Transparency Barometer: Why Mayo Clinic Is an Outlier

As part of the Chronicle’s efforts to produce the most complete and accurate ranking possible for America’s Favorite Charities, we contacted every nonprofit that made the list last year. All of them provided the requested data except the Mayo Clinic.

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Karl Oestreich, director of media relations, pointed the Chronicle to data from Mayo’s 2018 financial statements. However, those figures are not compatible with the Chronicle’s methodology. We use data from the IRS Form 990 that nonprofits must file because it produces numbers that are comparable for all the charities on our list.

Oestreich said the Mayo Clinic would file its 2018 Form 990 in November, which was too late for our deadline. Other organizations on our list provided draft or estimated figures from their 2018 Form 990, but the Mayo Clinic declined to do so. “We don’t release estimated numbers — only numbers that have been finalized and audited,” Oestreich said in an emailed statement, citing the advice of the Mayo Clinic’s financial and tax experts.

As a result, our ranking shows Mayo figures for fiscal 2017. The data for all other charities on our list is for fiscal 2018.