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The IRS Form 990 is a return used by U.S. tax-exempt organizations to report information to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The 990 asks organizations to disclose information about their financials, programs and activities, governance, personnel, and compensation practices. With the exception of religious and certain political organizations, all nonprofits are required to file some version of the 990 every year in order to maintain their tax-exempt status.

Cause IQ has 990s available to view and download for every organization that files a return with the IRS. Our customers use the 990 to assess an organization's financial health, operations, compliance with laws and regulations, and suitability as a prospective client or funder.

Here's a quick video that shows you where to access and download Form 990s from an organization's Cause IQ profile page:

There are several versions of the Form 990 used by nonprofits, depending on the size and type of the organization. The different types include:

• Form 990 - This is the full form that requires the most in-depth information for organizations with gross receipts that are equal to or greater than $200,000, and total assets equal to or greater than $500,000.
• 990-PF - All private foundations, regardless of their size or financial status, are required to fill out Form 990-PF. The 990-PF asks for information about income, grants and gifts funded by the foundation, and more.
• 990-EZ - This version is for mid-sized organizations with annual gross receipts of under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000.
• 990-N / Postcard - This is the IRS’s electronic form for organizations with gross receipts of less than $50,000.

Cause IQ's data comes from a mix of sources, with 990s providing the majority of financial information along with general organization information and some personnel details. Cause IQ currently mines 990 data from the following:

• IRS Form 990
• IRS Form 990-PF
• IRS Form 990-EZ
• IRS Form 990-N (e-Postcard)
• IRS Form 990 Schedule A
• IRS Form 990 Schedule C
• IRS Form 990 Schedule D
• IRS Form 990 Schedule J
• IRS Form 990 Schedule H
• IRS Form 990 Schedule I

You can view and download an organization's recent and past 990s from the Financials tab on their Cause IQ profile page. First, open the profile page for the organization you're researching. You can search for a specific organization using the smart search box on your dashboard or search interface, or by clicking through one of the linked results from your organization or foundation search. Scroll down and click open the "Financials" tab along the lefthand side of the page. Here you'll find a list of Form 990s at the top, sorted by fiscal year end, with corresponding PDF download links. Note that the two most-recent years of financials are digitized further below on the page.

Here's a screenshot showing what the 990s section looks like within the Financials tab of an organization's profile page:

In addition to making complete 990s available to view and download, Cause IQ cleans and digitizes data from the Form 990s so you can easily search, analyze, and export specific fields of information. Our purpose-built tools use this data to help you find organizations in specific target markets, conduct market research, understand which vendors and service providers organizations use, find funding with Cause IQ, and more. A few of these tools include:

• The Cause IQ search interface enables you to add filters for specific 990 fields (along with other sources) and narrow down on the organizations you care about most.
• Cause IQ's analyze tool displays quantitative and qualitative trends for whatever data fields you're interested in, allowing you to gain key insights into a specific segment of organizations.
• The export tool allows you to generate custom lists containing organization and personnel data. (Note that bulk exporting isn't included with Core Subscriptions, but is available for an additional cost.)
• The foundation search helps you to search for potential funders based on their foundation type and location, the kinds of nonprofits they support, the characteristics of the grants they make, and other details.

Check out our filter and field glossary for a complete list of fields available for searching, analyzing, and exporting in Cause IQ, including information about each field's source and specific location on the 990 (when applicable).