By Janet Dang and Joyce Nishioka

For years, Asian American nonprofits are seen not only as service providers, but increasingly as experts and spokesmen for thousands of people.

To answer questions about Asian American voting patterns in San Francisco, journalists, researchers and policymakers know to call the Chinese American Voters Education Committee, just as they’d try the Asian Pacific American Legal Defense and Education Fund if they were looking into anti-API activity in New York. For S.F. Chinese New Year activities, they flip to the Chinese Chamber of Commerce listing in the Rolodex; for the Moon Festival, they try the Chinatown Merchants Association.

With Census figures showing Asian Americans as the fastest growing minority in the country -- up more than 40 percent in the 1990s, such groups and other nonprofits will be called on more and more to answer not only questions within their demonstrated field but beyond them.

Yet nonprofits -- good ones and not-so-good ones -- have long had little accountability. The IRS sought to make information-getting easier by requiring, beginning June 8, that all 501c3 nonprofits provide upon request the past three years of their Form 990s -- kind of a 1040EZ for tax-exempt groups. It provides a broad overview of what groups take in and spend per year, where they get the money and sometimes what top executives are making.

Beginning in May and through July, we requested Form 990s from 40 top API organizations. Eventually, we got 31 replies -- but most came in long after the 30-day deadline. To get nine of them, we had to submit requests through the IRS -- and even then, some groups’ finances could not be ascertained, possibly because they filed under another name or did not have at least $25,000 in annual revenues. (The latter do not have to file Form 990s.)

Most respondents were not rich. Only seven out of 25 organizations had “unrestricted net assets” or “fund balances” -- an indication of wealth -- of over $1 million. Moreover, only 14 groups reported staff salaries more than $50,000.

But nonprofits have the potential to build up huge surpluses. Under tax laws, nonprofit organizations can accumulate surpluses as long as they do not distribute them as stock or dividends. They could spend their money, usually from donations, tax-derived grants, and other assistance on their mission purpose, or they very well can spend it on posh facilities, lavish fundraising galas, large salaries and other overhead costs. Indeed, one can’t easily tell. The tax reports are only the beginning, and by requesting the forms, AsianWeek has only begun to scratch the surface.

Potentially, organizations can report smaller profits on the tax forms than they do on audited statements, which in many cases can be obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

“[Form] 990 is far from being a perfect tool,” said Dan Langan, director of public information for National Charity of Information Bureau, a national watchdog group based in New York City. For instance, the form has little to indicate what was spent on charitable work and what was spent on fundraising and overhead -- and 60 percent of a 501c3’s funds must go to the former, said Langan.

He added that omissions and mistakes are common in 501c3s, and that audited financial statements, which sometimes are attainable through Freedom of Information requests, are often more accurate. Annual reports, which are not always under open-records laws, can also yield information. (Only one group, the Asian and Pacific Islander Health Forum, sent its report to us.)

Three years ago, the Asian American Pacific Fund’ s report on the status of API nonprofits found that such agencies receive only a very small portion (6.4 percent) of one of the most flexible and locally controlled forms of government funding in the Bay Area -- Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money. API nonprofits receive 25 percent less of their revenue from government funding than non-profits in general throughout the Bay Area, according to the fund.