How do nonprofit tax filings distinguish organizational revenue from individual compensation, and where can those filings be searched?
Executive summary
Form 990-series returns separate an organization’s overall revenue and expenses from the amounts paid to specific individuals by design: the returns require line-item reporting of income and program/service receipts alongside explicit disclosure of “officer, director, trustee, key employee and highest compensated” individual compensation so outsiders can compare organizational scale to pay (ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer; Library of Congress research guide) [1] [2]. Those same filings — and searchable repositories that aggregate them — are the primary public record for verifying both an NGO’s revenues and what it pays people, but users should understand file-type limits, minimum-filer exceptions, and different third‑party interpretations of the data (IRS and Candid) [3] [4].
1. How tax filings distinguish organizational revenue from compensation — mandated line‑item disclosure
The Form 990-series is built to separate organizational receipts from individual pay: the return collects detailed revenue categories (contributions, program service revenue, investment income and other receipts) and separately requires named disclosures of compensation paid to officers, directors, trustees, key employees and the highest‑paid staff, allowing a reader to match total revenue and program expenses against what the organization reports paying people (Library of Congress research guide; ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer) [2] [1]. Foundations and taxable trusts file Form 990‑PF and public charities file Form 990 or 990‑EZ (with thresholds for which form applies), and the forms include schedules or supplemental disclosures that expand on compensation or related‑party transactions for greater transparency (ProPublica; LOC) [1] [2].
2. What the compensation lines mean in practice — transparency and compliance
Executive and other compensation disclosures on the 990-series serve a compliance and public‑information purpose: regulators and the public use those listed salaries and benefits to assess whether pay is reasonable relative to the nonprofit’s size and mission, and the IRS can enforce rules (including excessive‑compensation penalties and safe harbors in the tax code) by referring to information in the return (ProPublica and Wikipedia summary of Form 990 oversight) [1] [5]. In real reporting practice, compensation figures reported on the form are aggregated and sometimes accompanied by schedules or notes that explain bonuses, deferred pay or unrelated business income, but interpreting whether a package is “reasonable” often requires additional context — peer comparisons, board minutes and compensation‑study methodologies that are not always contained in the filing itself [5] [6].
3. Where to search and download these public filings — official and third‑party routes
The canonical source is the IRS: copies of Form 990‑series returns filed since January 2018 can be searched via the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search (TEOS) and the IRS also offers bulk downloads of recent 990 filings in PDF and XML formats on its Form 990 downloads page (IRS pages; IRS copies of EO returns) [7] [8] [3]. Journalistic and research aggregators provide easier interfaces and added tools: ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer offers searchable summaries and downloadable 990s back to the early 2000s, Candid (GuideStar/Foundation Center) indexes millions of returns and directly contributed nonprofit data, and private services — from ERI to Charity Navigator platforms referenced by university guides — host searchable salary and revenue extracts that can speed comparative research (ProPublica; Candid; ERI; Drexel LibGuide) [1] [4] [9] [6].
4. Limits, caveats and competing agendas to keep in mind when using these filings
The public record is powerful but imperfect: very small organizations file the minimal 990‑N “e‑Postcard” with only basic confirmation of existence rather than full financial detail, the IRS releases and machine‑readable data became more systematic after 2013 so older records may be uneven, and third‑party sites sometimes add interpretive summaries or curated metrics that reflect their editorial choices or fundraising‑sector priorities (Candid, ProPublica, IRS guidance) [10] [1] [4]. Users seeking definitive legal judgments about compensation or abuse should combine the 990 with board records, Form 1023 applications, state charity filings and, where necessary, professional legal or accounting interpretation rather than rely on raw 990 numbers alone (IRS and sector resources on use of Form 990 as oversight tool) [11] [2] [5].
5. Best practice for verification and further digging
Start at the IRS TEOS for a definitive copy of recent returns or the IRS bulk download page for machine‑readable files, then cross‑check with ProPublica’s Nonprofit Explorer or Candid/GuideStar for user‑friendly summaries and historical PDFs; use sector compilations (Charity Navigator, ERI databases) to benchmark compensation but treat those benchmarks as interpretive tools rather than primary evidence (IRS, ProPublica, Candid, ERI) [7] [8] [1] [9] [4]. When a compensation figure looks anomalous, pursue the supporting schedules, IRS rules on excess benefit transactions, and the organization’s own governance disclosures before drawing firm conclusions (Form 990 resources and enforcement context) [11] [5].