Posts Tagged ‘“Want accountability? FIRST– Find the Entity (Its Financials Will Help)” (tag added May2020)’
To Reiterate, ‘Read My Lips: Read Their (and USA’s) AUDITED Financial Statements: Follow The Funding, Notice Data Base Degradation/Consolidations, Too!’ (Another @LetUsGetHonest Formerly Pinned Tweet) [Post Begun Sept. 25, 2022].
This is one of my shortest posts ever — its purpose is just to move a pinned Twitter thread (and while at it, the previous one) from my profile there to a post on this blog. I said a few things in context, but not nearly as much as usual! Total length on publication only about 1,300 words!//LGH
Well, with this Footnote I had to add (next image gallery), about 1,800 words. You’ll see why it had to be added on the footnote..
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- Image #1 of 4 (the others unlabeled) Proper Referencing of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report — an Inclusivity Concern” (Per GFOA, and for my 9/27/2022 post, after a decade of promoting “CAFR” instead of AFRs. I found ℅ searching the term “CAFR” (written out) and ℅ Washington State’s posted “AFRs”..//LGH
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- 2 of 4 (9-27-2022)
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- 3 of 4 (9-27-2022)
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- 4 of 4 (9-27-2022) for my post with short-link ending “-fhq”//LGH. (short-link final letter corrected 9/28/2022 — it’s a “q” not a “g.”
Please also read an important and last-minute “ACFRs, f/k/a CAFRs” Footnote I must add, because (after my promoting this term for about a decade on this blog, on Twitter, and to people individually as I talk with them about family court, domestic violence, fatherhood, child-protection/welfare entities, enterprises, and of course about the philanthropic sector (sic) generally — these all, at some levels, generally file financial statements (audited ones, ideally), the Government Finance Officers Association (“GFOA”) which regulates how (what were formerly called “CAFRs”) should be produced and formatted, awarding “Certificates of Excellence” for doing so as appropriate — to governments, state, county and even the USA, has now changed its policy: they are to be called instead AFRs. Actually, the policy changed a little over a year ago; I just hadn’t been “cc’d” on the announcement. Understandable, as most government entities, while they often post such reports, don’t exactly feature them… GFOA states the basics with a colorful “#EndTheAcronym.” here.
Moving on….
Although the two formerly pinned Twitter threads I’m moving both contain more than just “US Treasury AFR (Audited Financial Report) FYE June 2021,” that link is a vital one. Parts of its “report” (more than just the statements) are directed towards the public to explain its own terminology, who and what is reporting by type of entity, and the basic parts of any such AFR (“Audited Financial Report) include tables of contents to both front and back matter (i.e., the Notes and any accompanying schedules).
Of course a whole country’s report for just one year (and usually the prior year’s for comparison) is going to be massive, but it’s also informative. It will have acronyms — but it defines those acronyms.
An AFR should never be confused with an “Annual Report” (often found instead of such statements and reports that enfold the financial spreadsheets that are the guts of it). Annual Reports especially of private corporations, including tax-exempt foundations, whether public or private as to their categorization by the IRS (i.e., whether they’ll file a Form 990 or a Form 990PF) who wish to have a public profile and feature their grant-making or philanthropic traits, are sometimes (too often, in my opinion) offered up as a substitute offering — perhaps it’s expected the public will just go away and not ask for more details.
Again, “an Annual Report =/= an Audited Financial Statement” (whether “CAFR” for governments or just “Audited FS” for private businesses. Then there are the financial reports (with embedded financial statements AND Notes to them, etc.) which may be found on public-traded corporations as provided for the SEC (Securities Exchange Commission), annually. When I read them, I rarely read 100% of the words, but I do scan by sections and read a lot of them.
Anyhow, essentially “From Twitter to Blog and Back (again).”
Here’s the short-link to this post.
Basic Content: My formerly Pinned Twitter Thread (April 28, 2022) Moved Here Sept. 25.
