Money

Where the money comes from, what a donor restriction does to it, and how it is reported on the way out. Six entries, including the ratio its own publishers disowned.

Entries in this section

• Restricted and unrestricted

  Spending the gift only as the donor specified, permanently where they said so.

• Grants and contracts

  Whatever the document actually obliges, regardless of which word is printed at the top.

• Endowment

  Prudent management of the fund, and a spending rule that outlives its authors.

• Functional expense

  Placing every dollar spent in one of three columns, and standing behind the method.

• The overhead ratio

  Nothing. It is a calculation performed on the return by its readers.

• Unrelated business income

  Tax at ordinary rates on income from a trade or business unrelated to the exempt purpose.