Learn about the nonprofit annual economic statement

The threshold requirement for submission is based on the City’s fiscal year, which runs from July 1 to June 30. Your nonprofit organization may produce IRS Form 990s and audits on a different timeframe based on your own fiscal year, for example January to December. 

If you received $100,000 or more during the City’s fiscal year, you must submit your most recent fiscal year’s financial documents by the reporting deadline. For example, if you performed an audit for calendar year 2023, you must post the 2023 audit by the March 2025 reporting deadline.

ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism. 

Nonprofit Explorer is a tool offered by ProPublica that includes summary data for nonprofit tax returns and Form 990 documents, in both PDF and digital formats. 

You can search for your nonprofit organization by using the name, keyword, or EIN of your organization. You may fulfill some requirements for this ordinance by providing a link to your ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer page on your nonprofit website. 

Program-by-program expenditures

Most nonprofits' CPA audit includes several statements, such as a Statement of Activities and Statement of Functional Expenses, which serve to document program-by-program revenues and expenses.

If you conduct a CPA audit and have posted this to ProPublica, these documents can provide the required information for program-by-program expenditures.

An organization's 990 summarizes program expenditures and is not sufficiently detailed to satisfy this specific requirement. 

If your nonprofit does not conduct a CPA audit, then unaudited financial statements showing program-by-program revenues and expenditures and/or an annual program-based budget will satisfy the requirement.

Employer Identification Number (EIN) is also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number. It is used to identify a business entity. Generally, businesses or organizations need an EIN.

We ask that you provide your EIN so that we can verify your organization status. It will also point your website users to publicly available data (like ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) that meets the requirements of the ordinance. This is intended to minimize burden and save you some time. 

State law requires nonprofits with revenues of $2 million or more in a given fiscal year to produce and submit audited financial statements for that year. 

City ordinance requires that any nonprofit receiving at least $1 million in funding from the City and County of San Francisco in a given fiscal year to produce and submit audited financial statement for that year. See the Controller’s Office policy for submission and certain exceptions. 

Recipients of at least $1 million in federal funding may be required to produce audited financial statements as part of the “single audit” of those federal funds.

If any of these thresholds or conditions apply to your organization, you must perform an audit of your financial statements and post this audit publicly on your website. 

The City requires completion of an audit within 9 months of the close of the nonprofit’s fiscal year. If you have not completed the audit by the posting deadline for this ordinance, you must indicate the date whne the audit will be complet. You must post the required information on your website as soon as the information is available to ensure compliance with this ordinance. 

If a nonprofit is required to adhere to State or Federal audit thresholds but receives less than $100,000 from the City, that nonprofit is exempt from both the City’s audit policy and from the Annual Economic Statement posting requirement. A department may request this audit be submitted for department review, but the nonprofit is not required to publicly post this information as part of an Annual Economic Statement submission.

You must keep your information accurate and up to date. Do not remove historic annual economic statements from your website, as the City may audit compliance with the ordinance at various points. 

You are not required to post materials for any year prior to the initial reporting period. The City’s document retention protocols may require your organization to maintain records online for up to 7 years. 

After the initial reporting period of fiscal year 2023-2024, the City may update the posting template to clarify how nonprofits should post additional years of annual economic statements to their websites.

Check if you have already submitted your form.

You are not expected to redesign your website to comply with this new law. You may need to create a single new webpage or use an existing webpage to add this new required content.

You may use this template as an option.

Even though you may already post some or all of this information on your website, this new regulation requires that you clearly link to the documents responsive to the law within a single template on your website. 

If you do not clearly specify where responsive documents live on your website, the City may not be able to validate they are in compliance with the law and this could lead to findings for the nonprofit when the Controller's Office reviews compliance. Use the template provided and clearly indicate where specific responsive documents or information have been published on your website by linking to them on the template.