Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
To find 990 filings, use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search (irs.gov) or ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, both free and searchable by name or EIN. Groups filing the 990-N postcard (under $50,000 in gross receipts) won't show a detailed form, just a filing confirmation. Full 990s and 990-EZs are viewable as PDFs on both sites, usually within a year or two of filing.
where do you actually find 990 filings?
Two free tools cover almost everyone: the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) and ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. Both let you search by organization name, EIN, or state, and both pull directly from IRS data. TEOS is the official source. It has a tool called "Determination Letters" and one called "Tax Exempt Organization Search" that lets you view or download 990s the IRS has processed electronically going back several years [1]. It's free, no account needed, and it's the tool auditors and journalists default to for verifying whether a group is currently recognized as tax-exempt. ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer often has a cleaner interface and lets you view individual line items in a browser without downloading a PDF first, plus it sometimes has filings the IRS site hasn't posted yet because ProPublica ingests bulk data feeds separately. I'd start with ProPublica for readability, then cross-check with irs.gov if you need something official for a grant application or board packet. Both tools are limited to what the IRS has actually processed. If a group filed on paper, or filed very recently, there can be a lag of many months before the return shows up anywhere searchable.
what is form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return that most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's not a tax bill. It's a public disclosure document that reports income, expenses, program activities, and (for larger orgs) officer compensation, so the IRS and the public can see how a tax-exempt group operates [2]. There are several versions depending on size: the full Form 990 for organizations with gross receipts generally at or above $200,000 (or total assets at or above $500,000), Form 990-EZ for mid-size organizations, and Form 990-N (the "e-Postcard") for the smallest ones, with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less [3]. Some organizations, mostly private foundations, file Form 990-PF instead. The IRS states plainly: "Tax-exempt organizations, nonexempt charitable trusts, and section 527 political organizations file Form 990 to provide the IRS with the information required by section 6033" [2]. That's the legal hook. Filing isn't optional once your group has (or had) recognized tax-exempt status, and the return becomes a public record once processed. For background on the return itself, see our guide to form 990 and the plain-language breakdown of the 990 tax form.
what is the 990-N, and why can't I find one when I search?
The 990-N is the short electronic postcard for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It asks for eight basic data points: legal name, address, EIN, tax year, confirmation the group is still under the gross receipts threshold, and a couple of yes/no questions about operations [4]. That's it. There's no financial statement, no program description, no officer list. So when you search for a small booster club or PTO and only find a 990-N, don't expect line-item budget data. You'll see a filing date and a confirmation the postcard was submitted, nothing more. This trips up a lot of new treasurers who assume "the 990 will show what we spent." If your group has always filed the postcard, there's no public financial detail to pull, by design. If you want that kind of visibility for your own board, you'll need to keep your own books; the 990-N tells outsiders almost nothing. See our explainer on 990n and form 990-n filing mechanics.
990, 990-EZ, 990-N, 990-PF: what's the difference in what you can actually find?
| Form | Who files it | Gross receipts threshold (typical) | What's publicly visible | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 990-N (e-Postcard) | Smallest exempt orgs | Normally $50,000 or less [3] | Filing confirmation only, no financials | |
| 990-EZ | Mid-size orgs | Generally under $200,000 gross receipts and under $500,000 total assets [3] | Summarized financials, officer names, some program info | |
| 990 (full) | Larger orgs | Generally $200,000+ gross receipts or $500,000+ total assets [3] | Full financials, compensation, schedules, governance policies | |
| 990-PF | Private foundations | All private foundations, regardless of size [5] | Full financials, grants paid out, investment detail | The practical takeaway: if you're researching a group's finances (say, before your PTO merges budgets with another chapter, or before you accept a fiscal sponsorship), check which form they file before assuming you'll find dollar figures. A group filing only the 990-N could still be moving real money; you just won't see it in this dataset. |
how do you search by EIN instead of name?
EIN search is faster and avoids name-matching problems (lots of booster clubs share near-identical names across different school districts). Both TEOS and ProPublica accept a 9-digit EIN directly in the search box [1]. If you don't know the EIN, check old board minutes, a bank statement, a prior year's 990 PDF, or your state's charity registration filing; most state charity offices list the EIN alongside the registered name. If your group is genuinely new, the EIN is on the confirmation letter (CP 575) the IRS sent after you applied via Form SS-4. One wrinkle: if your group went through IRS auto-revocation and later got a new determination letter, the EIN usually stays the same. Search by EIN and you'll see the full history, including any revocation notice, under one identifier.
what does 'not found' mean when you search for an org?
