Last updated 2026-07-24
TL;DR
A board of directors treasurer is the officer responsible for an organization's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping bank accounts reconciled, reporting financial status to the board, and making sure required IRS filings (like Form 990 or 990-N) and state charity registrations get filed on time. It's a fiduciary role, not a bookkeeping favor.
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer is the board member (or officer) legally and practically responsible for an organization's money. That covers four things every single time, regardless of whether the group is a 200-kid booster club or a five-person PTO: tracking what comes in and goes out, keeping the bank accounts reconciled to the penny, reporting the financial picture to the rest of the board on a regular schedule, and making sure the organization files what it owes the IRS and the state on time. That last part trips people up the most. Most volunteer treasurers think the job is "keep a spreadsheet." It's actually "keep a spreadsheet AND know that your tax-exempt nonprofit still has to file something with the IRS every year, even if it made zero dollars in taxable income." Skip that filing three years running and the IRS automatically revokes your exempt status. No warning letter, no phone call. It just happens [1]. The treasurer isn't the only person accountable for money (the whole board has fiduciary duty), but the treasurer is the one who's supposed to notice problems first. If the checking account balance doesn't match what QuickBooks says, that's the treasurer's job to catch, not the president's.
What is a treasurer, exactly?
A treasurer is an elected or appointed officer of a nonprofit, association, club, or company who holds fiduciary responsibility for the organization's finances. "Fiduciary" is the legal word for it: it means you're required to act in the organization's best financial interest, not your own, and you can be held personally accountable if you don't. In a formal nonprofit, the treasurer is usually named in the bylaws as one of the required officers (often alongside president, vice president, and secretary). Some states' nonprofit corporation statutes don't require a treasurer by title, but they do require someone to keep accurate financial records and make them available for inspection. Check your state's nonprofit corporation act and your own bylaws, because the specific duties assigned to "treasurer" vary organization to organization even though the core job is the same everywhere. The IRS doesn't license or certify treasurers. There's no test, no credential. Anyone the board trusts with the books can do it. That's exactly why so many booster clubs and PTOs end up with a treasurer who's never touched nonprofit accounting before and inherits a mess from whoever had the job last year.
What do treasurers do day to day, month to month, year to year?
Break the job into three time horizons and it stops feeling overwhelming. Daily/weekly: deposit checks and cash quickly (don't let money sit in someone's car or kitchen drawer), record every transaction with a description and category, keep receipts for anything the group buys, and never let one person both collect cash and record it without a second person checking (that's the basic cash-handling control every auditor looks for first). Monthly: reconcile the bank statement against your books line by line, present a written financial report to the board (income, expenses, bank balance, budget-to-actual if you have a budget), and flag anything unusual before it becomes a crisis. Annually: file the right IRS return for your size (Form 990-N, 990-EZ, or full Form 990, depending on gross receipts), renew any state charitable solicitation registration if your state requires one, and help with the annual handoff packet if you're rotating out. A lot of booster clubs also need a raffle license renewal or bingo permit renewal at this point, which is a separate state filing from the IRS one. One thing that surprises new treasurers: the treasurer job is at least 70% "keep good records so nobody has to guess later" and maybe 30% "make financial decisions." It's a recordkeeping job wearing a finance-committee hat.
What does a treasurer do in a club or PTO?
Same core job, smaller scale, usually messier records because clubs and PTOs run almost entirely on volunteers with no accounting background. A club treasurer typically handles the group's checking account (sometimes a savings account for a building fund or big trip), collects dues or fundraiser proceeds, pays vendors and reimburses parents, and reports a simple income/expense summary at meetings. Most small clubs and PTOs are recognized by the IRS as 501(c)(3) public charities or 501(c)(4)/(c)(7) social organizations, and even the tiniest ones with under $50,000 in average annual gross receipts still have to file the e-Postcard, Form 990-N, every year [2]. Nothing to pay, no financial detail required, just eight pieces of information filed online. It takes maybe 10 minutes once you have your EIN. Miss it three years in a row and your tax-exempt status disappears automatically under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j) [3]. The club treasurer job also usually includes things a corporate treasurer never touches: counting concession stand cash after a Friday night football game, managing a raffle license application with the state, and explaining to twelve parent volunteers why the group can't just "take cash out of the account whenever." It's finance work done at kitchen-table scale with real legal stakes attached.
