Last updated 2026-07-25
TL;DR
A board member treasurer is the volunteer who manages a nonprofit's money: tracking income and expenses, keeping bank records straight, reporting to the board, and making sure the group files the right IRS Form 990 variant every year. It's a board seat with real legal duty attached, more than a bookkeeping chore.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is the board member responsible for a nonprofit's money. That's the short version. The longer version: the treasurer tracks every dollar coming in (dues, ticket sales, concession stand cash, sponsorships) and every dollar going out (uniforms, insurance, tournament fees, snacks), keeps records straight enough that someone else could pick them up cold, and reports the group's financial position to the rest of the board on a regular schedule. Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports organizations are run entirely by volunteers, and the treasurer is usually the one person who actually knows where the money is. That's a lot of informal power for an unpaid, part-time job. It's also why treasurer transitions go badly so often: the outgoing treasurer retires or moves, and the incoming one inherits a shoebox of receipts, a bank login nobody wrote down, and no idea whether last year's 990 got filed. Legally, a treasurer sits on the board, which means the treasurer shares the board's overall fiduciary duty (duty of care, duty of loyalty, duty of obedience to the mission and to the law) along with everyone else. The treasurer role adds a specific layer of financial accountability on top of that general duty. State nonprofit corporation laws typically list treasurer (or equivalent officer) as one of the required officer positions for a nonprofit corporation, though small unincorporated booster clubs sometimes skip formal incorporation entirely and just designate a treasurer informally.
What does a treasurer do, day to day?
Day to day, a treasurer's work breaks into four buckets: recording, reconciling, reporting, and filing. Recording means logging every transaction as it happens, not two months later from memory. Cash from a bake sale, a Venmo payment for a fundraiser T-shirt, a check to the referee association: all of it needs a date, an amount, a category, and ideally a receipt or record attached. Spreadsheets work fine for small groups. Some organizations move to basic accounting software once income crosses roughly $25,000 to $50,000 a year, mostly because reconciling gets painful by hand at that volume. Reconciling means matching the books against the bank statement every month, no exceptions. If the checkbook says $4,200 and the bank says $4,150, someone finds the $50 before it becomes a mystery six months from now. This is the single habit that prevents most booster club financial messes. Reporting means giving the board (and often the membership) a clear picture on a regular cadence: a monthly or quarterly treasurer's report showing income, expenses, and current balance, plus a budget-to-actual comparison if the group has a budget. A one-page summary beats a twelve-tab spreadsheet nobody reads. Filing means the annual paperwork: state charity registration renewals where required, and the federal information return with the IRS, which for most small booster clubs and PTOs means Form 990-N (the "e-Postcard"). More on that below.
What does a club treasurer do differently from a corporate one?
A club treasurer (booster club, PTO, youth sports league) handles the same core job as any nonprofit treasurer, just at a smaller scale and usually with a lot more cash handling. Club treasurers deal with concession stand cash boxes, raffle ticket money, car wash proceeds, and parent reimbursements far more than they deal with grants or large donor checks. The practical differences that matter: cash controls need to be tighter because cash is easier to lose track of than a check or an ACH transfer. Two people should count concession or event cash together and both sign off on the total, every time. One person should never be the only one who touches cash from collection to deposit. Club treasurers also tend to have shorter institutional memory. A school PTO treasurer often serves one or two years before handing off to the next parent volunteer, which is exactly why documentation matters so much: login credentials, a written procedures list, copies of the last three years of filings, and a clear account of what's been paid and what's owed, all handed over at transition, not reconstructed from memory by the next person. A well-run club treasurer's binder (physical or digital) typically includes: the EIN and any state charity registration number, bank account details and authorized signers, the last three years of 990 filings or confirmations, the current budget, a reimbursement policy, and a cash-handling procedure. If your group doesn't have one of these, building it is the single highest-value thing a new treasurer can do in month one.
What is Form 990?
| Form 990-N (e-Postcard) | Small orgs | Normally $50,000 or less [2] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Form 990-EZ | Mid-size orgs | Gross receipts under $200,000 and total assets under $500,000 [3] | |
| Form 990 (full) | Larger orgs | Gross receipts of $200,000 or more, or total assets of $500,000 or more [3] | |
| Form 990-PF | Private foundations | All private foundations, regardless of size [3] | Most booster clubs and PTOs fall into the 990-N bucket. That doesn't make filing optional: 990-N is still mandatory for organizations under the threshold, it's just a short electronic form instead of a long one. |
Form 990 is the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS. It's not a tax bill in the traditional sense (most exempt organizations owe no income tax), it's a disclosure document: revenue, expenses, assets, governance practices, and compensation, all reported to the IRS and, because these filings are public, to anyone who looks them up. The IRS states plainly that "most tax-exempt organizations are required to file an annual return" and describes the 990 series as the mechanism for that reporting [1]. There isn't one single "990 tax form," there's a family of them sized to the organization: | Form | Who files it | Gross receipts threshold |
What is the 990 (and why does it matter to a treasurer specifically)?
