ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer Scraper

Access IRS Form 990 financial data for 1.8M+ US nonprofits via ProPublica's free Nonprofit Explorer API. Search by keyword, filter by state or NTEE category, or look up any organization directly by EIN number.

Perfect for grant research, charity vetting, philanthropic analysis, and academic research on the nonprofit sector.

Features

• Search nonprofits by keyword/name with optional state, NTEE category, and 501(c) tax status filters
• Look up by EIN — get full organization details, address, financial summary, and all available Form 990 filings
• Top by revenue — browse top nonprofits filtered by state and NTEE category
• Covers 1.8M+ organizations including charities, foundations, trade associations, and social clubs
• Returns financial data: total revenue, expenses, assets, support, and officer compensation percentage
• Includes PDF links to actual Form 990 filings on ProPublica's servers

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
mode	Select	search, byEIN, or topByRevenue
query	Text	Keyword/name to search (mode=search)
ein	Text	9-digit EIN number, e.g. 530196605 (mode=byEIN)
state	Select	2-letter US state code to filter results
nteeCode	Select	NTEE category letter A–Z
cCode	Select	501(c) tax status: 3, 4, 6, or 7
maxItems	Integer	Maximum records to return (1–10,000, default 50)

NTEE Category Codes

Code	Category
A	Arts, Culture & Humanities
B	Education
C	Environment
D	Animal-Related
E	Health Care
F	Mental Health
G	Diseases & Medical Disciplines
H	Medical Research
I	Crime & Legal
J	Employment
K	Food, Agriculture & Nutrition
L	Housing & Shelter
M	Public Safety
N	Recreation & Sports
O	Youth Development
P	Human Services
Q	International Affairs
R	Civil Rights
S	Community Improvement
T	Philanthropy & Grantmaking
U	Science & Technology
V	Social Science
W	Public & Societal Benefit
X	Religion
Y	Mutual & Membership Benefit
Z	Unknown

Output Fields

Field	Description
ein	9-digit Employer Identification Number
name	Organization legal name
city	City of primary address
state	2-letter US state code
zipcode	ZIP code (mode=byEIN)
address	Street address (mode=byEIN)
nteeCode	NTEE category code
subsectionCode	IRS 501(c) subsection number
assetAmount	Total assets in USD
incomeAmount	Total income in USD
revenueAmount	Total revenue in USD (mode=byEIN)
form990Count	Number of Form 990s filed
filingYear	Tax year of the filing
formType	Form type (990, 990-EZ, 990-PF)
totalRevenue	Total revenue from filing
totalExpenses	Total functional expenses
totalAssets	Total assets end of year
totalSupport	Total support received
pctOfficerCompensation	% of expenses for officer compensation
pdfUrl	Direct link to Form 990 PDF
propublicaUrl	ProPublica organization profile URL
rulingDate	IRS ruling date (YYYYMM format)
scrapedAt	ISO 8601 timestamp of scrape

Example Use Cases

Find education nonprofits in California:

{
  "mode": "search",
  "query": "education",
  "state": "CA",
  "nteeCode": "B",
  "maxItems": 100
}

Look up a specific organization by EIN:

{
  "mode": "byEIN",
  "ein": "530196605"
}

Get top 50 health nonprofits in New York:

{
  "mode": "topByRevenue",
  "state": "NY",
  "nteeCode": "E",
  "maxItems": 50
}

Data Source

All data is sourced from ProPublica's Nonprofit Explorer, which aggregates IRS Form 990 filings. The API is completely free and requires no authentication.

FAQs

Q: What is a Form 990? A: Form 990 is the IRS annual information return required from most tax-exempt organizations. It includes financial statements, governance information, and compensation data.

Q: What is an EIN? A: The Employer Identification Number (EIN) is a unique 9-digit number assigned by the IRS to identify organizations. Format: XX-XXXXXXX.

Q: How current is the data? A: ProPublica updates its data regularly as new Form 990s are processed by the IRS. Filings typically appear 6–18 months after the tax year ends.

Q: Can I get PDF copies of Form 990s? A: Yes — the pdfUrl field in mode=byEIN provides direct links to Form 990 PDF files hosted by ProPublica.

Q: What is NTEE? A: The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) is a classification system for nonprofit organizations developed by the IRS and the National Center for Charitable Statistics.

Q: Are all 1.8M nonprofits searchable? A: Yes. ProPublica indexes all organizations that have filed Form 990 with the IRS, including inactive organizations.

Q: Is there a cost to use this scraper? A: No. The underlying ProPublica API is free and public. This scraper uses only standard Apify datacenter proxies (included in the free tier).