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Form 990 XML Data (GivingTuesday Data Lake)

Extract detailed financial data from IRS Form 990 XML filings using GivingTuesday's 990 Data Infrastructure.

🎯 Overview

Current data: IRS EO-BMF CSV files (basic info - name, EIN, address, NTEE code)
Enhancement: Form 990 XML filings from GivingTuesday Data Lake (detailed financials - revenue, expenses, programs, grants)

What is the GivingTuesday 990 Data Lake?

The 990 Data Infrastructure is a collaborative data lake of clean, standardized 990 data in XML format maintained by GivingTuesday. This is the rawest form of 990 data in GivingTuesday's infrastructure.

Data Lake Structure:

  • Bucket: gt990datalake-rawdata (AWS S3, us-east-1 Virginia)
  • Access: Public, no AWS credentials required (--no-sign-request)
  • E-filed 990s: EfileData/XmlFiles/ (individual XML returns)
  • Indices: Indices/990xmls/ (CSV files listing all available 990s)

Console Access: https://us-east-1.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/buckets/gt990datalake-rawdata

What's the Difference?

Data SourceTypeRecordsData RichnessAccess MethodBest For
EO-BMF CSV ✅ Currently usingBasic registry1.9M+⭐ LowDirect downloadInitial org list
Google BigQuery ⚡ RecommendedSQL queries5M+⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ HighSQL (serverless)Bulk mission/website extraction
GivingTuesday Data Lake 🚀 AdvancedXML files5.4M+⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Very HighS3 downloadDetailed parsing, custom fields

📊 What Additional Data You Can Get

From Form 990 XML:

  • Financials: Total revenue, program revenue, contributions, grants, investment income
  • Expenses: Total expenses, program expenses, administrative, fundraising
  • Assets: Total assets, liabilities, net assets
  • Programs: Program service descriptions, accomplishments, expenses per program
  • Governance: Board members, officer compensation, key employees
  • Grants: Grants awarded, grant recipients
  • Mission: Detailed mission statement and program descriptions
  • Activities: Legislative activities, political expenditures, lobbying

Example: Instead of just knowing "Alabama Oral Health Foundation exists," you get:

  • Revenue: $2.5M
  • Program expenses: $1.8M
  • Grants awarded: $500K to 10 community health centers
  • Mission: "Improve oral health access in underserved communities"
  • Officers: CEO Sarah Johnson ($150K salary)
  • Website: https://alabamaoralhealth.org

Fastest way to enrich 1M+ organizations with missions and websites!

Why BigQuery?

Google Cloud hosts the complete IRS 990 dataset in BigQuery - a serverless SQL database that lets you query 5 million Form 990s in seconds without downloading any files.

Key advantages:

  • No downloads: Query directly in the cloud
  • Blazing fast: Bulk queries complete in <30 seconds
  • Free tier: First 1 TB/month is free (enough for most research)
  • SQL interface: Easy to extract specific fields
  • No infrastructure: Serverless, nothing to manage

Cost: Form 990 text fields are small - you can query all 1.9M nonprofits for ~$0 using the free tier.

Quick Start

1. Set up Google Cloud (one-time)

# Install Google Cloud SDK
# Visit: https://cloud.google.com/sdk/docs/install

# Authenticate
gcloud auth login

# Set project
gcloud config set project YOUR_PROJECT_ID

2. Extract mission statements & websites for all Alabama health orgs

-- Query in BigQuery Console or via bq CLI
SELECT
ein,
organization_name,
website_address_txt AS website,
activity_or_mission_desc AS mission,
total_revenue_current_year AS revenue,
total_expenses_current_year AS expenses,
tax_period
FROM `bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_2023`
WHERE state = 'AL'
AND ntee_code LIKE 'E%'
AND activity_or_mission_desc IS NOT NULL
ORDER BY total_revenue_current_year DESC
LIMIT 10000;

