Question: Should we report the cost of time spent by instructors in our diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) trainings for our staff? We know that the Guidelines for Community Benefit specifically advise not reporting the training or education of the organization's employees. However, nurses who go through this training are not required to stay with the organization and can take lessons learned with them to other locations in their career.
Recommendation: This is indeed important and needed work. Equity training will pay off throughout the community. However, the IRS rules are clear that programs restricted to people affiliated with the organization cannot be reported as community benefit on the Form 990 Schedule H Part I (financial reporting). However, there is an open ended question on Part VI that asks what else the organization does to benefit the community. You could report it there and of course include in any other reports you give to the community.
(October 2021)