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

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

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

1. Identify which Part/Schedule contains the data
2. Check if ProPublica API provides it (see resources/field-mappings.md)
3. If PDF parsing needed, determine which page/section
4. Update the appropriate extractor in form_990_parser.py
5. 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