3. Run query from Python

from google.cloud import bigquery
import pandas as pd

# Initialize BigQuery client
client = bigquery.Client()

# Query for Alabama + Michigan health nonprofits with missions
query = """
SELECT
ein,
organization_name,
website_address_txt AS website,
activity_or_mission_desc AS mission,
total_revenue_current_year AS revenue,
total_expenses_current_year AS expenses,
total_assets_eoy AS assets,
state,
tax_period
FROM `bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_2023`
WHERE state IN ('AL', 'MI')
AND ntee_code LIKE 'E%'
AND total_revenue_current_year > 0
AND activity_or_mission_desc IS NOT NULL
"""

# Execute query and load to DataFrame
df = client.query(query).to_dataframe()
print(f"Retrieved {len(df):,} organizations with missions")

# Clean XML tags from mission text
import re
df['mission_clean'] = df['mission'].str.replace(r'<[^>]+>', '', regex=True).str.strip()

# Save locally
df.to_parquet('data/gold/nonprofits_990_bigquery.parquet')

4. Merge with existing nonprofit data

import pandas as pd

# Load your existing nonprofit data (from IRS EO-BMF)
orgs = pd.read_parquet('data/gold/nonprofits_organizations.parquet')
print(f"Existing orgs: {len(orgs):,}")

# Load BigQuery results with missions & websites
bq_data = pd.read_parquet('data/gold/nonprofits_990_bigquery.parquet')
print(f"BigQuery results: {len(bq_data):,}")

# Merge on EIN
enriched = orgs.merge(
bq_data[['ein', 'mission_clean', 'website', 'revenue', 'expenses', 'assets']],
on='ein',
how='left',
suffixes=('', '_990')
)

# Fill missing data from 990 fields
if 'mission' not in enriched.columns:
enriched['mission'] = enriched['mission_clean']
if 'website' not in enriched.columns:
enriched['website'] = enriched['website_990']

# Show enrichment stats
missions_added = enriched['mission'].notna().sum()
websites_added = enriched['website'].notna().sum()
print(f"✅ Missions: {missions_added:,} ({100*missions_added/len(enriched):.1f}%)")
print(f"✅ Websites: {websites_added:,} ({100*websites_added/len(enriched):.1f}%)")

# Save enriched dataset
enriched.to_parquet('data/gold/nonprofits_enriched_bigquery.parquet')
print(f"💾 Saved {len(enriched):,} enriched organizations")

Expected results:

  • 30-50% of orgs will have missions (larger orgs file Form 990)
  • 20-40% will have websites listed
  • 100% will have EIN matching for revenue/expense data

BigQuery Table Structure

The IRS 990 dataset is organized into multiple tables matching Form 990 schedules:

Master Index Table

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_index

  • Links all returns together
  • Fields: ein, organization_name, tax_period, return_id (foreign key)

Main Return Tables (by year)

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_YYYY - Full Form 990

  • Mission: activity_or_mission_desc
  • Website: website_address_txt
  • Financials: total_revenue_current_year, total_expenses_current_year
  • Assets: total_assets_eoy, total_liabilities_eoy
  • State/NTEE: state, ntee_code

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_ez_YYYY - Form 990-EZ (smaller orgs)

  • Mission: mission_description
  • Website: website_address_txt
  • Financials: total_revenue, total_expenses

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_pf_YYYY - Form 990-PF (Private Foundations)

  • Grants: Largest grants awarded (for grantmakers)
  • Financials: Foundation-specific fields

Schedule Tables (Detailed Information)

