Form 990

Right here. 990 Scout is our free Form 990 lookup — search any U.S. nonprofit and pull its filings in seconds.

But it’s more than a lookup. Instead of a raw twelve-page PDF, 990 Scout turns each organization’s filings into a readable report, including:

• Multi-year revenue and expense history
• A plain-language breakdown of where the money comes from and where it goes
• The full balance sheet and reserves
• Officer and executive compensation
• Peer benchmarking with percentile rankings against similar organizations
• Grants and grantees — who an organization funds, and who funds it
• Vendors and service providers — the firms an organization pays

All free, and without a paywall. For more on what’s in the public record and where it lives, see Where to Find 990 Filings.

Usually for one of a few reasons, and most aren’t errors. Churches and many church-affiliated organizations aren’t required to file a 990 at all, so the IRS has nothing to publish. The smallest organizations file a 990-N e-Postcard, which the IRS leaves out of its downloadable data — so they show little or no financial detail. Public colleges and universities and international organizations generally aren’t in the IRS dataset either. And a brand-new organization may simply not have a filing released yet.

The four filing types, and who files which, are explained in The Four Types of Form 990. If your organization files a full 990 or 990-EZ and still isn’t here, contact us and we’ll look into it.

We show the years the IRS has released as machine-readable e-file data. Returns filed on paper, or very recent filings the IRS hasn’t yet added to its public dataset, may not appear. As the IRS publishes each new batch, the missing years fill in automatically.

Yes. Entering the nine-digit Employer Identification Number is the most precise way to find an organization, especially when several nonprofits share a similar name.

Search is organization-based — by name or EIN. Officers and directors listed on a filing appear on that organization’s profile, but we don’t offer a standalone people search or individual person pages.

Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS, covering their finances, governance, and programs. Our full explainer walks through it: What Is Form 990?

Yes. Federal law makes Form 990 filings open to public inspection, which is why the figures on our profiles can be shown at all. More on that in What Is Form 990?

There are four: the full 990, the 990-EZ, the 990-PF for private foundations, and the 990-N e-Postcard for the smallest organizations. See The Four Types for how they differ.

Start with the revenue, expense, and balance-sheet sections, then work outward to governance and compensation. Our guide takes it part by part: How to Read a Form 990.

Filing is the condition of keeping tax-exempt status — it’s how the IRS and the public see that an organization operates for its stated purpose. Who Must File and When covers the requirements in full.

Not directly — and that’s by design. Your profile isn’t a page we write or that you fill in; it’s a faithful mirror of your organization’s public IRS Form 990 filings and the IRS Business Master File. The figures, the mission text, the grants, the leadership pay — all of it comes straight from what your organization filed with the IRS. We don’t add to it or edit it, which is exactly what makes it trustworthy: every figure links back to the original filing, so anyone can verify it.

That means the way to change what appears is to change what’s filed. Profiles refresh automatically as new 990s are released, so updated information flows through on its own. If a figure looks wrong, it almost always traces to the filing itself — the place to correct it is the 990 you submit to the IRS, and it’ll update here on the next cycle.

One exception: if you believe we’ve displayed something that doesn’t match your actual filing, that’s a rendering issue on our end, not a filing problem — contact us and we’ll fix it.

Yes — it’s the one part of a profile an organization can claim. The data itself stays a faithful mirror of your IRS filings, but every profile has a single “Presented by” slot at the top. Sponsoring it places your name, logo, and a link there, so visitors see your branding alongside your public record. One slot per profile, first-come. To claim yours or learn more, contact us.

No. Profiles are built entirely from public IRS filings, and we don’t remove accurate filing information on request. The same records are available directly from the IRS and other public sources, and publishing them is the purpose the platform exists to serve.

What you can do is claim the profile to add current, accurate context alongside the IRS data. Organization-provided context appears clearly labeled and separate from the filing figures.

Our full position, including how we handle requests that cite state privacy laws, is on our removal policy page.

No. Your Form 990 is a federal public record. The IRS releases it for public inspection, and we present it as filed. We don’t remove filings at the request of an organization or an individual named on one.

If a figure is wrong, the fix is the filing itself. An amended return filed with the IRS flows through here on the next cycle. If something we display doesn’t match what you actually filed, that’s a rendering issue on our end and we’ll correct it.

Form 990 filings are public records that the IRS makes available so donors, researchers, journalists, and the public can see how tax-exempt organizations raise and spend money. The information in a filing is part of that federal record, and it stays part of it regardless of what appears on our site.

Removing a report or a name here would not change the filing, would not remove it from the IRS, and would not remove it from the other public sources that publish it. We do not remove filing information on request.

Some requests cite the California Consumer Privacy Act or similar state laws. Information drawn from public government records, including officer and director names reported on a Form 990, is generally exempt from deletion requirements under those laws because it is publicly available government-record information. Our removal policy page explains this in full.

Update it with the IRS on your next filing, and the change will flow through when that return is released. If the current profile is causing confusion in the meantime, claim it and note the update — contact us to get started.

Historical filings remain part of the public record, so earlier profiles stay visible as history. Claim the surviving organization’s profile or let us know so the current status is clear.

Past filings stay in the public record and remain viewable. If a profile should reflect that the organization has closed, tell us and we’ll note it.

If what we show doesn’t match your actual filing, send us a correction and we’ll check it against the IRS source. If the filing itself contains the error, that’s fixed by amending your return with the IRS — the corrected figures then appear here once released.

Straight from the IRS. Every figure on a profile is drawn from your organization’s public Form 990 filings and the IRS Business Master File — the same records anyone can download from the IRS. We don’t estimate, score, or editorialize the numbers; we display what was filed and do the arithmetic on top of it, with each figure traceable back to the original filing. That’s what makes it trustworthy: it’s the public record, presented clearly.

Yes, exclusively. We don’t blend in proprietary or third-party data. What you see is the public IRS record.

990 Scout reflects what the IRS has released. The IRS publishes new Form 990 filings in monthly batches, and a filing typically appears six to eighteen months after an organization’s fiscal year ends — the result of filing extensions plus IRS processing time. We pull each new batch as it’s released, so a profile shows the most recent filing the IRS has made public, not necessarily the current year.

If a newer 990 exists but isn’t here yet, it’s usually still working its way through the IRS release cycle.

Different sites pull from different sources, refresh on different schedules, and calculate figures in different ways. We stick to the figures as filed and plain arithmetic on them, so what you see maps directly back to the IRS return.

There’s a gap between when a return is filed and when the IRS publishes it in the public dataset. Until that release happens, the newest year won’t appear here — it’s a timing lag on the IRS side, not a gap on ours.

Usually one of three reasons: the organization files the 990-N e-Postcard, which the IRS publishes without financial detail; a recent return hasn’t been released yet; or a line was left blank on the filing itself. We show what the filing contains and don’t fill gaps with estimates.

Each profile links to its source filing so you can view or save the return behind the numbers.

Profiles are built to print cleanly from your browser’s print command — handy for board meetings or file copies.

The source document comes from the IRS. If one won’t load, try again in a moment, and if it persists, let us know which organization so we can check the link.

Every profile has a stable web address — copy the URL from your browser to share a specific organization.

Profiles work on phones and tablets; the layout adjusts to the screen.

Try the EIN for an exact match, use fewer words, or check the legal name rather than a common nickname. Still stuck? Tell us what you searched for and we’ll help.