What is Form 990?
| 990-N (e-Postcard) | Smallest orgs | Normally $50,000 or less [2] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 990-EZ | Mid-size orgs | Generally under $200,000 in gross receipts and under $500,000 in total assets [4] | |
| 990 (full) | Larger orgs | Generally $200,000+ gross receipts or $500,000+ total assets [4] | |
| 990-PF | Private foundations | All private foundations, regardless of size [4] | A new treasurer's first job with the 990 family is figuring out which one your organization actually has to file, then confirming that with the IRS or a qualified preparer for your specific numbers, since thresholds and rules can shift. We're not a tax or law firm and this isn't tax advice; confirm your filing obligation with the IRS and, if your state requires charity registration renewal, with your state charity office too. For a full breakdown of which form matches your budget size and what information each one asks for, see form 990 and irs form 990. |
Form 990 is the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's not an income tax return in the way a business files one; nonprofits generally don't owe federal income tax on money related to their exempt purpose. Instead, Form 990 tells the IRS (and the public, since these filings are public record) what the organization took in, spent, who runs it, and how it operates [4]. There are several versions depending on size: | Form | Who files it | Gross receipts threshold |
What is the 990 tax form used for?
It's used for public accountability, not tax collection. Because tax-exempt organizations get a benefit (no federal income tax on exempt-purpose activity, and often the ability for donors to deduct gifts), the IRS requires transparency in exchange. The 990 tax form discloses the organization's revenue, expenses, assets, compensation of top officers, and program activities, and by law that filing has to be made available to the public on request [5]. Donors, grantmakers, journalists, and watchdog sites like GuideStar/Candid and ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer all pull directly from filed 990s. If your booster club's 990 shows the treasurer got paid $8,000 in "consulting fees" with no explanation, that's the kind of thing that ends up as a question at a board meeting or, worse, a state charity office inquiry. The practical takeaway for a new treasurer: the 990 isn't paperwork you file and forget. It's the one document a stranger can pull up to judge whether your organization is run honestly. Fill it out like someone's going to read it, because someone will. More detail on what fields the form actually asks for is at 990 tax form and [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990).
What is the 990-N and who has to file it?
The 990-N, also called the e-Postcard, is the simplest version of the annual filing, built for the smallest tax-exempt organizations. The IRS's own instructions describe it: organizations "whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" can file the 990-N instead of a full return [2]. It's filed entirely online through the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search / e-Postcard system, and it asks for basic identifying information: legal name, EIN, tax year, mailing address, name of a principal officer, and a confirmation that gross receipts are under the threshold. No financial statements attached. No signature form to mail in. Here's the part that catches booster clubs and PTOs off guard: even though it's the easiest filing that exists, it's still mandatory, and missing it has the same consequence as missing a full 990. Three consecutive years of no filing (990-N, 990-EZ, or 990, whichever applies) triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status under IRC 6033(j) [3]. The IRS keeps a public list of every organization this has happened to, called the Auto-Revocation List, and reinstatement requires its own application process (Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again, plus, in some cases, a reasonable-cause statement) [6]. See 990-n and form 990-n for the filing walkthrough.
What happens if a treasurer misses the 990 filing deadline?
