How to read a nonprofit’s Form 990: the pages that show pay, spending and governance

The Form 990 is the closest thing a nonprofit has to a public annual report. Most organizations exempt from federal income tax must file one of the 990-series returns with the IRS every year, and the returns are open to the public. A full Form 990 shows who runs the organization and what they are paid, where its money comes from, how it spends it and which governance policies it has adopted. Here is how to find one and what to read first.

Which form a nonprofit files

The return an organization files depends mainly on its size, according to the IRS filing chart. Only the full Form 990 contains all the sections described below.

Some organizations do not have to file at all. The IRS exceptions include churches, conventions or associations of churches and their integrated auxiliaries, church-affiliated schools below college level and certain state institutions. A section 509(a)(3) supporting organization, which exists to support one or more other charities, generally must file Form 990 or 990-EZ even if it is small.

When it is due and where to find it

Forms 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF are due on the 15th day of the fifth month after the end of the organization’s accounting year, which is May 15 for a calendar-year organization. An automatic six-month extension is available on Form 8868. The 990-N cannot be extended. That means the most recent return for a calendar-year charity often covers a year that ended many months earlier.

Organizations must make their annual returns, with all schedules and attachments, available for public inspection for three years from the due date or the filing date, whichever is later, according to the IRS’s disclosure rules. The organization’s application for exemption, such as Form 1023, must also be made available. The IRS’s own Tax Exempt Organization Search tool shows an organization’s status and filings.

The parts worth reading first

The full Form 990 has 12 parts that every filer must complete, plus schedules that apply only to some organizations. These are the sections that answer the questions readers ask most often, as described in the IRS instructions for the 2025 form.

Part VII has its own thresholds. Current officers, directors and trustees are listed whatever they are paid. Key employees appear if their reportable compensation from the organization and related organizations is over $150,000, and up to five other highest-paid employees appear if theirs is over $100,000. Compensation from related organizations, such as parents and subsidiaries, counts too.

Part VI asks whether the organization has written policies on conflicts of interest, whistleblowers and document retention. Federal tax law generally does not require them, the instructions note, but the IRS considers such policies to generally improve tax compliance, and every organization must answer the questions.

Reading the numbers with care

The spending split in Part IX is useful but not precise. Section 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations must allocate their expenses among programs, management and fundraising, but an organization whose accounting system does not allocate expenses can use “any reasonable method,” as long as it documents the method. Two charities doing similar work can therefore report different splits. Lobbying that is directly related to an organization’s exempt purpose can be counted as a program expense, while fundraising costs may not be, even when raising money is one of the organization’s purposes. State reporting rules can also differ from the IRS’s.

Donor names are another limit. Schedule B, the Schedule of Contributors, lists an organization’s larger donors, but most organizations do not have to make their contributors’ names and addresses public. Private foundations are the exception, and political organizations under section 527 must disclose the schedule.

When an organization stops filing

An organization that does not file a required return or notice for three consecutive years loses its tax-exempt status automatically, effective on the original due date of the third return, the IRS says. It is then removed from the list of organizations eligible for tax-deductible contributions. Donors can still deduct gifts made before the organization appeared on the IRS’s published revocation list. The IRS cannot undo a proper automatic revocation, and the organization has to apply to have its status reinstated.

For more on the separate return that private foundations file, see our explainer on how private foundations work.