How to read a nonprofit's Form 990 in ten minutes

Every nonprofit above a certain size files a public tax return. Most of it you can skip. Here is the part you cannot.

By George Ricciardella. September 28, 2026.

The Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It is public, it is free, and it runs long. You do not need most of it. If you are a donor deciding whether to give, or a board member asked to approve the return, this is the ten-minute read.

Where to find it free

Three places, no login required for the first.

ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer at projects.propublica.org/nonprofits. Search by name or EIN, get several years of returns as PDFs, plus summary numbers pulled from the filings. Full-text search works across filings.

Candid (formerly GuideStar) at candid.org. Search covers 1.9 million organizations by name, EIN or keyword; registering unlocks detailed profiles. Some data sits behind paid plans.

IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search at apps.irs.gov/app/eos. Slower to browse, but it is the source, and it shows whether an exemption has been revoked for not filing.

Timing matters. A 990 is due on the 15th day of the fifth month after the fiscal year ends, and Form 8868 gives an automatic six-month extension. A calendar-year organization can file its 2025 return as late as November 15, 2026. An 18-month-old return is normal. The IRS requires the organization to show you its returns for three years on request, so ask for the current one.

Source: ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/; Candid, https://candid.org/candid-search/verify-nonprofits/; IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search, https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/tax-exempt-organization-search; IRS, Return due dates for exempt organizations, https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/return-due-dates-for-exempt-organizations-annual-return; IRS, About Form 8868, https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8868; IRS, Public disclosure overview, https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/public-disclosure-and-availability-of-exempt-organization-returns-and-applications-public-disclosure-overview

Which form you are looking at

Size decides the form. Organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less may file the 990-N, an electronic postcard with no financial detail. Organizations with gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000 may file the shorter 990-EZ. Everyone above either line files the full Form 990. Private foundations file the 990-PF regardless of size. If all you can find is a 990-N, ask the organization for its financial statements instead.

Source: IRS, Form 990 series: which forms do exempt organizations file, https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/form-990-series-which-forms-do-exempt-organizations-file-filing-phase-in; IRS, Form 990-N filing requirement, https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/annual-electronic-filing-requirement-for-small-exempt-organizations-form-990-n-e-postcard

Part I: the summary page

Page one is the whole return in miniature. Read three numbers: total revenue, total expenses, and net assets at the end of the year. Each sits beside a prior-year column, so you get a two-year trend without opening anything else. Revenue minus expenses is the year's surplus or deficit. Net assets are what the organization has to fall back on.

Part VII: who gets paid

This is the section people flip to first. It lists officers, directors, trustees and key employees with their compensation, and separately the five highest-paid employees who received more than $100,000. Board members of most small nonprofits are unpaid and will show zeros. Judge the salaries against the budget on Part I and against what the job pays elsewhere in the same city.

Part VIII: where the money comes from

Revenue by source. Line 1 is contributions, gifts and grants, broken out by type (government grants, fundraising events, other contributions). Line 2 is program service revenue: fees earned for doing the work, such as tuition, clinic billing or ticket sales. The ratio between the two tells you the organization's shape. A group that is 90 percent contributions lives or dies by fundraising. A group that is 90 percent program revenue is closer to a business with a mission. Neither is better. Knowing which one you are looking at keeps you from misjudging the rest.

Part IX: what fundraising expense does and does not tell you

Part IX splits every expense across three columns: program services, management and general, and fundraising. The 990-EZ does not split expenses this way, so for small organizations the number does not exist. On the full 990, the fundraising column is what the organization allocated to raising money. Allocated is the key word. Staff who split time between programs and fundraising are divided by estimate, and two organizations doing identical work can report very different percentages because their bookkeepers made different calls.

What it does tell you: whether the organization has invested in fundraising at all. A $3 million organization reporting $12,000 in fundraising expense is either running on a single grant or leaving the allocation blank. What it does not tell you: whether the organization is any good. In 2013 the heads of GuideStar, Charity Navigator and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance signed an open letter to donors saying exactly that. Their line: the people and communities served by charities do not need low overhead, they need high performance. They pointed donors toward transparency, governance, leadership and results.

Source: IRS, Instructions for Form 990 (Part VII and Part IX), https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i990; GuideStar, Charity Navigator and BBB Wise Giving Alliance, "The Overhead Myth" open letter, June 17, 2013, https://news.cision.com/guidestar/r/bbb-wise-giving-alliance--charity-navigator--and-guidestar-join-forces-to-dispel-the-charity--overhe,c9429255

Schedule A in one sentence

Schedule A shows whether the organization still qualifies as a public charity rather than a private foundation, and for most it comes down to this: over a rolling five-year window, at least one third of total support has to come from the public, government and other public charities, with a fallback test at 10 percent if the facts support it. A group drifting toward one or two dominant funders shows it here first.

Source: IRS, Instructions for Schedule A (Form 990), https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i990sa

Schedule B is redacted

Schedule B lists major contributors, generally anyone who gave $5,000 or more in the year. For public charities the names and addresses are withheld from the public copy; you see amounts with the identities removed. The exceptions are private foundations and section 527 political organizations, whose Schedule B is open. So a 990 will tell you how concentrated an organization's funding is. It will not tell you who the funders are.

Source: IRS, Instructions for Schedule B (Form 990), https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i990sb; IRS, Contributors' identities not subject to disclosure, https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/public-disclosure-and-availability-of-exempt-organizations-returns-and-applications-contributors-identities-not-subject-to-disclosure

Three questions a 990 answers

How big is it, and which direction is it going? Part I, two-year columns.

Where does the money come from, and how dependent is it on any one source? Part VIII, then Schedule A and the shape of Schedule B.

Who is in charge, and what are they paid? Part VII, plus the governance questions in Part VI.

Three it cannot

Is the program any good? Part III describes the programs in the organization's own words. It is not audited.

Is it well run today? The return is a year or more old by the time you read it. A crisis or a turnaround since then will not be on it.

Does it treat its donors well? Nothing on the 990 measures retention or follow-up. You learn that by giving and watching what comes back.

Common misreadings

Treating the overhead ratio as a quality score. A low ratio can mean an efficient organization or one that cannot afford a bookkeeper. A high one can mean waste or a year of investment. The number cannot tell you which.

Reading one year of loss as failure. A deficit on Part I means expenses exceeded revenue that year. Organizations spend down reserves on purpose, run capital projects, or book a multi-year grant in one year and spend it over three. Look at net assets. A deficit with reserves still in place is a choice. Net assets near zero and shrinking two years running is the pattern to worry about.

Questions people ask

Is a nonprofit required to show me its Form 990?

Yes. The IRS requires an exempt organization to make its annual returns available for public inspection for three years from the due date or the filing date, whichever is later, along with its exemption application. Contributor identities on Schedule B are excluded for most organizations.

Why is the newest 990 I can find more than a year old?

The filing calendar. The return is due on the 15th day of the fifth month after the fiscal year ends, and the automatic extension adds six months. A calendar-year organization can file its 2025 return on November 15, 2026, and the databases post it some time after that.

Does a high fundraising expense mean a bad charity?

No. It is an allocation, and organizations allocate differently. A young organization, a capital campaign or an events-heavy model will show higher fundraising cost without anything being wrong. Use the number as a prompt for a question, and judge results, governance and transparency.

Source: IRS, Public disclosure overview (above); IRS, Return due dates for exempt organizations (above); Overhead Myth open letter, 2013 (above)