Radical archivist Carl Malamud writes, "Since 2008, Public.Resource.Org has been trying to get the IRS to release the database of the annual reports of nonprofits in a better way. The nonprofit sector in the U.S. represents $1.5 trillion in economic activity and over 9% of jobs."

Just like the SEC's EDGAR database does for for-profit, the IRS Form 990 is how our country insists that nonprofit report on their operations annually. By doing so, our markets become more transparent and more efficient.

But, this database has been a mess. The IRS has been distributing the Form 990 as low-resolution bitmap images, despite the fact that over half of nonprofits e-file their returns. An e-filed return is nicely formatted XML data, but the IRS has been imaging that information onto the form and releasing as a .tiff file, no different than paper scans. Ouch.

In 2013, after years of asking nicely, we filed suit in federal court asking the judge to mandate the release of this information. Earlier this year we won our court case, and the IRS delivered XML data for 9 specific returns. (Compare the PDF files with the XML! What a world of difference!)

The court victory was nice, but it was a win under the Freedom of Information Act, which means we had to ask for specific returns. And, it took Tom Burke, my lawyer, two years (and $217,000 in billable hours, which his firm donated to me pro bono) to get to that point. But, we don't want just 9 returns, we want the whole database released. Last week, we started a campaign to get lots of organizations to submit FOIA requests for e-file data, the hope being the IRS would see that they were going to be deluged with individual requests and it would be way easier just to release the database.

Today, the IRS released a statement saying they're going to do what we've been hoping for, saying they are going to release e-file data and this is a "priority for the IRS". Congratulations to the IRS on taking this important step! This was nice to see.