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_schedule_a_YYYY

  • Public charity status and public support calculations

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_schedule_j_YYYY

  • Executive compensation (CEO, CFO, board member salaries) 💰

bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_schedule_r_YYYY

  • Related organizations and transactions

Complete Field Mapping

Data PointTable NameField NameNotes
Organization Nameirs_990_indexorganization_nameMaster list
EIN (Primary Key)All tablesein9-digit ID
Mission (990-EZ)irs_990_ez_YYYYmission_descriptionSmaller orgs
Mission (Full 990)irs_990_YYYYactivity_or_mission_descLarger orgs
Website URLirs_990_YYYY, irs_990_ez_YYYYwebsite_address_txtBoth forms
Total Revenueirs_990_YYYYtotal_revenue_current_yearAnnual revenue
Total Expensesirs_990_YYYYtotal_expenses_current_yearAnnual expenses
Program Expensesirs_990_YYYYprogram_service_revenueProgram revenue
Assetsirs_990_YYYYtotal_assets_eoyEnd of year
Liabilitiesirs_990_YYYYtotal_liabilities_eoyEnd of year
Executive Salariesirs_990_schedule_j_YYYYCompensation fieldsCEO, CFO pay
Grants Paidirs_990_pf_YYYYGrant fieldsFor foundations
Tax PeriodAll tablestax_periodYYYYMMDD format
Stateirs_990_YYYYstate2-letter code

Query Examples for All Key Fields

Extract mission, website, AND revenue from both 990 and 990-EZ:

-- Combine Full 990 and 990-EZ for complete coverage
WITH full_990 AS (
SELECT
ein,
activity_or_mission_desc AS mission,
website_address_txt AS website,
total_revenue_current_year AS revenue,
total_expenses_current_year AS expenses,
'990' AS form_type
FROM `bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_2023`
WHERE state IN ('AL', 'MI')
AND activity_or_mission_desc IS NOT NULL
),
ez_990 AS (
SELECT
ein,
mission_description AS mission,
website_address_txt AS website,
total_revenue AS revenue,
total_expenses AS expenses,
'990-EZ' AS form_type
FROM `bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_ez_2023`
WHERE state IN ('AL', 'MI')
AND mission_description IS NOT NULL
)
SELECT * FROM full_990
UNION ALL
SELECT * FROM ez_990
ORDER BY revenue DESC;

Add executive compensation:

-- Get mission + CEO salary
SELECT
f.ein,
f.activity_or_mission_desc AS mission,
f.website_address_txt AS website,
f.total_revenue_current_year AS revenue,
j.compensation_amount AS ceo_compensation
FROM `bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_2023` f
LEFT JOIN `bigquery-public-data.irs_990.irs_990_schedule_j_2023` j
ON f.ein = j.ein
WHERE f.state = 'AL'
AND j.title_txt LIKE '%CEO%' OR j.title_txt LIKE '%President%'
ORDER BY revenue DESC
LIMIT 100;

Data Cleaning Tips

The catch: Some fields have messy XML tags embedded (like <MissionDesc>). Clean with regex:

import re
import pandas as pd

# Clean XML tags from missions
df['mission_clean'] = df['mission'].str.replace(r'<[^>]+>', '', regex=True)

# Trim whitespace
df['mission_clean'] = df['mission_clean'].str.strip()

# Remove common artifacts
df['mission_clean'] = df['mission_clean'].str.replace(r'\s+', ' ', regex=True)

Cost Estimation

Free tier: 1 TB of queries per month (resets monthly)

Typical query costs:

  • Extract missions for 1M orgs: ~50 GB scanned = FREE
  • Extract all fields for 1M orgs: ~200 GB scanned = FREE
  • Full table scan of all years: ~2 TB = $10 (one-time cost)

Tip: Use WHERE clauses to filter by state/NTEE to reduce data scanned.


🚀 GivingTuesday Data Lake (For Advanced Parsing)

Option 1: Via AWS Console (Free Account)

  1. Visit aws.amazon.com and create a free AWS account (requires CC for validation, but no charges for accessing this data)
  2. Log in to AWS Console
  3. Open the data lake: https://s3.console.aws.amazon.com/s3/buckets/gt990datalake-rawdata/?region=us-east-1&tab=objects

