Question: We are a nationally recognized, award winning, environmentally-friendly facility. Representatives from facilities across the county visit us and we teach them how to implement our successful practices. Is this community benefit? We realize we are helping organizations outside of our community and the issue we are addressing is internal environmental responsibility.
Recommendation: CHA contacted the IRS about your question. The IRS staff we consulted stated that this would not qualify as community benefit because it's not explicitly health-related education. Nor would it be a community building activity, because it's not an activity that the organization is conducting to improve health or safety in its own community. It may be an activity that furthers tax-exempt purposes and it could be reported in Part III of the Form 990, but not on the Schedule H.
(August 2009)