Hi, I was wondering how colleges verify the revenue made by a nonprofit? Is there a specific database they can look at? Thank you.
Honor system for the most part. If the amount claimed is large enough, there are regulatory filing requirements which must be met. Not that AO’s will go looking. But exaggerating is not a strategy, because there are ways to verify.
If the organization generates more than $50,000 annually it’s required to file form 990 and that’s publicly viewable information.
Less than that, it’s honor system as Ski said.
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Please…be honest. That is the key ingredient here.
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5 years ago my sons guidance counselor received a call from an AO at Duke confirming that a charitable fund raising event my son ran did in fact break a national record. We only found out because the guidance counselor indicated the call was a great sign given a) the amount raised was big enough to raise eyebrows, 2) the AO was interested enough to call, 3) most importantly it was true. I can’t imagine it happens frequently but sometimes apparently they check.
Lesson being lie at your own peril because if the lie is big enough you might get caught and most importantly telling the truth is a virtue.
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They generally don’t (note that Duke was checking on an applicant who claimed a national record).
Does that mean you can put down any old number you want? pretty much.
Does that mean if you put down a big number the AO reading your app will be impressed enough to increase your chances of admission? nope.
Colleges (especially the selective colleges I am assuming you want to impress) are looking to admit students, not fund-raisers, and do not give out admissions letters as prizes.
Remember that AOs read a lot of apps. They know what they are looking for, they know the lengths that (choose as many as apply) ambitious / desperate / immature / entitled / anxious / etc students will go to in order to get into their college, and they know how to read a full application- from GPA to ECs to LoRs to Essays- in 7-10 minutes.
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