Question 1: How many nonprofits are not complying with state law?
We looked through the Baltimore checkbook from 2024 and picked out the top 100 nonprofits receiving state funding.
We found that 24 of those nonprofits are not properly registered with the State of Maryland. Most of those legally can not solicit donations from the public. Eight of them have registrations that are still pending, meaning they are only allowed to accept donations if they tell donors that they have yet to be approved for nonprofit status.
Yet they collectively earned over $61 million in city funding last year, which of course comes straight from taxpayers. And they employ a total of 1,146 people. The city is rewarding these nonprofits instead of enforcing state law.
The nonprofits either haven’t submitted their paperwork (delinquent, 9 charities), the paperwork is outdated (not current, 1), they’re legally closed down (closed, 2), their registration is still pending (8) or they can’t be found at all in the online registry (4).
Question 2: Why does it matter if nonprofits fill out their paperwork to register with the state?
The Maryland Solicitation Act is in
place for a reason. Registering with the state forces a nonprofit to report its activities and donations honestly. Many likely owe late fees to the state of Maryland, which we plan on investigating. (including $25 every month they’re late filing an annual report, after 60 days).
“Together with the Secretary of State, the Attorney General works to shut down sham charities and other unlawful fundraising schemes to ensure charitable contributions are used for their intended charitable purpose.”
“This law also prohibits deceptive acts and false and misleading statements in charitable solicitations.”
Look at the mess we saw with Strong City Baltimore. They previously accepted city funding while being delinquent with the state. Their finances were a mess and they “
upended” programs for at-risk children they were supposed to be supporting. Their CEO was later indicted on federal corruption charges.
Question 3: This isn’t the first time OpenTheBooks has looked into nonprofit registrations. What trends can you see from the last few years?
I know this is not news to you, and your viewers might find it familiar, because my colleagues and I have been doing this story for four years now.
We’ve been doing this so long that we’ve actually seen some charities that were not compliant with the state in 2023, fixed the issues in 2024, but now have problems again in 2025.
Turnaround, Inc. was delinquent in ‘23, current in 24, now pending in 25.
The city is aware of the issue because we reach out to them for comment every year including this week. But they haven’t responded to us or made any significant changes to their donations.
We’ve spoken with the secretary of state’s office, and they’ve told us they’re looking into the matter. But that was over two years ago already.
We’ve found similar issues in Howard County in years past.