Nonprofit Sector: Significant Federal Funds Reach the Sector through Various Mechanisms, but More Complete and Reliable Funding Data Are Needed
GAO-09-193
Published: Feb 26, 2009. Publicly Released: Feb 26, 2009.
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Highlights
Increasingly, the federal government relies on networks and partnerships to achieve its goals, and many of these involve nonprofit organizations. GAO was asked to assess (1) the mechanisms through which federal dollars flow to nonprofits and (2) what is known about federal dollars flowing through them to nonprofit organizations in fiscal year 2006. To address these objectives, GAO conducted a literature review of funding; analyzed data from several sources, including the Federal Procurement Data System--Next Generation (FPDS-NG) and the Federal Awards and Assistance Data System (FAADS); and analyzed nonprofit organizations' roles in 19 federal programs.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Office of Management and Budget | To better ensure the accuracy of information on federal funding provided to nonprofit entities in the data available under FFATA, the Director, OMB, should ensure that a consistent definition is identified and used to categorize nonprofit organizations in USAspending.gov. |
To date, OMB has not taken steps to ensure that a consistent definition for nonprofit entities is identified and used to categorize nonprofit organizations in USAspending.gov. In June 2013, OMB issued a memo to improve the accuracy of USAspending data, but did not include any procedures to delineate better what type of entity was receiving the funds. We are closing this recommendation as unimplemented.
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Topics
Data collectionData integrityFederal fundsFederal grantsstate relationsFund auditsFunds managementGovernment grantsGovernment guaranteed loansGrant administrationGrant monitoringGrants to statesMonitoringNonprofit organizationsPerformance appraisalRegulatory agenciesReporting requirementsTax expenditures