Are there any audits or watchdog reports on Tunnel to Towers' 2024 finances?
Executive summary
The Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation has publicly posted independent audited financial statements through the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, but there is no audited financial statement for a 2024 fiscal year explicitly identified in the supplied reporting; watchdog evaluations from CharityWatch and monitoring by Charity Navigator reflect reviews of 2022–2023 filings rather than a discrete 2024 audit [1] [2] [3] [4]. ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer shows Form 990 filings into 2024 exist in the IRS-derived database, though extracted audit details for that period may be limited in the source set provided [5].
1. Audited statements on the foundation’s website — up to 2023
The foundation’s own financials section hosts multiple auditor-signed financial statements, including a document titled “T2T 2023 Audited Financials” that presents the position as of December 31, 2023 and discloses the auditor’s report language and scope performed in accordance with U.S. auditing standards [1], and the site also contains prior years’ audited statements such as FY22 and earlier reports [2] [6] [7]. These posted audits demonstrate that independent examinations have been performed and made publicly available for recent fiscal years, which is the conventional mechanism donors use to verify nonprofit finances [1] [2].
2. Watchdog evaluations — CharityWatch and Charity Navigator
Two recognized charity evaluators have reviewed Tunnel to Towers’ publicly filed data: CharityWatch assigns the foundation an “A+” and highlights high program-spending ratios based on its analysis of audited statements and IRS Forms 990 for 2022, reporting that the charity spent the vast majority of cash expenses on programs that year [8] [3]. Charity Navigator’s methodology explicitly checks whether a charity publishes audited financial statements corresponding to the most recent IRS Form 990, and its public profile for the foundation reflects that external reviewers verify whether audits are posted on the charity’s site [4].
3. Form 990s and machine-readable filings — ProPublica’s coverage
ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer includes the Tunnel to Towers filings and notes that IRS-released tax filing data extend into December 2024 filings in the database, allowing researchers to download Form 990s and examine executive compensation, revenues and expenses; however, the ProPublica entries indicate that extracted financial data availability varies by filing period and that audit attachments are linked when electronically filed [5] [9]. In short, tax returns for 2023–2024 periods are discoverable via ProPublica, but the presence of a separately labeled audited financial statement for 2024 is not documented in the provided ProPublica excerpts [5].
4. Investigative reporting touching finances and vendor relationships
Independent journalism has probed specific financial relationships involving the foundation: The New York Times reported in 2024 that the charity confirmed sponsorship of a livestream and that payments from the foundation subsidized a media venture tied to Rudolph Giuliani — a report that examines transactions and reputational questions rather than performing a financial audit, and which therefore serves as a form of external scrutiny of financial flows and affiliations [10]. That piece is watchdog-style reporting about specific payments and influence but does not replace an independent audited financial statement for 2024 [10].
5. Bottom line and reporting limits
Based on the supplied documents, independent audited financial statements are publicly available through fiscal year 2023 on the Tunnel to Towers site [1] [2], and established watchdogs have evaluated 2022 and related filings [3] [8] [4], but none of the provided sources contain a standalone audited financial statement explicitly labeled for fiscal year 2024; ProPublica shows 2024 Form 990 activity in its database but extracted audit detail for that period is not shown in the materials supplied [5]. If a reader needs a definitive 2024 audit, the next concrete steps are to check the foundation’s financials page for any post-2023 audit uploads, review the 2024 Form 990 on ProPublica or the IRS, and examine subsequent CharityWatch/Charity Navigator updates for publicly posted audit documentation — actions that cannot be completed within the limits of the current reporting set [1] [5] [4] [3].