Perhaps you are a potential new board member for a nonprofit organization and you are looking to you find out more about the organization you will be serving. Maybe you are filling out a W-9 for a employee charitable match program, and you do not know the organization’s EIN number. Or maybe you are being asked to submit a copy of your Letter of Determination with a grant application– and you can’t locate them!
As a nonprofit, all of your filings are PUBLIC DOCUMENTS, and as such, there are a couple of places you can find them when needed.
Try a Secretary of State “Business Search”
- Choose your search terms. “Entity Number” refers to your California Corporate Number, and remember to include the “C” before your seven digit number. If using the “Entity Name”, make sure you are typing it in EXACTLY as it appears on your corporate filings – “thes” “inc.s” and commas included.
- Scroll through the results and find your organization’s name underlined in blue. Click on it.
- Scroll down to look at the listed Documents and browse. The organization’s Statement of Information filings should be listed as well as the Articles of Incorporation under the PDF titled “Registration”.
Try a search on the Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts
http://rct.doj.ca.gov/Verification/Web/Search.aspx?facility=Y
All nonprofit organizations in the state of California must register with the CA Attorney General’s office. They are the legal entity that oversees all charitable activities in the state- aka if an organization is fraudulent, this is the government agency who will hold you legally responsible.
Part of how the AG’s office oversees nonprofit activity is by requiring each organization to the file an annual report (Form RRF-1) and your tax return, which are then posted on their public registry. You can search on any charity registered in the state of California and view their annual reports and Form 990 tax returns.
- Choose your search terms. If at first you do not succeed, choose another. The AG’s registry is much more user friendly and less sensitive than the Secretary of State’s site to exact name specificity.
- Locate the correct organization in your search results and click on the blue underlined name
- Under filings and correspondence, you can click on the blue underlined form to view PDF copies of each filing.
The “Founding Documents” PDF should contain the organization’s Articles of Incorporation, Letter of Determination, Tax Exempt Status Application Form 1023, and original Bylaws - Further down, the “Annual Renewal Data” offers historical financial and compliance history for the organization, organized by year.
If you still have not been able to locate the information you were looking for, reach out to your organization’s tax preparer.
All of this being said, it is a good idea for every nonprofit entity to keep the following filings handy:
The IRS recommends for individuals and for profit businesses three years of records. However, as a nonprofit there are multiple compliance agencies that require your tax records and each different agency can come and request the documents at any time. Furthermore, there is no limit to record requests when fraud is found in charitable activity. The CA Attorney General’s office recommends all charities keep ALL filing records. We have seen the Franchise Tax Board reach out to organizations saying they are missing returns from 1999! Over twenty years ago! We are not saying keep every single return ever filed, but we are saying it is much less inconvenient to shove them in a box and let it gather dust than it is to go back and forth with government agencies, requesting a faxed copy when your tax exempt status is in question.