To find information on a nonprofit organization, start with the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, a free federal database that lets you pull the group’s annual tax return, confirm its exempt status, and see whether donations to it are deductible. The tax return itself, called Form 990, is where the substance lives: revenue, expenses, executive pay, board members, and any financial dealings between the organization and its insiders. State charity registries and third-party sites like GuideStar, Charity Navigator, and ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer add context and make the raw filings easier to read. And if a nonprofit’s records aren’t online, federal law gives you the right to request them directly.
Start With the IRS Search Tool
The IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search is the first stop for any nonprofit inquiry.1Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search You can search by name or by the nine-digit Employer Identification Number (EIN); if you don’t have the EIN, a name search will return it.2Internal Revenue Service. Tax Exempt Organization Search
The tool pulls from several databases, and each one answers a different question:
- Pub 78 Data confirms whether contributions to the organization are tax-deductible. If you’re donating and want to claim a deduction, this is the list that matters.
- Determination Letters show the official IRS letter granting exempt status and the code section the organization qualified under.
- The Auto-Revocation List names organizations that lost their exempt status for failing to file required annual returns for three consecutive years.
- Form 990 Series Returns provides copies of the annual filings themselves.
Check the auto-revocation list even when you think a nonprofit is fine. Groups sometimes lose exempt status through paperwork lapses rather than fraud, and a donation to a revoked organization is not deductible.3Internal Revenue Service. Search for Tax Exempt Organizations
Reading a Form 990
The Form 990 is the annual tax return most nonprofits file, and it is the single most useful document for understanding how one operates.4Internal Revenue Service. Form 990 Resources and Tools It shows where money came from, where it went, and who benefited.
Money In and Money Out
Every full 990 splits spending into three categories: program services (the mission work), management and general expenses (overhead), and fundraising. That breakdown lets you see how much of each dollar reaches the cause versus keeping the organization running or bringing in more donations. A common sector benchmark is that roughly 80 percent of expenses should go to programs, though the right ratio varies by organization type and size.
The return also reports total revenue, total assets, and net assets. Trends matter more than any single year. Revenue falling while executive pay climbs is a pattern worth investigating.
Who Runs It and What They’re Paid
Part VII lists every current officer, director, and trustee, whether compensated or not.5Internal Revenue Service. Whose Compensation Must Be Reported in Part VII, Form 990 It also requires listing key employees with reportable compensation above $150,000, plus the five highest-paid non-officer employees earning more than $100,000. Schedule J then breaks down compensation in detail for anyone whose total pay exceeds $150,000.
Insider Deals
Schedule L discloses financial relationships between the organization and its insiders: loans to or from board members or key employees, grants or assistance to interested persons, and business transactions with insiders above certain thresholds.6Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule L (Form 990) These disclosures exist because self-dealing is one of the most common ways nonprofits go wrong. If a board member’s company holds large contracts with the charity, Schedule L is where it appears.
Side Businesses
Nonprofits that earn income from activities unrelated to their exempt purpose report it on Form 990-T. For 501(c)(3) organizations, that return and its attachments are also open to public inspection.7Internal Revenue Service. Public Inspection of Attachments to a 501(c)(3) Organizations Form 990-T If a charity runs a significant side venture, the 990-T shows what it earns and what tax it owes.
When There’s Little or Nothing on File
Some nonprofits produce almost no public financial information, and the reason isn’t necessarily suspicious.
Small tax-exempt organizations with annual gross receipts of $50,000 or less file only Form 990-N, an “e-Postcard.”8Internal Revenue Service. Annual Electronic Notice (Form 990-N) for Small Organizations FAQs – Who Must File It contains little beyond the name, EIN, and confirmation the group still exists. No revenue figures, no expense breakdowns, no compensation data.
Churches and certain religious organizations are a bigger gap. They are automatically considered tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) without applying, and they are not required to file annual returns.9Internal Revenue Service. Filing Requirements for Churches and Religious Organizations Donations to a qualifying church are deductible even if the church never sought formal IRS recognition.10Internal Revenue Service. Churches, Integrated Auxiliaries and Conventions or Associations of Churches Many churches do apply voluntarily and will appear in the IRS search tool, but for those that haven’t, there is no federal filing to review, and due diligence depends on what the church chooses to share.
Asking the Nonprofit Directly
Federal law gives you a right to inspect a nonprofit’s tax filings. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 6104, exempt organizations must make their annual returns available to anyone who asks, along with their original exemption application (Form 1023 or Form 1024).11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6104 – Publicity of Information Required From Certain Exempt Organizations and Certain Trusts The inspection requirement covers returns from the three most recent taxable years.