One missed deadline usually isn't catastrophic. The IRS 990-series returns are due by the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's fiscal year ends (so May 15 for a calendar-year filer), and a single missed year doesn't trigger revocation on its own [3]. Three years in a row, though, and it's automatic. There's no discretion involved, no case-by-case review before it happens. The statute is blunt about it: an organization that fails to file for three consecutive years "shall have its tax-exempt status revoked" as of the filing due date of the third year [3]. You find out you're revoked when a donor asks why your organization isn't showing up as deductible anymore, or when you check the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool and see your name on the Auto-Revocation List. Getting reinstated means reapplying for exempt status, sometimes with a streamlined process if you qualify for retroactive reinstatement within 15 months of revocation, and sometimes the long way if you don't [6]. Either way it costs time, IRS user fees, and often a scramble to explain to donors why their gifts from last year might not have been deductible after all. The fix is boring but it works: put the filing deadline on a calendar the day you take office, and confirm the actual date and form with the IRS since fiscal year timing changes what's due when.
What does a treasurer of a club owe the board, and what records should they keep?
A club treasurer owes the board (and the members) a clear, honest, current picture of the money at all times, plus enough documentation that anyone stepping into the role could pick it up cold. That means keeping, at minimum: bank statements and reconciliations for every month, a running ledger of income and expenses with categories, receipts or invoices for every expense over whatever threshold your bylaws set (many small groups use $25 or $50 as the receipt-required line), copies of every tax filing made, and minutes showing the board approved major expenditures. Good practice, not required by any statute but recommended by basically every nonprofit accounting guide: two signers on the bank account, a written reimbursement policy, and a second person who reviews the bank statement before the treasurer does anything with it. Small-organization fraud is common precisely because one person controls both the cash and the books with nobody checking. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners' biennial Report to the Nations has repeatedly found that organizations with fewer than 100 employees, which describes basically every booster club and PTO, suffer disproportionately large median losses per fraud case compared to larger organizations, largely because they lack basic separation of duties . If you're taking over from a previous treasurer and the records are thin, don't panic and don't guess. Ask for bank statements directly from the bank going back at least a year, request the last three years of 990 filings from the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool (they're public [5]), and start a clean ledger from today forward while you reconstruct the past as best you can.
Do treasurers need to register with the state, more than the IRS?
Often, yes, separately from anything federal. Most states run their own charitable solicitation registration through the state attorney general's office or secretary of state, and many require an annual renewal with its own financial report attached, on top of whatever the IRS requires. Some states also require a separate license before you can run a raffle, and that license usually has to be renewed yearly with its own paperwork. There's no single federal rule here because every state does this differently: some require charitable registration above a small revenue threshold, some exempt small volunteer-run groups, some have no charitable solicitation registration at all. The only reliable way to know what your organization owes is to confirm directly with your state charity office or attorney general's office, since thresholds and exemptions change and vary widely state to state. This is the part of the treasurer job that gets skipped most often, because it's easy to assume the 990-N covers everything. It doesn't. Federal exempt status and state charitable registration are two separate systems, run by two separate agencies, and being current with one says nothing about the other.
How does someone actually get up to speed fast as a new treasurer?
Start with three questions, in this order: what's our fiscal year and when is our IRS filing due, which 990 form do we file based on our gross receipts, and are we currently on the IRS Auto-Revocation List (check the Tax Exempt Organization Search tool directly, don't assume) [5]. Then get the last three years of bank statements, the last three years of filed 990s if any exist, and your organization's bylaws (they usually spell out exactly what the treasurer is required to do, how often reports go to the board, and who else has to sign checks). If your bylaws are silent on cash-handling and dual-signer rules, that's worth raising at the next board meeting, because it's a gap that eventually causes problems. We built a State-Personalized Treasurer Kit for exactly this moment: a $99 one-time packet that pulls together the filing calendar, state-specific charity registration and raffle license pointers, and a handoff checklist so you're not reconstructing all of this from scratch or guessing at deadlines. It's not a substitute for an accountant or lawyer, and it doesn't guarantee any filing outcome or exempt status determination, but it saves the first few weeks of pure confusion that almost every new volunteer treasurer goes through. Whatever tools you use, the goal is the same: know your filing deadlines cold, keep the books reconciled every month without exception, and never let one person be the only one who can move money and the only one who checks the math.
