Users have noted that results from using the 'All Registered Nonprofits Wizard' and selecting for Public Charities can be different from results using the 'Public Charity Wizard.' Both methods should produce the same result, so why are there differences and which method is correct?
The short answer and recommendation is to use the "Public Charities Wizard" for PC-specific reports, “Private Foundations Wizard” for PF-specific reports, and “Other Nonprofits Wizard” if you want reports for all other nonprofits. Use the “All Registered Nonprofits” when you want all PCs/PF/Others combined.
The reason for the difference and basis for this recommendation requires a longer explanation:
The Business Master File (BMF) data that NCCS gets from the IRS contains both Subsection code and Foundation Code. The two codes are directly related:
Public Charities have Subseccd = 03 + Fndncd > 04;
Private Foundations have Subseccd = 03 + Fndncd 02 to 04; and
All other exempt organizations have Subseccd <> 03 + Fndncd = 00
The BMF file is a single large file containing “All Registered Nonprofits,” which NCCS publishes in full with a limited set of variables due to size. NCCS also divides this file into two smaller files: PCs/PFs (Subseccd=03), and Other Exempt Orgs (Subseccd <> 03). The full set of variables is published for each of these data subsets.
Codes in BMF have improved greatly over the years, but unfortunately they still don’t always agree. That is the primary reason why results from the "All Registered Nonprofits Wizard" (which uses FNDNCD >= '10' AND FNDNCD <= '18' alone to select Public Charities) may not agree with results from the "Public Charities Wizard" (which by definition uses Subseccd = 03 in addition to Fndncd to select Public Charities). These criteria are found in the report titles from all table wizards (as shown below).
NCCS does not have the resources to continually research and correct thousands of IRS codes each month, so NCCS generally recommends a conservative approach of using both Subseccd + Fndncd to identify PC’s from PF’s from 'Others.' I.E.: use the separate “PC”/”PF”/”Other” wizards if you need that level of segmentation and the “All” wizard for convenience if you don’t.
EXAMPLE OF SELECTION CRITERIA IN THE REPORT HEADER OF 'ALL REGISTERED NONPROFITS' TABLE WIZARD WITH A FILTER FOR PUBLIC CHARITIES:
Registered Nonprofit Organizations by Level of Total Revenue
BMF 05/2000, 2000, May data for: Major NTEE Category="E Health Care", Nonprofit Type="Public Charity"
WHERE ((OUTNCCS IS NULL OR OUTNCCS <> 'OUT') and ((FNDNCD >= '10' AND FNDNCD <= '18')) and (NTEE1 ='E')) AND NTEE1 IN ('E')
EXAMPLE OF SELECTION CRITERIA IN THE REPORT HEADER OF 'PUBLIC CHARITIES' TABLE WIZARD:
Registered 501(c)(3) Public Charities by Level of Total Revenue
BMF 05/2000 501c3, 2000, May data for: Major NTEE Category NTEE="E Health Care"
WHERE (OUTNCCS IS NULL OR OUTNCCS <> 'OUT' and FNDNCD > '09') AND NTEE1 IN ('E')