How you ask changes how fast you get the documents. In-person requests at the organization’s principal office must be met on the spot. Written requests must be fulfilled within 30 days. The nonprofit can charge a reasonable copying and postage fee, but nothing more.
You rarely need to do this anymore, because most 990s are online. The direct-request route still matters for smaller organizations whose filings haven’t been digitized and when you want to see the original exemption application.
If the Organization Refuses
Stonewalling has a price. The IRS charges $20 per day for each day an organization fails to provide requested documents. For annual returns, the maximum is $10,000 per failure. For the exemption application, the penalty has no cap and accumulates until the organization complies.12Internal Revenue Service. Penalties for Noncompliance
You can report a refusal to the IRS using Form 13909, the Tax-Exempt Organization Complaint form, submitted by email to eoclass@irs.gov.13Internal Revenue Service. IRS Complaint Process – Tax-Exempt Organizations The IRS also suggests copying your state charity regulator. A refusal to share legally required documents is itself a warning sign about the organization.
State Charity Registries
Nonprofits also register with state agencies, and those files hold documents you won’t find in federal records. Most states require charities to register with the Secretary of State’s office, the Attorney General’s office, or both before soliciting donations from residents.14Internal Revenue Service. Charitable Solicitation – State Requirements Roughly 40 states and the District of Columbia impose some form of charitable solicitation registration, though the specific rules and fees vary.
State filings typically include articles of incorporation and bylaws, which describe governance and stated mission, and often annual financial reports filed at the state level. They confirm the nonprofit is legally authorized to raise money in your state and sometimes reveal leadership changes or organizational amendments that don’t appear on federal forms.
To find your state’s registry, search for “[state name] charity registration” or start at your state Attorney General’s website. There is no single national portal, so check each state you care about separately.
Third-Party Databases
Several free platforms aggregate nonprofit data and make it easier to read than raw tax forms. Three are worth knowing.
GuideStar, now part of Candid, pulls data directly from the IRS and shows Form 990 filings alongside multi-year financial trends.15GuideStar. Charity Check Data Sources Organizations can add their own descriptions and impact metrics, so profiles often go beyond what the tax return alone reveals.
Charity Navigator rates charities based on IRS data and information the groups provide, generating scores for financial health, accountability, and transparency.16Charity Navigator. Charity Ratings and Donor Resources The ratings work well as a starting point when comparing organizations working on similar issues.
ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer offers full-text search across millions of Form 990 filings. You can search by organization name, person name, or specific text inside filings, which helps when you’re tracking connections between groups or following an executive across multiple nonprofits.17ProPublica. Nonprofit Explorer It also links to federal audit reports for organizations that spent $750,000 or more in federal grant money.
All three depend on IRS data releases, so there’s always a lag between when a return is filed and when it appears online. For the most recent filing, go directly to the IRS search tool or ask the organization.
Red Flags Worth Watching For
Finding the information is half the work. Knowing what it means is the rest. These are the patterns experienced reviewers watch for on a Form 990:
- A low program spending ratio. If less than 65 to 70 percent of the budget goes to actual programs, ask why. A new charity building infrastructure may have a legitimate reason; a mature nonprofit that consistently spends more on fundraising and overhead than on its mission deserves skepticism.
- Executive pay out of step with peers. The IRS allows “reasonable” compensation, meaning what similar organizations pay for similar roles, with no fixed cap. A small nonprofit with $1 million in annual revenue paying its executive director $400,000 warrants questions. Excess-benefit transactions carry excise tax penalties under IRC Section 4958.18Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 4958 – Taxes on Excess Benefit Transactions
- Declining revenue with rising costs. Income dropping over several years while expenses climb points toward insolvency. Check whether assets still exceed liabilities.
- Insider transactions on Schedule L. Loans to board members, contracts with executive-owned companies, or grants benefiting people connected to leadership aren’t automatically improper, but they demand explanation. A pattern suggests the organization is serving insiders more than its mission.
- Late or missing filings. An organization that files late or skips years is either disorganized or avoiding scrutiny. Three consecutive years of non-filing triggers automatic revocation of exempt status.19Internal Revenue Service. Annual Filing and Forms
One red flag alone doesn’t condemn an organization. Two or three appearing together is a strong signal to dig deeper or direct your giving somewhere else.