how a non profit spends its donated funds.
The economy may have affected the NRS as the rest of us since revenues are down 20% from the previous year. The total revenue received by the NRS for 2009 is reported to be $633,576. Of this total received the NRS spent $69,725 on rosacea research grants. This means that for every dollar donated to the NRS eleven cents was spent on rosacea research grants. Where did the rest of the donated funds go? $449,824 of the total funds received which amounts to 74% went to the two independent contractors, Glendale and Park, both of which are owned by the director of the NRS (three of the board members of the NRS are also employees of Glendale and Park including the director of the NRS). [1]
I have been following the NRS reports to the IRS by reading their Form 990 reports since 1998. Over this period the NRS has received $9,177,103 in revenue and of this revenue $942,971 has been spent on rosacea research which is a twelve year run. That means over the past twelve years for every dollar donated to the NRS a little over ten cents is spent on rosacea research. Where did all the rest go? Basically over this same period 62.5% went to independent contractors that are owned by Sam Huff, Director of the NRS. [2]
The NRS reports on Form 990 for 2009 that 22.73% of the donated funds are from public support, meaning not from private corporations, i.e., pharmaceutical companies. In 2008 this public support is reported to be 35.1% which shows that in 2009 this public support has dropped probably due to the economy. [3] The NRS web site reports $88,150 in ‘individual donations.’ [4] Rosaceans continue to support the NRS with substantial donations and usually have no clue about what the NRS reports on Form 990 which is public knowledge. If those who donate from the public would see how the NRS spends its funds for themselves and actually take a look at what the NRS reports to the Internal Revenue Service each year on Form 990, they might have some questions about how these donated funds are spent. It takes about ten minutes to take a cursory look at Form 990 to get an overall review of revenues and expenses but if you want a nut shell version of how the NRS has been doing for a twelve year period you can click here for a report.
If you want to do something about this click here.
References
[1] Sam Huff, Glendale & the NRS
[2] For a complete breakdown of revenue and expenses of the NRS from 1998 thru 2009 click here.
[3] Form 990 Report - Schedule A, page 2, Section C, 14, 15
