Posted on November 19, 2003

Philanthropy and Voluntarism

The Internal Revenue Service will begin accepting electronic submissions of Form 990 next year from nonprofits filing their 2003 returns. To ease the transition to e-filing, the Electronic Data Initiative for Nonprofits (EDIN) has launched a Web site to provide relevant news and information from the IRS, state charity offices, accountants, nonprofit organizations, and foundations. The site, www.EDINonline.org, links to free software for Form 990 e-filing from the National Center for Charitable Statistics and, down the road, will list software packages from other providers as they become available. Nonprofit executives and accountants who visit the site can join the EDIN coalition, which is led by a steering committee composed of Independent Sector, the Council on Foundations, GuideStar, the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, and OMB Watch, and subscribe to an e-mail newsletter that provides updates on the initiative.