Title: To Reiterate, ‘Read My Lips: Read Their (and USA’s) AUDITED Financial Statements: Follow The Funding, Notice Data Base Degradation/Consolidations, Too!’ [Sept. 25, 2022]. (short-link ends “-fhq“)
My Twitter Profile (currently) has a short-link to a post which (for now) I’ve embedded into the Twitter Profile: http://wp.me/psBXH-ccQ. That short-link leads to this post: “One Thread, Many Images, (My) Basic Drill-Down Messages Re: NFJCFJ, AFCC, CAFCASS, “Alienation,” “Domestic Abuse Trainings” (AFCC does, too..), “Arguing PAS, etc.” [Feb. 20, 2020]”
I did not know at the time, a global pandemic and lockdown was imminent..
Both times (Feb. 20, 2020 and now, Sept. 27, 2022), move is to declutter Twitter
without losing valuable (basic-principles-) content or a quick way to point to it.
My “Formerly Pinned Tweet (up since April 28, 2022, moved Sept. 27)” is a thread, the various tweets within including the first one had attachments; I tired of scrolling down below it to read current ones and so moved it here. Since my post here has both links, to save limited character space on Twitter, I’m just replacing the short-link ending “-ccQ” with this one, which as you can see, ends “-fhq.” You getting a “two-for-one” link. Please use them both, they are public and for public benefit for insight
It talks and exhorts all of us to focus more on talking economics than “FamilyCourtReform,” “Family Court,” or (preventing) “Domestic (Family) Violence” Jargon, anyway… None of those fields would exist without some economic and accounting infrastructure to the extent they involve ANY government operations, or support. Therefore, literacy on how government (and private) entities account for themselves FINANCIALLY is essential to comprehending much at all about these other fields (or any other fields of personal interest).
I’m seeing more than I can keep up with the need to publicze (blog about) a move away from accountability for tax receipts (country-specific; my focus is of course the U.S.A. as where I live) to “platform” ownership, i.e., proprietary and digital collections, distributions and even ‘decision-making” within and by government.
Sophisticated and FAST movement of funds and information at some level, while increasingly “obfuscatory” (smoke screens, diverting attention, and defusing attempts for defined accountability FOR THE PUBLIC which PROVIDES THE BACKBONE OF THE PROFITS (business and governments both). We are used as a resource, not just serviced. Burying data further and further away from us, and from formats which enable us to talk individually and collectively about it (I have years of experience witnessing how many layers of extraction and presentation are necessary to even provide a demonstration, a teaching example) while coordinating program dissemination and distribution for those “in on it” accelerates.
There’s not even a pretense of not “incubating, accelerating” or taking control of entire communities by public/private partnerships in which the public is essentially unrepresented, though we live in their buildings, and pay to finance their roads, downtowns, projects, and from time to time, billion-dollar-bailouts. Why should we not be privileged to see the overview as the planners do?
Nevertheless, goth “formerly pinned Twitter threads” emphasize following the financing of government and private entities, and show ways these are de-emphasized or hidden, legally and at times illegally. Information still relevant; I just had to realize, it’s not visually inviting.
Don’t know why yet, but Twitter is still claiming my own Tweets aren’t my own, therefore I can no longer view the analytics (i.e., see how many — more often, how few — people are engaging or viewing the Tweets). Before this, Twitter began marking most (thgouth not all) my tweets as “Warning, May Contain Sensitive Material” and I still wonder how and why after nearly a dozen years and thousands of tweets, some short, some long, many responsive to others’ output, there are not even 500 followers, or for that matter even 400.
I don’t believe it’s the material — or then, again, perhaps it IS the material:
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Got a Campaign, a Cause, an Advocate You Want (Me, Us, Others) to Promote, Support, Publicize or Volunteer For? FIRST, Understand “Entity” and Find Which One You’re Promoting. Investopedia, Defining “Accounting Entity” Shows The Risks of Failure to Comprehend the Concept. [Draft, Oct. 26, 2021, Publ. May 18, 2022: at 27K words…].
This is what’s going on: I’m in housing transition: I’ll be out of this place within the next 24 hours, literally, and still not exactly sure how to reach the next (safe place) destination about one state away. I know it will represent a blogging pause, so I went through my most recent drafts, looked for some which were most helpful, and least embarrassing in format. Three or four qualified, but I chose this one. The most embarrassing aspect is its obnoxious length. On the other hand, within the contents is plenty of useful information; people who may follow my writing will understand better. It’s focused on a key concept and I think illustrates it at length (literally…). It was drafted eight months ago — that’s a long time, but this is still a worthwhile post for the patient readers, or those who understand it may work better read in installments (some today, some tomorrow…).