Prerequisites: Install AWS CLI

# List main bucket contents
aws s3 ls gt990datalake-rawdata --no-sign-request

# List indices (CSV files listing all 990s)
aws s3 ls gt990datalake-rawdata/Indices/990xmls/ --no-sign-request

# Download the latest index
aws s3 cp \
s3://gt990datalake-rawdata/Indices/990xmls/index_all_years_efiledata_xmls_created_on_2023-10-29.csv \
data/cache/form990_index.csv \
--no-sign-request

# Download a specific 990 XML
aws s3 cp \
s3://gt990datalake-rawdata/EfileData/XmlFiles/[OBJECT_ID]_public.xml \
data/cache/form_990_xml/ \
--no-sign-request

Option 3: Automated Python Integration

Use our enrichment script that automates downloading and parsing:

import boto3
from botocore import UNSIGNED
from botocore.config import Config
import pandas as pd

# Configure S3 client for GivingTuesday Data Lake (no credentials needed)
s3 = boto3.client(
's3',
region_name='us-east-1',
config=Config(signature_version=UNSIGNED)
)

# Download index to find available 990s
index_response = s3.get_object(
Bucket='gt990datalake-rawdata',
Key='Indices/990xmls/index_all_years_efiledata_xmls_created_on_2023-10-29.csv'
)
index_df = pd.read_csv(index_response['Body'])

print(f"Available 990s: {len(index_df):,}")
print(f"Columns: {index_df.columns.tolist()}")

# Find 990s for a specific EIN
ein = "123456789"
org_filings = index_df[index_df['EIN'] == ein]

# Download latest filing
if len(org_filings) > 0:
latest = org_filings.iloc[0]
xml_key = f"EfileData/XmlFiles/{latest['OBJECT_ID']}_public.xml"

xml_obj = s3.get_object(Bucket='gt990datalake-rawdata', Key=xml_key)
xml_content = xml_obj['Body'].read()

# Parse with xmltodict (simplified approach)
import xmltodict
doc = xmltodict.parse(xml_content)
# Extract fields from doc['Return']['ReturnData']['IRS990']

🤖 Automated Enrichment Script

We provide scripts/enrich_nonprofits_gt990.py - a complete automated solution.

Quick Start

Step 1: Download Index (One-Time Setup)

# Install dependencies
pip install boto3 xmltodict pandas pyarrow tqdm loguru

# Download GivingTuesday Data Lake index (~200MB CSV, 1M+ records)
python scripts/enrich_nonprofits_gt990.py --download-index

This creates data/cache/form990_gt_index.parquet for fast EIN→OBJECT_ID lookups.

Step 2: Enrich Your Data

# Enrich all Tuscaloosa nonprofits
python scripts/enrich_nonprofits_gt990.py \
--input data/gold/nonprofits_tuscaloosa.parquet \
--output data/gold/nonprofits_tuscaloosa_form990.parquet \
--concurrent 20

# Enrich Alabama + Michigan health orgs
python scripts/enrich_nonprofits_gt990.py \
--input data/gold/nonprofits_organizations.parquet \
--output data/gold/nonprofits_990_enriched.parquet \
--states AL MI \
--ntee E \
--concurrent 50

# Test with sample
python scripts/enrich_nonprofits_gt990.py \
--input data/gold/nonprofits_organizations.parquet \
--output /tmp/test_990.parquet \
--sample 100

Features

Index-based lookup: Uses OBJECT_ID from GivingTuesday index (no filename guessing)
Async/parallel: Process 20-50 organizations concurrently
Smart caching: JSON cache prevents re-downloading same 990s
Automatic retries: Handles S3 errors gracefully
Progress tracking: tqdm progress bar with ETA
Comprehensive logging: Detailed logs with statistics

Performance

  • Speed: ~2-3 sec/org (download + parse)
  • Concurrent=20: ~450 orgs/hour
  • Concurrent=50: ~1,100 orgs/hour
  • 1,000 orgs @ 50% success: ~15-20 minutes