The 990 matters to a treasurer because it's built entirely from the treasurer's own numbers. Every figure on the form (total revenue, total expenses, net assets, program spending versus administrative spending) comes straight out of the books the treasurer has been keeping all year. If the books are a mess, the 990 will be too, and a sloppy 990 is public: donors, grant-makers, and state charity regulators can all pull it. Missing the filing has a specific, hard consequence. The IRS is direct about it: "Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status" [4]. This isn't a warning system with a grace period. It happens automatically, and the IRS publishes the list of revoked organizations. Reinstating exempt status after auto-revocation means filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again and often paying the associated user fee, which as of recent IRS fee schedules runs $275 for Form 1023-EZ and $600 for the full Form 1023 [5]. A treasurer who keeps clean monthly records makes the annual 990 filing take an afternoon. A treasurer who doesn't makes it take a week of archaeology, or worse, makes it get skipped entirely, which is how three-year auto-revocation happens to well-meaning volunteer groups.
What does a treasurer of a club actually need to file each year?
Assuming the club has its own EIN (it should; using a parent's or coach's Social Security number is a bad idea for liability and continuity reasons), the annual filing checklist usually looks like this: 1. Determine gross receipts for the year to figure out which 990 variant applies (see the threshold table above). 2. File the appropriate 990 tax form by the deadline, which is the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's fiscal year ends (so May 15 for a calendar-year filer) [6]. 3. Check whether the state requires a separate charity registration renewal. Many states require nonprofits soliciting donations to register and renew annually with the state attorney general's office or a dedicated charity regulator; confirm with your state charity office since requirements and fees vary widely by state. 4. Keep the confirmation or acceptance record from the IRS filing in the transition binder for the next treasurer. A quirk worth knowing: 990-N can only be filed electronically through the IRS's own system, and there's no paper option and no extension available for it [2]. If a small club with under $50,000 in gross receipts wants a longer, more detailed form anyway (some groups do this for grant applications), they can voluntarily file a 990-EZ or full 990 instead.
What does a treasurer do if the group has already been auto-revoked?
First, don't panic, and don't assume the group has to shut down. Auto-revocation is common among small volunteer-run nonprofits precisely because treasurer turnover causes missed filings. The fix is a reinstatement application, not a new organization from scratch (usually). Organizations that have never had their exemption revoked before can file for reinstatement under the streamlined process if they submit Form 1023-EZ (or 1023) within 15 months of the later of the revocation date or the due date of the third missed return [7]. Miss that window and the process gets more involved, sometimes requiring a fuller explanation of reasonable cause for the missed filings. While reinstatement is pending, the organization is technically not tax-exempt, which affects whether donations to it are deductible and whether it owes income tax on revenue in the interim. This is exactly the kind of situation where confirming specifics with the IRS and, if the group solicits donations, the state charity office, beats guessing. A booster club treasurer walking into a revoked status should treat reinstatement as priority one before running any major fundraiser.
What financial controls should a treasurer put in place?
Controls exist to protect the treasurer as much as the organization. A treasurer who is the sole person with bank access, sole signer on checks, and sole person who reconciles the account is in a bad spot even if perfectly honest, because there's no one to vouch for them if a question ever comes up. A reasonable minimum control set for a small booster club or PTO: two signers required on checks above a set dollar threshold (commonly $250 to $500, set by your own bylaws), a second person who reviews and initials the monthly bank reconciliation, a written reimbursement policy with receipt requirements, and a rule that whoever counts event cash is never the only one who counts it. An annual or biennial internal review (even an informal one done by a non-treasurer board member) catches small errors before they become disputes. Full outside audits are usually overkill for small clubs and cost real money; a basic internal review by someone other than the treasurer covers most of the risk for free.
How does a treasurer hand off the role cleanly?
