Most US nonprofits file their board with the IRS each year. Read across years, those filings show who governs each organisation and which boards are turning over - directors kept apart from officers and staff, tenure observed from filings rather than filed dates.
America's nonprofit boards, read across years of public filings
Start with an organisation or a resolved person, then follow what the annual filings show - service, turnover, and the connections the IRS never joins up.
Who governs
The directors and trustees of 762,372 nonprofits, exactly as filed - officers and staff held separately.
Which boards are turning over
Observed tenure and departures from year-to-year filings - the boards where seats have opened.
Who to approach
An Approach Score from departures, size, chair service and tenure - every score shows its reasons.
How they connect
Cross-organisation resolution is being built - nothing is joined on a name alone.
Coverage
Coverage is drawn from available IRS Form 990-series filings. Small organisations filing only the Form 990-N postcard, and some bodies (such as churches) not required to file an annual return, may not disclose a board roster. Board members are the directors and trustees named in Part VII; tenure is observed across filings, a lower bound rather than a filed date.
The record, by source
| No. | Source | Relative to the largest | Records |
|---|---|---|---|
| IRS Business Master File | |||
| 1 | Tax-exempt organisations | 1,983,563 | |
| Form 990 annual filings | |||
| 2 | Board-member records (directors and trustees) | 4,979,148 | |
| 3 | Filings read, tax years 2016-2025 | 4,098,627 | |
| 4 | Officer and senior-staff records | 1,973,157 | |
| 5 | Filed financial records | 487,291 | |
| SEC insider filings (Forms 3/4/5, 2006-present) | |||
| 6 | Director and officer roles at listed companies | 466,179 | |
| 7 | People identified by Commission CIK | 271,318 | |
| 8 | SEC-reporting issuers | 20,760 | |
How it is built
Deterministic throughout - no AI-generated records, no self-declared data, nothing from LinkedIn or paid people-data. If a record about you is wrong, tell us and we will check it against the filing.
- Every Form 990, 990-EZ and 990-PF filing published by the IRS is read - 4,098,627 filings across tax years 2016-2025 - and every person row kept as an immutable, source-attributed mention.
- Board membership follows the filing's own role indicators: directors and trustees join the board; officers, key employees and highest-compensated staff are held in a separate layer; former people go to history.
- Where the same person appears across years, their records are reconciled under conservative, evidence-led rules - every merge is recorded and reversible, and ambiguous names are never combined.
- Nothing is ever joined on a name alone, and nothing is inferred that the filings do not support.
- Tenure, departures and the Approach Score are computed from the observed filing history alone; the edition never states that an organisation is recruiting.
The board is the directors and trustees named in Part VII of the organisation's annual IRS Form 990; officers and senior staff are listed separately below, not counted as board. The IRS files no appointment date, so tenure here is observed from how many years a person appears on the filings - a lower bound, not a filed start date. Names are exactly as filed. The IRS publishes no person identifier, so this edition does not yet link a person across organisations.
Source: IRS Tax-Exempt Organization filings and the Exempt Organization Business Master File. US Federal Government public domain. Board history observed across annual filings.
Recruiter views
Boards most likely to approach →
Ranked by the Approach Score - observed departures, size, chair service and board tenure.
Boards with open seats →
Nonprofits that lost the most board members between their last two filings.
Long-serving chairs →
Boards whose chair has appeared on the filings for the longest, where a chair transition may approach.
Public-company boards →
Directors and officers of SEC-reporting companies, each identifier-verified by their Commission CIK.
Elected representatives
Congress & state legislatures →
Members of Congress, current and historical, plus current state legislators.
Federal advisory committees
Federal advisory committees →
Named committee members across federal agencies, with the dates each was appointed to serve.
School boards
Texas school boards →
Elected trustees across Texas independent school districts, by role.
Highest Approach Scores
Source: IRS Tax-Exempt Organization filings and the Exempt Organization Business Master File. US Federal Government public domain. Board history observed across annual filings.
Largest boards on file
Source: IRS Tax-Exempt Organization filings and the Exempt Organization Business Master File. US Federal Government public domain. Board history observed across annual filings.