Enriched Fields

The script adds these columns to your DataFrame:

form_990_status # 'found', 'not_found', or 'parse_error'
form_990_tax_year # e.g., 202312
form_990_filing_type # 990, 990EZ, or 990PF
form_990_total_revenue # Total revenue
form_990_total_expenses # Total expenses
form_990_net_income # Revenue - Expenses
form_990_contributions # Donations and grants received
form_990_program_revenue # Revenue from programs/services
form_990_investment_income # Investment income
form_990_program_expenses # Program service expenses
form_990_admin_expenses # Administrative expenses
form_990_fundraising_expenses # Fundraising expenses
form_990_total_assets # Total assets
form_990_total_liabilities # Total liabilities
form_990_net_assets # Assets - Liabilities
form_990_grants_paid # Grants awarded to others
form_990_mission # Mission statement
form_990_last_updated # Timestamp of enrichment

# Filter to your state
alabama_filings = filings_index[filings_index['State'] == 'AL']
print(f"Alabama filings: {len(alabama_filings):,}")

# Sample columns
# EIN, OrganizationName, State, URL, SubmittedOn, TaxPeriod

🔗 Integration with Current Data

Enrich Existing Nonprofits

import pandas as pd
from form990_parser import Form990Parser
import boto3

# Load your current nonprofit data
orgs = pd.read_parquet('data/gold/nonprofits_organizations.parquet')

# Filter to Alabama health organizations (NTEE code E)
health_orgs = orgs[
(orgs['state'] == 'AL') &
(orgs['ntee_code'].str.startswith('E', na=False))
]

print(f"Alabama health nonprofits: {len(health_orgs):,}")

# Enrich with Form 990 data
s3 = boto3.client('s3', region_name='us-east-1')
parser = Form990Parser()

enriched = []
for idx, org in health_orgs.iterrows():
ein = org['ein']

# Try to find most recent 990
try:
# Construct likely S3 key (simplified - actual naming varies)
key = f"{ein}_202312_990.xml"

xml_obj = s3.get_object(Bucket='irs-form-990', Key=key)
xml_content = xml_obj['Body'].read()

filing_data = parser.parse_xml(xml_content)

# Merge with org data
org_enriched = org.to_dict()
org_enriched.update(filing_data)
enriched.append(org_enriched)

except Exception as e:
# No 990 found for this org
continue

enriched_df = pd.DataFrame(enriched)
enriched_df.to_parquet('data/gold/nonprofits_alabama_health_990.parquet')

print(f"Enriched {len(enriched_df):,} organizations with Form 990 data")

💾 Data Schema

Form 990 Parser Output

{
# Basic Info
'ein': '123456789',
'organization_name': 'Alabama Oral Health Foundation',
'tax_year': 2023,
'tax_period': '202312',

# Financials
'total_revenue': 2500000,
'total_expenses': 2100000,
'net_income': 400000,
'total_assets': 5000000,
'total_liabilities': 500000,

# Revenue Breakdown
'contributions_grants': 1200000,
'program_service_revenue': 800000,
'investment_income': 300000,
'other_revenue': 200000,

# Expense Breakdown
'program_expenses': 1800000,
'administrative_expenses': 200000,
'fundraising_expenses': 100000,

# Programs
'program_service_descriptions': [
{
'description': 'Community dental clinics',
'expenses': 1000000,
'grants': 200000
},
{
'description': 'School fluoride programs',
'expenses': 500000,
'grants': 100000
}
],

# Governance
'officers': [
{
'name': 'Sarah Johnson',
'title': 'CEO',
'compensation': 150000
},
{
'name': 'John Smith',
'title': 'CFO',
'compensation': 120000
}
],

# Mission
'mission_statement': 'Improve oral health access in underserved communities...',
'program_accomplishments': 'Served 10,000 patients in 2023...'
}

📈 Performance Considerations

Data Volume

  • Form 990 XMLs: ~300,000 new filings per year
  • Average XML size: 500KB - 5MB
  • Total storage: ~500GB for all historical 990s (2011-present)

Processing Speed

Sequential (current approach):

  • Download + parse: ~2-5 seconds per 990
  • 300,000 filings × 3 sec = 250 hours 😱

