Public.Resource.org v. United States Internal Revenue Service

Filing 52

Declaration of Kendall Taggart in Support of 47 MOTION for Summary Judgment Plaintiff Public.Resource.Org's Consolidated Cross-Motion for Summary Judgment and Opposition to Defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment filed byPublic.Resource.org. (Related document(s) 47 ) (Burke, Thomas) (Filed on 9/29/2014)

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DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP

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THOMAS R. BURKE (CA State Bar No. 141930)
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
505 Montgomery Street, Suite 800
San Francisco, California 94111
Telephone:
[phone]
Facsimile:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
RONALD G. LONDON (Pro Hac Vice)
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
1919 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 800
Washington, DC 20006
Telephone:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
DAVID HALPERIN (Pro Hac Vice)
1530 P Street NW
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
DAN LAIDMAN (State Bar No. 274482)
DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP
865 South Figueroa Street, Suite 2400
Los Angeles, CA 90017-2566
Telephone:
[phone]
Facsimile:
[phone]
Email:
[e-mail]
Attorneys for Plaintiff Public.Resource.Org

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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

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THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

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SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION

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PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG., a California non- ) Case No. 3:13-CV-02789-WHO
profit organization,
)
)
Plaintiff,
) DECLARATION OF KENDALL
) TAGGART
v.
)
)
UNITED STATES INTERNAL REVENUE
)
SERVICE,
)
)
Defendant.
)

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Declaration of Kendall Taggart

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I, Kendall Taggart, declare as follows:

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1.

I am a reporter working for the Center for Investigative Reporting.

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2.

The Center for Investigative Reporting is a nonprofit journalism organization

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which specializes in in-depth reporting. More than 300 news outlets have featured our work. We

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were twice finalists for the Pulitzer Prize and we have won numerous other awards, including

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three George Polk Awards and the Barlett and Steele Gold Prize for investigative business

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journalism.

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3.

In 2012 and 2013, I worked with my colleague Kris Hundley of the Tampa Bay

Times on a series of articles entitled America's Worst Charities. CNN joined our effort in March

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DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP

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2013 as a third collaborator. The series took a systematic look at non-profit performance and was

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based on extensive use of the Form 990, state public record laws, and interviews. Copies of those

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stories may be viewed at http://cironline.org/americasworstcharities.

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4.

The series on America's Worst Charities generated enormous public interest and

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was viewed more than 10 million times. The database of disciplinary actions we compiled as part

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of our research is now being used by state regulators. That database can be used by the public and

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can be found at http://charitysearch.apps.cironline.org.

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5.

As part of our work on the series, we examined over 500 Form 990s. This allowed

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us to compile metrics such as the percent of revenue spent on solicitation costs. For example, we

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found that the Kids Wish Network (Employer ID 31-1579097) raised $127.8 million through

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fundraising solicitation, but $109.8 million of those funds were paid to solicitors and only $18

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million was available to meet program costs.

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6.

As part of my work, I use a number of computational tools including the Python

programming language and the MySQL and SQLite database management systems.
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Much of our work on the series America's Worst Charities consisted of manually

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leafing through scans of non-profit returns and entering data into our database. To be able to

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provide the public with a decades worth of data from the 50 charities we profiled, we manually

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entered in 6 fields from 10 years worth of Form 990s. The process took us weeks. An example of

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Declaration of Kendall Taggart

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the data we collected on Kids Wish Network is available at http://www.tampabay.com/americas-

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worst-charities/charities/kids-wish-network-inc.

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8.

Working with scans of the Form 990 is a very tedious process. If this data were

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available in the Modernized e-File (MeF), our work would be substantially aided. With MeF

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format returns, we could focus much more intensely on analysis of the data instead of data entry.

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If data were available in MeF format, a simple script in the Python programming

language could be used to quickly load a data into a database management system.
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I do not consider myself a computer programmer or computer expert. Like many

other reporters, however, I view basic computer skills as a fundamental tool in my reporting. I

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DAVIS WRIGHT TREMAINE LLP

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believe many journalists besides myself would also be able to make very effective use of MeF

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format IRS forms and that availability of such data will result in more articles that examine the

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effectiveness and accountability of our nonprofit sector.

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11.

In addition to using the Form 990 for investigative reports such as America's Worst

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Charities, I consider the Form 990 to be one of the core tools of journalism for a large number of

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other kinds of articles. For example, if I were to write a profile of an executive who works for a

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nonprofit corporation or if a nonprofit corporation is the subject of a news article, one of the first

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sources I would examine is the Form 990 for that organization. In addition, while writing about

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other topics, I routinely check to see if individuals or companies have ties to a nonprofit, and go to

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the Form 990 to background those entities.

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In conclusion, release of the Form 990 in Modernized e-File format would be of

great use to me in my work as a journalist.
I declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the United States of America that the

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foregoing is true and correct and that this declaration was executed this 19 day of September, 2014

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at Emeryville, California.

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/s/ Kendall Taggart
KENDALL TAGGART

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Declaration of Kendall Taggart
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