InnovationNation

Inspiration

We started by asking ourselves, if we were a non-profit, what kind of information would we want to have. Putting ourselves in the shoes of the users helped us prioritize different features that we thought would be helpful. Of course, the most important tasks were those specified by non-profit organization, Legends Animations. Being able to search and sort for specific data would greatly improve productivity of non-profit organizations and was the main objective of our project.

What it does

The webpage we created does an excellent job at simplifying the process of search and sort which can be very tedious and time consuming. The user can specify whether they would like to search for non-profits or fundations through the tabs on the left side of the screen. From there, the user can specify specific NTEE codes, state of origin, and minimum and maximum gross income. The page will then display a neatly organized list of applicable organizations as well as a link to more information for each listing. Important information such as average gross revenue, average net revenue, and average number of employees is also displayed at the top of the screen for more general information about each search. Information about specific titles of top members, such as director, chief officer, coordinator, and assistants are listed for each organization in their respective pages when specified in their 990 form. We were also able to display information such as the specific gross and net revenues, total employees, the city in which the organization lies, as well as other information. We did the same process for the foundations, however, their webpages show form submission information, submission deadlines, restrictions on rewards, and who to send the submission to.

How we built it

On the backend, we were able to find a massive database of all submissions for 2023 and were able to separate and pull that information into a detailed list of 990, 990-EZ, 990-PF, and 990-T IRS files. Specific information was then sorted and scraped so that it could be used for sorting and searching. On the front end, the webpage features many key sorting methods that can widen or narrow the search for relevant organizations. These organizations are then displayed to the user in a list with clickable links for each one that leads to more detailed information.

Challenges we ran into

One of the biggest challenges for us was how to find the data that we needed for the database. Many API tools provided missing fields or inadequate data that ended up requiring too much time to sort. One of our biggest breakthroughs was finding a downloadable database directly from the IRS website that contained digitized filings of 990 forms and allowed us to streamline the whole process. Finally, we were able to collect text strings and attach them to their respective organization efficiently. Through this, we were able to deliver a database with the most accurate information of every data specification that Legends Animation specified as well as have the ability to display even more information and implement new features in the future.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We are extremely proud of our webtool. We believe that the operation is intuitive and returns relevant data in a timely manner. This tool can also be applied to other non-profit organizations that are suffering from time consuming searches for relevant information. The database also has the ability to be updated every year as new information is posted from the IRS website. This information is publicly available and provides the most up-to-date information on 990 submissions.

What we learned

We learned that working with databases also requires a deep understanding of the information and its documentation. Researching and understanding of 990s and NTEE codes was crucial to creating a simplified environment for sorting and searching. Many ideas were thrown around and we also had to learn how to prioritize what needs to be implemented versus what would be a cherry on top. Overall, the biggest discovery was that the ability to research topics and webpages efficiently was just as important as the ability to code and use web building tools.

In The Future

We realized early on that we needed to limit our scope of data analyzation if we were going to deliver a successful product. However, what this means is that there is a very high ceiling for the amount of data we can give the user. Even more detailed reports on each organization are well within the scope of our data and we even have the ability to find and attach PDF files of each organization’s 990 form. We also had features like an interactive map, sorting tags, and search bar functionality that we wanted to implement but could not due to the short term development of the website. We wanted to design a product that could be easily changed and developed further for even more functionality and we believe that we have delivered on that front with our website.