Kiva's Form 990 and Financial Statements for 2010

[Guest]

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[Peter S]

Thanks John, yes I will indeed let you know what I find out about the mystery footwear.

. . .
I'm gearing up for a big announcement next week, . . .

Discussion / unfounded speculation / jokes / wishlists / complaints etc relating to John's big announcement have been moved to a new thread, over here: http://www.kivafriends.org/index.php/topic,5813.0.html  -- so as not to distract from them with discussion of Kiva's 2010 Form 990.

Peter

[AccountAbility]

right, it's not an error, it just appeared to be, and it has the unfortunate side-effect that the numbers in the Form 990 don't reconcile to the numbers in the audited financials.

I look forward to having the details on the donated (non-goods) services, worth over $2 million in 2010.  I think transparency requires it.

Peter

Just so I'm clear on what you are suggesting -- Are you wanting a "footnoted" version of the 990 to be posted?  I think the 990 as actually filed is important documentation, and is in fact much more transparent than the previous versions of that form.   Perhaps a simple statement as explained by the auditor could be added, explaining the differing bases of the two reports and pointing back to the financial statements.

Dan

[Peter S]

Thanks Dan.  Well, I just think that given the lack of itemization of over $2 million-worth of in-kind donations, in that respect (only..) it's less transparent than under the old 990 regime, where we could see for example that PayPal's donated credit card processing saved Kiva $895,551 in 2009, Google's donated online advertising was worth $415,324 - and so on.  These are very important components of Kiva's operating costs, and to me it doesn't make much sense to fail to itemize and indeed acknowledge those intangible in-kind donations.  Kiva doesn't have to do it, but I think they should.  Pointing back to the audited financial statements would only point to a bland figure that isn't itemized.

In what respects is the 2010 Form 990 much more transparent than the 2009 one?  Looking at the two side-by-side, I don't see it myself, but I'm willing to be guided to a correct interpretation ...

Peter

[Ali]

Hi Peter,

I just spoke with a few members of our team about Keen's donations. The Keen product donation is intended to help outfit Kiva Fellows with any Keen outdoor gear they may need while on their fellowship including footwear, bags, socks, etc.  Since the fellows are volunteers, Keen was pleased to offer what they could to help better prepare the Kiva Fellows for travel while lowering the personal costs to them of undertaking their fellowships. It's important to note that Keen also makes general support donations and (soon to be deployed) loan contributions to Kiva.

If you have any questions about this, please let me know.

[Peter S]

Thanks Ali.

That answers my question perfectly, and confirms my guess that these were for the Kiva Fellows.  Nice to know they're well shod.

Keen Inc's cash contribution is very important to note as you say, and indeed I've already mentioned earlier in this thread that this amounted to a very impressive $240,328 in 2010.

thanks again

Peter

[AccountAbility]

In what respects is the 2010 Form 990 much more transparent than the 2009 one?  Looking at the two side-by-side, I don't see it myself, but I'm willing to be guided to a correct interpretation ...

Peter

My reference to 990 transparency was more to do with the form 990 structure than to how it specifically applied to Kiva transparency.  I was just trying to get some concrete suggestions as to what Kiva might do to rectify the "deficiency" without materially altering the 990 itself.

Dan

[Peter S]

OK, let me clarify.  I'm not suggesting that the Form 990 needs to be changed to give details of the non-tangible non-cash donations - because it's been clarified by Kiva's Finance Director that the new Form 990 contains no fields in which this information could or should be recorded.  But that isn't to say that these details could not be provided elsewhere than on the Form 990.

Kiva could publish details of the in-kind non-tangible donations (from PayPal, Google, Yahoo etc) separately, as a note to the audited financial statements perhaps.  Whether they do it and if so how and where is for them to decide.  These are very important elements of Kiva's operating costs, and I just don't see how having that information for the years up to and including 2009 and not having it for 2010 can be represented as improving the transparency of Kiva's financial affairs.  The source of over $2 million-worth of value should not be a secret...

Peter

[AccountAbility]

Gottcha   

And I agree.