Parts of it apply to different situations: for example, (not its main focus, but) I see on scrolling through it today (5/18/2022), I’d shown the tax returns of what’s now called “Evident Change” but was then “National Council on Crime and Delinquency,” (inc. 1907 and I’d said, may just have been the model AFCC was following, only with family courts, not juvenile…) NCCD began with associations of probation officers, definitely a focus on the juvenile (age group), which I’d just Tweeted on yesterday. NCCD’s California Registry of Charitable Trusts “RRF” filings also show which governments — this usually shows which USA governments or government agencies — it was taking grants from. I still remember the shock of discovering, it was taking grants from a whole selection of governments OUTside the USA. From yesterday’s Tweet, I recall (possibly post http://wp.me/psBXH-2KW, but check Twitter) I’d written in 2014 but (another long blogging pause, that time for family court aftermath litigation) only posted in 2017. These delays happen at times, especially when your out put doesn’t keep up with your own research, which never stops… NCCD (Evident Change) has an office not far from AFCC’s office in Madison, Wisconsin (by “not far” I mean, when I last looked, a very short WALK away, around the block). I would say that’s an entity to watch although it’s not much in the news. Learn who it’s been and what it wants to do: this link will redirect: https://NCCDGlobal.org
I may never get around to splitting or further developing the material on this post. I can’t see that far into my own future, but I hope its serious topic resonates with gut instinct that there HAS to be a better way to categorize and keep track of advocacy groups, and governments. Before 2022, VAWA Reauthorization and other media “events” and campaigns, this was where my blog was going: to revisit and re-emphasize the concept of “Entity.” (Without the entity you can’t track the money…Looking for them is its own set of lessons). Another example: I see I had a link to the California Secretary of State Business Entities Search site. This will redirect — the appearance and function of that state has since migrated into a whole new format; at some levels it has more functions, but in display, in many ways less, making communications on findings among (normal people) harder… Government (and private) databases migrating platforms and undergoing format changes will happen, but still important to notice as it happens. “ENJOY…” //LGH May 18, 2022.
From California: (Businesssearch.sos.ca.gov website delineates what types can and cannot be searched on its main database, and how to find the other types of ENTITIES.
Post Title and Shortlink:
Got a Cause? Want to Promote an Advocate? Or Donate or Volunteer? Fine, but FIRST, Understand “Entity.” Investopedia Defines “Accounting Entity” and Why You Need to Get the Concept. (Oct. 26, 2021, Draft), Publ. ay 18, 2022 at 27K words. short-link ends -d2d even if this title may vary before I publish!
Let’s Talk “ENTITIES.” Let’s speak “entity” and have some idea what one is — and isn’t. This illustrates when someone or group of individuals, in self-descriptions (on-line) want to be seen as though “it” were.
Why Not Speak “Entity”? It’s the language of business, and government, of business doing business with government and/or with other businesses; it’s the language of governments doing business with other governments, and so forth, and it specifically deals with accounting.
That means, relevance to accountability. And on this blog, we’re talking “family courts” which come under governments: that means accountability TO the public for use of things taken FROM the public, by consent or by force.
It just so happens that both businesses and governments are in the business of (are always) selling things: goods & services, and especially policies which sustain goods and services, and legitimacy.
The less most of us know about the language of entities, the easier such sales and the harder getting accountability will be. “A sucker [that is, a fool] is born every minute.” [Quote Investigator.com].
Why not talk entities when seeking policy change, or campaign funding for any righteous cause — like justice, instead of being foolishly “sucked in” by propaganda, i.e., accountability illiteracy or sloth (failure or stubborn refusal to fact-check presence or absence of alleged entity, or its profile indicators)?
Most times, basically, a business search IS a business entity search. Within the United States, Search websites in state after state make this clear. The above example (image) is from California…. Search for (Google) “business entity search _______” and fill in the name of a state: or a country. A variety of websites will surface; some search sties are run by private businesses, others government. Check the URL formats). Either one could be charging fees to search, but most government sites don’t, at least for the very basic information.
