About CharityCheck101

CharityCheck101.org is a place to screen and find basic data on 1.6 million+ nonprofits and charities.

1. The organization’s report at CharityCheck101.org will provide its EIN (employer identification number).
2. Use the EIN to do fast research about the organization at one or more of the Top Seven Charity Research Websites.

The information about organizations found at CharityCheck101.org comes directly from the public IRS datafiles.

The IRS updates the public datafiles after an organization files a new Form 990 or other new information with the IRS. There is a time lag between the organization filing and the updating of the public IRS datafiles.

If you need to change information, you might contact the IRS Exempt Organizations professionals directly.

But probably the best way to get the information updated is to include the new information in all future 990 and other filings your organization makes with the IRS.

Once the IRS publicly posts the changes, we will follow their lead.

We see five possible answers. The first three are the most likely.

1. You might not have searched in a way that the database recognizes. The fastest and most accurate searches are based on using the organization’s 9-digit EIN (federal employer identification number) on the Reverse Lookup page. If you are doing a name search, use fewer words in the search box. Try searching again.
2. The organization is an IRS-recognized nonprofit or charity, but has not yet been included in the IRS public database. 
   • There can be a significant delay (months) between the issuance by the IRS of a tax-exemption determination letter (or reinstatement) for an organization and the time the organization is listed in the IRS public database called the Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract.
   • We only include organizations in the CharityCheck101.org directory once they included by the IRS in the IRS public database.
3. The organization is not an IRS-recognized nonprofit or charity (or has lost that status). In recent years the IRS has revoked the status of thousands of organizations based on their failure to file annual reports with the IRS.
   • Note that “mini nonprofits” which have not obtained an IRS determination are not included in the IRS list.
4. The IRS has made an error in showing the organization’s status in the IRS data files. At CharityCheck101.org we obtain our list directly from the IRS’s official Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract. If there’s an error in the IRS data files, that error will also show in our directory.
5. There’s a glitch in the CharityCheck101.org directory system. If possibilities 1 through 4 are not the case, please let us know about the issue by using our Contact Us page.

Every organization listed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as tax-exempt is included in the CharityCheck directory.

We obtain the IRS list by going to its online Exempt Organizations Business Master File Extract.

Churches and government units generally do not file with the IRS (not being required to do so). Unless they have filed, they are not included in the IRS list. Government units include states, counties, cities and towns and their agencies.

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