Form 990 Expert

You have deep expertise in IRS Form 990 - the annual tax return filed by tax-exempt organizations.

When This Skill Activates

•Working on form_990_parser.py or PDF extraction
•Modifying ProPublica collector or validator
•Adding new financial fields to charity data models
•Analyzing charity financial health or ratios
•Debugging 990 data extraction issues

Core Knowledge

Form 990 Structure (12 Parts)

Part	Name	Key Data
I	Summary	Revenue, expenses, net assets, mission (30-word)
II	Signature Block	Filing date, preparer info
III	Program Service Accomplishments	Mission statement, top 3 programs with expenses
IV	Checklist of Required Schedules	Which schedules are attached
V	Tax Compliance Statements	Other IRS filings
VI	Governance & Management	Board size, independence, policies
VII	Compensation	Officers, directors, key employees, highest paid
VIII	Statement of Revenue	12 revenue categories
IX	Statement of Functional Expenses	Program/Admin/Fundraising breakdown (26 expense lines)
X	Balance Sheet	Assets, liabilities, net assets
XI	Reconciliation of Net Assets	Changes in fund balance
XII	Financial Statements	Audit status, accounting method

Key Schedules

Schedule	Required When	Contains
A	Always (501c3)	Public charity status test, public support calculation
B	Contributors >$5k	Donor names (confidential)
C	Political activity	Lobbying expenses, political campaign involvement
D	Certain assets	Endowment details, art collections, escrow accounts
F	Foreign activities	Countries served, foreign grants, offices abroad
G	Fundraising events	Gaming, special events details
I	Grants to orgs	Grantee list with amounts
J	Compensation >$150k	Detailed executive pay breakdown
L	Interested persons	Related party transactions
M	Non-cash contributions	In-kind donation details
O	Always	Narrative explanations, additional info

Form Variants

Form	Who Files	Gross Receipts	Assets
990	Large nonprofits	>$200k	>$500k
990-EZ	Medium nonprofits	$50k-$200k	<$500k
990-PF	Private foundations	Any	Any
990-N	Small nonprofits	<$50k	N/A

Field Mappings

ProPublica API to Form 990 Lines

code

totrevenue        -> Part I, Line 12 (Total Revenue)
totfuncexpns      -> Part I, Line 18 (Total Expenses)
totcntrbgfts      -> Part VIII, Line 1h (Contributions & Grants)
totprgmrevnue     -> Part VIII, Line 2g (Program Service Revenue)
invstmntinc       -> Part VIII, Line 3 (Investment Income)
othrevnue         -> Part VIII, Line 11e (Other Revenue)
compnsatncurrofcr -> Part VII, Column D total (Officer Compensation)
totassetsend      -> Part X, Line 16 (Total Assets EOY)
totliabend        -> Part X, Line 26 (Total Liabilities EOY)
totnetassetend    -> Part X, Line 33 (Net Assets EOY)

Codebase to Form 990 Parts

code

form_990_parser.py:
  _extract_header_info()     -> Part I header
  _extract_financial_data()  -> Parts VIII, IX, X
  _extract_officers()        -> Part VII
  _extract_programs()        -> Part III
  _extract_schedule_o()      -> Schedule O (partial)

propublica.py:
  fetch_organization()       -> Part I summary + Part VII + Part X
  _get_filing_history()      -> 3 years of returns

Financial Analysis Guidance

Program Expense Ratio

•Formula: Program Expenses / Total Expenses
•Good: >75% (efficient)
•Acceptable: 65-75%
•Concerning: <65% (high overhead)
•Red flag: <50%

Fundraising Efficiency

•Formula: Total Contributions / Fundraising Expenses
•Good: >$4 raised per $1 spent
•Acceptable: $2-4 per $1
•Concerning: <$2 per $1

Compensation Reasonableness

•Compare to similar-size orgs in same NTEE category
•CEO pay >2% of total expenses is unusual
•Watch for related-party compensation in Schedule L

Red Flags to Watch For

•Declining revenue with stable/growing expenses
•Fundraising expenses > Program expenses
•Zero volunteers reported
•No independent board members (Part VI)
•Missing audit when required (>$500k should audit)

Current Gaps in Codebase

The existing parser extracts ~60% of useful 990 data. Missing:

•Part VI (Governance) - board independence, policies
•Schedule A - public charity test results
•Schedule J - detailed executive compensation
•Part IV checklist - which schedules were filed
•Filing date and preparer information
•Year-over-year trend calculations

When Adding New Fields

•Identify which Part/Schedule contains the data
•Check if ProPublica API provides it (see resources/field-mappings.md)
•If PDF parsing needed, determine which page/section
•Update the appropriate extractor in form_990_parser.py
•Add field to validator and reconciled profile model

Reference Resources

For detailed information, see:

•resources/form990-structure.md - All 12 parts with line-by-line details
•resources/schedules-reference.md - Complete schedule guide
•resources/field-mappings.md - Full ProPublica API to codebase mapping