On the other hand the types of data shown at least on initial level, changes over time and sometimes disappears from viewing and many state (and, generally, the IRS’s) entities’ search websites “summary results” are often NOT in formats conducive to taking screenprints to discuss with others in looking at or looking into who’s doing business where. In other words, functions may be added, while actual search fields are subtracted. These changes are rarely explained or announced in advance: just show up the next time you visit the site. Another reason I say, better to start looking before more data and data fields disappear or are buried even further from public access.
But for now, databases do exist, and can and should be regularly searched for those concerned about any cause — because those causes will have driving entities promoting it, there will be some existing market niche (for most public policies) unless new ones are being carved out or spun off existing ones.
For California, (currently the search website is: BusinessSearch.sos.ca.gov), the word “entity” appears on both Business Search fields (and searchers, as in California, must choose which type of entity they are looking for) and in the search results, and on the Registry of Charitable Trusts ‘Verification Page.” One is run by the Secretary of State, (“SOS”) the other by the Office of Attorney General.
Remember: these (state-level) government websites are not listing government entities but business ones, to monitor and control who does business or solicits funds/functions tax-exempt in a category which must register, within the state. It’s not a field to minimize or ignore.
To identify what government entities or authorities are in operation (at least USA), and knowing the which political jurisdictions define “USA”. Per Wikipedia, the United States is organized into:
…50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territories, 326 Indian reservations, and some minor possessions.[h]
Read the “minor possessions” link which further details incorporated territories and there are some helpful visuals. Rights vary among the parts that make up the whole called “U.S.A.”
When it comes to identifying “government entities (and their sub-parts),” for incorporated territories, all states, and presumably also the federal district (i.e., D.C.), there would be lists and organizational charts on each one’s annual “CAFR” (Comprehensive Annual Financial Report”) which is to be audited and posted for the public every year. This awareness is helpful in any attempts to track finances or accountability among government and business entities. There are also authorities (JPAs) etc. that cover more than one jurisdiction, i.e. government ENTITIES regionalized across state lines. Example: The Tennessee Valley Authority.
The word “entity” recurs throughout the financial statements (CAFRs) of the U.S. federal government, and on the Advanced Search (user interface) website TAGGS.HHS.Gov on which one may search for HHS grants, at least from after about 1995 forward (HHS has existed under that name since 1980).
It’s a common word within businesses, especially ones doing business with governments.
Yet so many entities doing major, ongoing business with government in public-facing websites, and even government public-facing websites themselves (exception: on their own audited financial statements) use words interchangeably and inconsistently to the point of meaninglessness and to conflate non-entities with entities, public with private lists of the same, and to call non-entities in some lists ‘partners’ or “members” when by definition, they can’t be both at the same time.
And that’s a shell game!
Thus anyone hoping to make sense of which is which on such public-facing websites, couldn’t figure it out by deduction. The only way seems to be to have basic definitions going in, and then individually check out — for each name or label in a list — which and what it is. Such an unnecessary burden IF there was a collective will for the public to tell its favorite charity (entity) from (a hole in the ground)!
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For Political Clout, Big Isn’t Always Best, as the National Fatherhood Initiative, Inc. (1993ff, EIN# 23-2745763) and its Disproportionate Influence Considering Its Small Size and Financially Fuzzy IRS Tax Returns Show. (Started Jan. 23, 2020, Published May 20.)
This Post: For Political Clout, Big Isn’t Always Best, as the National Fatherhood Initiative, Inc. (1993ff, EIN# 23-2745763) and its Disproportionate Influence for its Small Size and Financially Fuzzy IRS Tax Returns Show (Started Jan. 20, 2020, Published May 20). (Case-sensitive, generated short-link ends “-c80,” that final character is a “zero” not capital “O”) (about 5,200 words). Minor copy-editing revisions May 29.
For this post, recognize the acronyms “NFI” (see title) and “NGA” (for ‘National Governors’ Association,’)## and “QIC-NRF” (the “Quality Improvement Center for Non-Resident Fathers” — searchable on this blog, and my post on misleading* terms including “QIC”).
