Millions of donors annually give hundreds of billions of dollars to charities. While this giving helps meet charitable purposes, congressional & media concerns have arisen about whether some charities spend too much on fundraising & general management & not enough on program services to meet the charitable purposes related to the tax-exempt status. Such concerns have heightened since the outflow of charitable giving after 9/11. This report focuses on the adequacy of: (1) publicly reported Form 990 data on charity spending in facilitating public oversight of charities, (2) IRS's oversight of charities, & (3) IRS's data sharing with state agencies that oversee charities. Includes reviews of studies on charities from 1994-1999. Charts & tables.

Considers earlier efforts to finance nonprofit organizations by means of "fiscal agency," the legal problems which ensued, and efforts to correct them through "fiscal sponsorship."