Data Quality

We hand-key more than 100 million values from hundreds of thousands of Forms 990, 990-EZ, and 990-PF each year. The objective of our data capture program is to record values exactly as they were input by the organization or paid preparer for each Form 990, 990-EZ or 990-PF. To that end, every numerical value displayed on our site is entered twice, and any disparity between entered values is reconciled.

Our quality assurance staff regularly monitors the accuracy of the "double-keyed" data. The numerical fields in our database are captured at a 99.9 percent accuracy rate. There are occasions when charities themselves make errors on the major financial sections of their Forms 990. Our quality assurance staff has determined that organization-entry errors occur in only 0.2 percent of the fields entered. More information on GuideStar's Data Services policies read more.