A few different things, and they matter for very different reasons. First, the group may never have filed electronically, so nothing is indexed yet, especially for very recent 990-N filers; there can be a real lag before a postcard shows up in search [1]. Second, the group's tax-exempt status may have been auto-revoked for failing to file three years running, in which case TEOS will actually show the revocation, not a missing record . Third, the group may not be a separate legal entity at all; some booster clubs operate under a school district's umbrella and never had their own EIN or exempt status to begin with. That third case is common and easy to miss. If your "booster club" has always just used the school's tax ID and never filed anything independently, a 990 search will correctly show nothing, because there's nothing to find. Confirm with your school district and with the IRS whether your organization has independent exempt status before assuming a missing search result means a filing problem.
how far back do 990 filings go, and how current are they?
IRS data on TEOS and ProPublica typically covers the most recent several years of electronically filed returns, with a lag of roughly a year or more between when a form is filed and when it appears searchable, since processing paper returns and manual data entry takes time [1]. Don't expect same-year visibility. A return filed in November 2025 for tax year 2024 may not show up searchable until sometime in 2026. For older historical returns, or ones filed entirely on paper before broader e-filing, you may need to request them directly from the organization; federal law requires exempt organizations to provide copies of their three most recent annual returns to anyone who asks, per IRS rules on public inspection . Some groups also post their 990s voluntarily on their own website or via GuideStar/Candid, which pulls from the same IRS data plus organization-submitted profile updates.
what is a treasurer, and what does a treasurer do?
A treasurer is the officer responsible for a group's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping bank accounts reconciled, reporting balances to the board, and making sure required filings (like the 990) actually get submitted on time. In a volunteer group like a booster club or PTO, the treasurer is usually the only person who touches the books regularly, which is exactly why the role needs written procedures, more than one person's memory. Day to day, what a treasurer does looks like: depositing cash from fundraisers, paying vendor invoices, reconciling the bank statement monthly, presenting a budget-to-actual report at meetings, and filing (or delegating) the annual 990. It is not an accounting or legal role by training; most club treasurers are parents or volunteers learning as they go, which is fine, but means the paperwork side (990s, state raffle licenses, sales tax accounts) needs a checklist, not intuition.
what does a treasurer do in a club or booster organization, specifically?
A club treasurer's job breaks into four buckets: cash handling, record-keeping, reporting, and compliance. Cash handling means counting concession stand money with two people present, depositing it promptly, and never letting funds sit in someone's car or kitchen drawer overnight. Record-keeping means a ledger (spreadsheet or software) that tracks every deposit and payment with a date, amount, and purpose. Reporting means giving the board a monthly or quarterly picture of where the money stands. Compliance means the annual 990 (or 990-N), any required state charity registration renewal, and (if the group runs raffles or games of chance) the state raffle license. The compliance bucket is where new treasurers get burned, usually not from dishonesty but from simply not knowing a deadline existed. A booster club that misses three straight years of 990 filings gets its tax-exempt status automatically revoked by law, under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j) . That revocation shows up publicly, right in the same TEOS search tool covered above, which means anyone, a parent, a donor, a school district administrator, can find it.
why would you look up a group's own 990 filings?
New treasurers taking over the books should pull their own organization's prior 990s as step one, before touching the checkbook. The filing shows what the group reported as income and expenses, who signed as an officer, and whether the group has filed consistently or has gaps. A gap is the biggest red flag. If your group's last 990 on file is from three or four years ago, check TEOS immediately for a revocation notice; auto-revocation happens automatically after three consecutive missed years, with no extra warning letter beyond what's already been sent . Recovering from that (reinstatement, possibly a user fee, possibly back-filing) takes real time, generally weeks to months, so finding out early matters. Search your own EIN the same way you'd search anyone else's, using TEOS or ProPublica, and treat any gap or revocation as the first item on your handoff checklist.
what should you do if you find your group has been auto-revoked?
First, confirm it. A revocation shows directly in the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search results, under a section specifically listing organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failure to file for three consecutive years . Don't rely on rumor or an old board member's memory; look it up yourself. Second, understand what it means practically: the organization is treated as a taxable entity going forward until reinstated, donations made after the effective revocation date may not be tax-deductible to donors, and some states will also flag the group's charity registration as delinquent. None of that is fixed by ignoring it; it gets fixed by filing for reinstatement (Form 1023 or 1023-EZ in many cases, sometimes with a streamlined process for smaller organizations) and getting current on any skipped 990s. Confirm with the IRS the specific reinstatement path for your group's size and history, since the rules and user fees differ by circumstance and change periodically. This is exactly the kind of gap-check we built into the State-Personalized Treasurer Kit, a one-time $99 packet with your state's specific forms and a filing calendar, so a new treasurer doesn't have to reconstruct three years of history from scratch.
does finding a 990 tell you everything about an organization's finances?