*Why are such terms”mis-leading”? When it comes to tracking public funds to their private (or other public) grantees or other independent contractors, to the extent this information is supposed to be made available to the public, it’s the ENTITIES that must file and to read what they filed, you must find their names to look them up. A program (including a non-entity “Center” at some large institution such as a university — or federal/state department) is not an “entity.” See “example” section, next, but the concept in this paragraph (stemming from the “QIC-NRF” term) continues after the marked section with a few images.
This post holds some text I’d compiled in 2016 on a Page (published separately April 27, 2017 but before then a page published Sept. 2016), then moved here as a draft post, with updates, January 23, 2020 and SHORT intro. It had since then remained in draft status. //LGH 20May2020
That Page:
Title probably should’ve read “1996” — not sure why I put in 1998 at the time. PRWORA was passed in 1996. Certain fatherhood-related, Congressional resolutions, etc. were also passed in 1998 and 1999 while the nation was changing its entire Social Security Act funding (and along with it, distribution methods for child support) in the years after 1996. [//LGH 2020 comment]
Two images (snapshots of a few paragraphs each) from my 2017 Page, next below, give more content. I also see on review that this page dealt more with the NGA, while today’s post with the NFI. On seeing substantial overlap (i.e., the ‘NFI’ part I’d obviously planned to transplant here a few months ago), I’m going to remove it from the 2017 page to be replaced with a link here. //LGH 20May2020.
(These links refer to the post from which two (fuzzy) screenshots below came:)
at shortlinks for pages use a capital “P” as in “http://wp.me/PsBXH-4qs. By contrast, short-link for this post would be “http://wp.me/psBXH-c80“. I usually provide just the last three characters as I more often write posts than pages…
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The Giant APA and ABA Typify The People’s Problem: Distinguishing PUBLIC (Gov’t Holdings and Operations, i.e., Assets and Cash Flow) from PRIVATE (Corporate Holdings + Operations, i.e., Assets and Cash Flow) So As To Hold Gov’t Accountable to Those It Taxes: the People Employed in Public and/or Private Sectors (Moved Here Dec. 25, 2019)
Post Title:
The Giant APA and ABA Typify The People’s Problem: Distinguishing PUBLIC (Gov’t Holdings and Operations, i.e., Assets and Cash Flow) from PRIVATE (Corporate Holdings and Operations, i.e., Assets and Cash Flow) So As To Hold Gov’t Accountable to Those It Taxes: the People Employed in Public and/or Private Sectors (Moved Here Dec. 25, 2019) (case-sensitive short-link ends “-bXO,” last letter “O” as in “Ohio” not the symbol for zero (“0”) and about 9,000 words)
I off-ramped this material from the Front Page December 25, 2019 — it’d been up there quite a while but it seems I then left it in draft format. Publishing it now just over five months later (mid-May, 2020),* I supplemented it extensively at the top, as usual.
*Part of the delay was until I could replace a dysfunctional (and decade-old) laptop and adjusting to the on-set of the “COVID-19” epidemic and business and public buildings, public gatherings shutdowns restructuring daily life and short-term, probably also longer-term plans to keep on living.
Interesting to write then and now and (as always) I learned more in the process of writing. You may be interested in the section
The APA Website and its Self-Description, What’s Missing
..and watching me attempt to match up two APA entities registered in Washington, D.C., both non-profit,** with one tax return for each showing which is which. In the process of trying to do this, I found there ARE two tax returns labeled “APA” but the second one is APA Group Return for the many (about 54) divisions which, says its return, does NOT list all divisions.. and seems to have little to do with the second, more recent, nonprofit, registered only recently (relatively speaking for such an old association).
**(one is called “American Psychological Association Services, Inc.” and uses the tradename “APA Services, Inc.” [initials only] formed only in 2000, the other around since, per DC statement, 1925, although I the APA generally dates itself as far back as 1892 (corrected from “1875 as I just published it. See next inset).
https://www.apa.org/about/apa/archives/apa-history
APA was founded in July 1892 by a small group of men interested in what they called “the new psychology.” The group elected 31 individuals, including themselves, to membership, with G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) as its first president.
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Let's Get Honest! Absolutely Uncommon Analysis of Family & Conciliation Courts' Operations, Practices, & History 