How to read a charity's Form 990 in ten minutes
Form 990 is the annual information return most US tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's public: anyone can read any charity's 990. It runs to dozens of pages with schedules, but a donor only needs a handful of them.
The header and Part I: the summary
The first page gives the organization's name, EIN, address, fiscal year and a one-paragraph mission. Part I summarizes the year: total revenue, total expenses, the number of employees and volunteers, and net assets at year end. Note the fiscal year. Many charities don't use the calendar year, and a "2024" return can cover July 2024 to June 2025.
Part III: what the programs did
The organization describes its three largest programs in its own words, with the expenses, grants and revenue of each. It's the closest the form comes to saying what the money accomplished, and it's self-reported.
Part VI: governance
A set of yes/no questions: how many voting board members are independent, whether there's a conflict-of-interest policy, a whistleblower policy, a document retention policy, a process for setting executive pay, and whether the board saw the 990 before it was filed.
Part VII: compensation
Officers, directors, trustees and key employees are listed with their hours and compensation, along with the five highest-paid employees over $100,000 and the five highest-paid outside contractors. Compensation is split into reportable pay from the organization, pay from related organizations, and other compensation such as retirement contributions and benefits.
Part VIII: revenue
Where the money came from: contributions and grants (line 1, with government grants broken out on line 1e), program service revenue such as fees and sales (line 2), investment income, and other sources.
Part IX: expenses, by function
Every expense line (salaries, grants, rent, travel, fees for services) is split across three columns: program services (B), management and general (C) and fundraising (D). The totals on line 25 are what the "where $100 went" bar on this site shows. The split is the organization's own allocation under accounting rules, so two charities can reasonably allocate similar costs differently.
Part X: the balance sheet
Assets, liabilities and net assets at the start and end of the year. Net assets with donor restrictions can only be used for purposes or periods donors specified.
Schedules worth knowing
- Schedule A: why the organization counts as a public charity.
- Schedule B: major donors (names are not public for most charities).
- Schedule G: professional fundraisers and fundraising events.
- Schedule J: more detail on executive compensation.
- Schedule O: free-text explanations for answers elsewhere on the form.
Every charity page on this site links to the full filing on ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, which shows all of these parts.