A clean handoff is a checklist, not a conversation over coffee. At minimum it should include: current bank balance and account numbers, list of authorized signers with a plan to update signature cards, the EIN, the last three years of 990 filings, any state charity registration numbers and renewal dates, an outstanding bills list, a list of recurring income sources and when they typically arrive, login credentials for any accounting software or payment platforms (Venmo, PayPal, Square), and the group's bylaws or financial policy if one exists. Writing this down once and updating it annually turns a stressful transition into a half-hour meeting. This is the exact gap a State-Personalized Treasurer Kit is built to close: a one-time, state-specific packet covering the filings, deadlines, and handoff documents a new treasurer actually needs, instead of piecing it together from a dozen tabs on irs.gov and a state website. It's not legal or tax advice, just an organized starting point.
Frequently asked questions
What does a treasurer do?
A treasurer tracks all money coming in and out of an organization, reconciles bank accounts monthly, reports the financial position to the board regularly, and files required tax paperwork like Form 990 or 990-N each year. It's a board-level role with fiduciary responsibility, more than bookkeeping.
What is a treasurer?
A treasurer is an officer, usually a board member, responsible for an organization's finances: recording transactions, safeguarding funds, reporting to the board, and handling required filings. In small nonprofits like booster clubs and PTOs, the treasurer is often the only person who fully understands the group's finances.
What do treasurers do that's different from a bookkeeper?
A bookkeeper records transactions. A treasurer does that plus makes financial decisions, reports to the board, signs off on the organization's tax filings, sets or enforces financial policy, and carries fiduciary duty as a board member. The treasurer role includes accountability that a hired bookkeeper role doesn't.
What is Form 990?
Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires most tax-exempt organizations to file, reporting revenue, expenses, and governance details. The IRS says most tax-exempt organizations must file one of the 990-series returns annually, sized to the organization by gross receipts and assets.
What does a treasurer do in a club, specifically?
In a club (booster club, PTO, youth league), a treasurer manages dues, fundraiser proceeds, and event cash, pays vendors and reimburses parent expenses, reports balances to the board at meetings, and files the annual 990-N or other required 990 variant with the IRS.
What does a club treasurer do about cash from events?
A club treasurer should ensure two people count event cash together, both sign the count sheet, and the money gets deposited promptly rather than held. No single person, including the treasurer, should be the only one who handles cash from collection through deposit.
What is a 990 tax form, exactly?
It's the family of IRS annual information returns for tax-exempt organizations: 990-N for the smallest (normally gross receipts of $50,000 or less), 990-EZ for mid-size, full Form 990 for larger organizations, and 990-PF for private foundations. Which one applies depends on the organization's gross receipts and total assets.
What is the 990 used for?
The IRS uses Form 990 to confirm an organization still qualifies as tax-exempt and to collect financial and governance disclosures. Because 990 filings are public, donors, grant-makers, and journalists also use them to check how a nonprofit spends its money.
Does a small booster club really have to file anything with the IRS?
Yes. Even booster clubs with very small budgets normally must file Form 990-N annually if they have federal tax-exempt status, unless they fall under a specific exception. Skipping it for three consecutive years causes automatic revocation of tax-exempt status under IRS rules.
What happens if a treasurer misses three years of 990 filings?
The organization automatically loses its tax-exempt status; the IRS states this happens automatically after three consecutive years of missed required filings. Reinstatement requires filing Form 1023 or 1023-EZ again, along with the associated user fee, and possibly requesting retroactive reinstatement within 15 months of revocation.
Who can be a treasurer for a nonprofit or booster club?
Usually any board member elected or appointed to the role under the organization's bylaws, though many states require officer positions like treasurer to be filled for a nonprofit corporation. There's no federal license or certification required; the role is defined by the organization's own governing documents.
How much should a treasurer's report cover at a board meeting?
A good treasurer's report shows current bank balance, income and expenses since the last meeting, year-to-date totals against budget if one exists, and any upcoming large expenses or fundraisers. One clear page beats a dense multi-tab spreadsheet nobody can follow in a five-minute meeting slot.
Sources
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: Most tax-exempt organizations are required to file an annual return with the IRS
- IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): Form 990-N applies to organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less and must be filed electronically with no extension
- IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: Thresholds distinguishing Form 990-EZ, full Form 990, and Form 990-PF filers by gross receipts and total assets
- IRS, Automatic Revocation of Exemption: Organizations that fail to file required returns for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status
- IRS Instructions for Form 1023-EZ, Rev. January 2025: Form 1023-EZ and Form 1023 user fees for reinstatement of tax-exempt status
- IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Due Date: Form 990 series returns are due the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's accounting period ends
- IRS Revenue Procedure 2014-11: Organizations can apply for streamlined retroactive reinstatement within 15 months of revocation if they have not previously had their exemption revoked