Five New York PR Groups, not counting NANA (nee PRSA), have a total of $2,743,000 in cash and savings, according to their latest Form 990 filings with the IRS.
Tax-free groups are supposed to serve primarily their entire industries and not just their members.
Four of the groups are 501/c/6 "trade associations" while the fifth, the Arthur W. Page Society, is a 501/c/3 or "charity" similar to the Red Cross or United Way.
The c/3 status allows Page (which has dropped the "W" from its name) to obtain about $200,000 in tax-free corporate gifts each year.
Such donations cannot be given to 501/c/6 non-profits.
Page's explanation is that it was founded as a c/3 in 1983 and never changed its status.
Cash and investments of the five groups are as follows:
Council of PR Firms: $822,000.
Page Society: $581,000.
New York Financial Writers (which allows PR members); $539,000.
New York Women in Communications: $451,000.
Institute for PR: $360,000.
NANA, which moved its offices from 51st and Third Ave. in 1987 to 33 Irving Place in Midtown South, and then to 33 Maiden Lane (downtown) in 2004, had $2M in cash and $1.7M in the stock market as of 9/30/2009.
Page and CPRF share 1,700 sq. ft. of space on the 23rd floor of 317 Madison Ave. (42nd St.).
The building has 22 office vacancies including 7,000 sq. ft. on the 23rd floor. It is asking $45 per sq. ft.
NANA closed its library in the late 1990s, offering instead a series of webinars and seminars or providing online access to materials.
