Creative accounting
From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 1995:
WATKINS GLEN, N.Y.––Over the past four years Farm Sanctuary annual reports
have claimed $822,878 more in spending than Farm Sanctuary declared to the Internal
Revenue Service––and have ascribed $683,146 of that amount to program service. The ghost
expenditures have enabled Farm Sanctuary to claim that it spent 86% of revenues on programs
in 1993, and 88% on programs in 1994.
The income lines in the annual reports for fiscal years 1991 through 1994 match the
Farm Sanctuary IRS Form 990 filings, but the program spending and total expenditure lines
vary by as much as $257,961:
Year Program expense Difference Total expenditures Difference
To donors To IRS To donors To IRS