Async parallel (recommended):

  • 50 concurrent workers
  • 300,000 filings × 3 sec / 50 = 5 hours

Smart Strategies

  1. Filter first: Only download 990s for organizations you care about

    # Only health orgs in your states
    health_eins = orgs[
    (orgs['state'].isin(['AL', 'MI'])) &
    (orgs['ntee_code'].str.startswith('E'))
    ]['ein'].tolist()

    # Result: ~50,000 instead of 300,000 = 1 hour
  2. Use index files: Download the index first, filter, then fetch XMLs

    # Get index
    index = pd.read_json('https://s3.amazonaws.com/irs-form-990/index_2023.json')

    # Filter to your EINs
    relevant = index[index['EIN'].isin(health_eins)]

    # Only download these
    for url in relevant['URL']:
    # download and parse
  3. Cache aggressively: 990s don't change after filing

    cache_dir = Path('data/cache/form_990_xml')
    cache_file = cache_dir / f"{ein}_{tax_year}.parquet"

    if cache_file.exists():
    return pd.read_parquet(cache_file)
    else:
    # download, parse, cache

🎯 Use Cases

1. Financial Health Analysis

# Which nonprofits are most financially stable?
df['efficiency_ratio'] = df['program_expenses'] / df['total_expenses']
df['reserve_months'] = df['net_assets'] / (df['total_expenses'] / 12)

efficient = df[df['efficiency_ratio'] > 0.75] # >75% on programs
print(f"Efficient organizations: {len(efficient):,}")

2. Grant Research

# Who's giving grants in oral health?
grantmakers = df[
(df['grants_paid'] > 0) &
(df['ntee_code'].str.startswith('E'))
]

print(f"Oral health grantmakers: {len(grantmakers):,}")
print(f"Total grants: ${grantmakers['grants_paid'].sum():,.0f}")

3. Program Discovery

# Find organizations running specific programs
fluoride_programs = df[
df['program_service_descriptions'].str.contains('fluoride', case=False, na=False)
]

print(f"Orgs with fluoride programs: {len(fluoride_programs):,}")

🚀 Next Steps

Quick Test

# Install dependencies
pip install form-990-xml-parser boto3

# Test with single organization
python -c "
from form990_parser import Form990Parser
import boto3

s3 = boto3.client('s3', region_name='us-east-1')
ein = '631307851' # Delta Dental of Alabama (example)

try:
# Try to fetch 2023 filing
key = f'{ein}_202312_990.xml'
obj = s3.get_object(Bucket='irs-form-990', Key=key)

parser = Form990Parser()
data = parser.parse_xml(obj['Body'].read())

print(f'Organization: {data.get(\"organization_name\")}')
print(f'Revenue: \${data.get(\"total_revenue\", 0):,.0f}')
print(f'Assets: \${data.get(\"total_assets\", 0):,.0f}')
except Exception as e:
print(f'Error: {e}')
"

Full Integration

Create a new enrichment pipeline:

# Create new script
python scripts/enrich_nonprofits_form990.py \
--input data/gold/nonprofits_organizations.parquet \
--output data/gold/nonprofits_organizations_990.parquet \
--states AL MI \
--ntee E \
--concurrent 50

📚 Resources

❓ FAQ

Q: Are we currently downloading XML?

A: No. Currently using EO-BMF CSV files (basic data). Form 990 XML would be an enhancement for detailed financials.

Q: Can we use Giving Tuesday libraries?

A: Yes! They're open source and designed exactly for this purpose. Would provide much richer data.

Q: How much data is it?

A:

  • All 990s (2011-present): ~500GB
  • Alabama only: ~5GB
  • Alabama health orgs: ~500MB
  • Very manageable!

Q: What's the license?

A: Public domain (U.S. Government data) + Giving Tuesday tools are open source

Q: Integration effort?

A: Low - can reuse existing async enrichment patterns. Estimated: 1-2 days for initial integration.