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks all money coming in and out of an organization, keeps bank accounts reconciled, reports the financial picture to the board regularly, and makes sure required filings like Form 990 or 990-N and any state charity registrations get done on time. It's a fiduciary role with real legal accountability, more than bookkeeping.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the officer of a nonprofit, club, PTO, or association responsible for financial oversight: recordkeeping, reporting, and compliance filings. Most organizations name the treasurer as a required officer in their bylaws, though the exact duties assigned to the title vary by organization.
What do treasurers do daily versus annually?
Daily and weekly: deposit money promptly, record transactions, keep receipts. Monthly: reconcile bank statements and report to the board. Annually: file the correct IRS return (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990 based on gross receipts) and renew any required state charitable registration or raffle license.
What does a treasurer do in a club or PTO specifically?
A club or PTO treasurer manages the checking account, collects dues and fundraiser proceeds, reimburses volunteers, presents simple income/expense reports at meetings, and files the annual IRS return, usually Form 990-N since most small clubs have gross receipts under $50,000.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS, disclosing revenue, expenses, and governance details. It comes in several versions (990-N, 990-EZ, full 990, 990-PF) depending on the organization's size, and the completed filing is public record.
What is the 990 tax form used for?
It's used for public transparency and IRS oversight of tax-exempt organizations, not for calculating income tax owed. The filing discloses how much money the organization raised and spent and is publicly available, letting donors, watchdogs, and regulators review how the organization operates.
What is the 990-N (e-Postcard)?
The 990-N is the simplest IRS filing, for tax-exempt organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. It's filed free online and asks only for basic identifying details, no financial statements, but it's still mandatory every year the organization is exempt.
What happens if a nonprofit misses three years of 990 filings?
Its tax-exempt status is automatically revoked under Internal Revenue Code section 6033(j), with no warning or case review beforehand. The organization then appears on the IRS Auto-Revocation List and must reapply for exempt status to be reinstated, which costs time and IRS filing fees.
Does a treasurer need to file anything with the state, more than the IRS?
Often yes. Many states require separate charitable solicitation registration through the attorney general's office or secretary of state, plus a raffle license if the group runs raffles, both renewed annually. Requirements vary widely by state, so confirm directly with your state charity office.
What records should a club treasurer keep?
Monthly bank reconciliations, a categorized income and expense ledger, receipts for expenses, copies of all tax filings, and board meeting minutes approving major spending. Good practice also includes two signers on the bank account and a written reimbursement policy.
How do I find out if my organization is already on the IRS Auto-Revocation List?
Search your organization's name or EIN using the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool at irs.gov, which lists auto-revoked organizations and current exempt status. Checking this should be one of the first things a new treasurer does.
What's the difference between a 990-N, 990-EZ, and full 990?
990-N is for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less. 990-EZ generally fits organizations under $200,000 in gross receipts and under $500,000 in total assets. Full Form 990 is for larger organizations above those thresholds; private foundations file Form 990-PF regardless of size.
Is a treasurer personally liable if something goes wrong with the money?
Treasurers hold fiduciary duty, meaning they can be held accountable for mismanagement or negligence, though personal liability specifics depend on state nonprofit law and whether the organization has director and officer insurance. This isn't legal advice; confirm your exposure with a qualified attorney in your state.
How much does it cost to reinstate tax-exempt status after auto-revocation?
Reinstatement requires reapplying for exempt status, which involves IRS user fees for Form 1023 or 1023-EZ (fees change periodically, so confirm the current amount on irs.gov) plus the time cost of reconstructing financial records for the application.
Sources
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations, Form 990-N (e-Postcard): organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less may file Form 990-N
- 26 U.S. Code § 6033(j): failure to file required annual returns for three consecutive years results in automatic revocation of tax-exempt status
- IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: Form 990 is the annual information return tax-exempt organizations file disclosing revenue, expenses, and governance
- IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: filed Form 990 series returns are public record and searchable, and the tool lists auto-revoked organizations
- Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Report to the Nations: smaller organizations tend to suffer disproportionately large fraud losses due to lack of separation of financial duties