No, and treating it that way is a common mistake. A 990 is a snapshot filed months after the fiscal year ends, summarized into IRS categories that don't always match how a small club actually tracks its budget. It also won't show you cash reserves at a point in time, upcoming commitments, or informal arrangements (a coach fronting money for uniforms, say) that never hit the books cleanly. For due diligence purposes (a parent deciding whether to trust a booster club with dues, a school checking a vendor's nonprofit status, a board member doing a sanity check before a merger) a 990 is a useful first filter, not a full audit. Look at trends across two or three years rather than one snapshot: is revenue stable, is there a pattern of large "other expenses" with no explanation, does the officer list match who's actually running things today. For groups your own size, our guides on irs form 990 and [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990) walk through reading a return line by line.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I find 990 filings for free?
Use the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search at irs.gov or ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer. Both are free, searchable by name or EIN, and pull from the same underlying IRS data. TEOS is the official source; ProPublica is often easier to read in a browser without downloading a PDF.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS under Internal Revenue Code section 6033. It reports income, expenses, and activities and becomes a public record once the IRS processes it. It's not the same as an income tax bill; most exempt organizations owe no tax on qualifying activities.
What is a 990 tax form used for?
It lets the IRS and the public check that a tax-exempt organization is operating consistently with its exempt purpose, and it discloses financial and governance information so donors, grantmakers, and watchdogs can evaluate the group. Failing to file for three straight years triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status.
What is the 990-N and why doesn't it show financial details?
The 990-N (e-Postcard) is for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It only collects eight basic data points, like EIN and confirmation of size, with no income or expense figures. If a group has only ever filed a 990-N, a public search won't show any dollar amounts.
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks income and expenses, reconciles bank accounts, reports the group's financial position to the board, and handles required filings like the annual 990 and any state charity or raffle registrations. In small volunteer organizations, the treasurer is often the only person regularly touching the books.
What does a club or booster club treasurer do specifically?
A club treasurer handles cash from fundraisers (with two-person counts), keeps a ledger of every deposit and payment, presents budget updates at meetings, and files the annual 990 or 990-N on time. They also manage any state raffle license renewal and charity registration deadlines.
How do I find out if my nonprofit's tax-exempt status was revoked?
Search your organization's EIN on the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov. Revoked organizations appear directly in the results under the auto-revocation list, which covers groups that failed to file required 990s for three consecutive years under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j).
How current are the 990 filings shown in these search tools?
Expect a lag, often a year or more, between when an organization files and when the return appears searchable, since paper filings and IRS processing take time. A 2024 tax year return might not show up searchable until sometime in 2026 for some filers.
Can I search 990 filings by EIN instead of organization name?
Yes, and it's more reliable than name search, especially since many booster clubs and PTOs share very similar names across different schools or districts. Both the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search and ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer accept a 9-digit EIN directly.
Why can't I find a 990 for my school's booster club at all?
A few reasons: the club may never have applied for independent tax-exempt status and instead operates under the school district's tax ID, the filing may be too recent to show up yet, or the club's status may have been auto-revoked (which would still show, as a revocation notice, not a blank result).
What's the difference between Form 990, 990-EZ, and 990-N?
Form 990 is the full return for larger organizations (generally $200,000+ gross receipts or $500,000+ total assets), 990-EZ is for mid-size organizations, and 990-N is a short e-Postcard for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less, with no financial detail reported.
Do private foundations file the same 990 as a booster club?
No. Private foundations file Form 990-PF regardless of size, which reports grants paid out and detailed investment activity. Public charities like most booster clubs and PTOs file the regular 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N depending on their gross receipts and total assets.
Is a 990 filing the same as a tax return with a tax bill?
Generally no. Form 990 is an information return, not a bill. Most tax-exempt organizations don't owe income tax on activities related to their exempt purpose, though unrelated business income can be taxable separately on Form 990-T. Confirm your organization's specific situation with the IRS or a qualified preparer.
Sources
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: Free IRS tool to search and view 990 filings by name or EIN
- IRS, About Form 990: Form 990 is filed under section 6033 to give the IRS required information
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): 990-N eligibility (gross receipts normally $50,000 or less) and the eight data items it requires
- IRS, About Form 990-PF: Private foundations file Form 990-PF regardless of size
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status under section 6033(j)