Nonprofit treasurer job description: what the role covers

Last updated 2026-07-25

What is a treasurer?

A treasurer is the officer (elected, appointed, or just "the parent who volunteered") responsible for a nonprofit's or club's money. That means tracking what comes in, what goes out, what's left, and being able to explain all three to the board or membership at any point. In a small booster club or PTO, the treasurer is usually not a professional accountant. It's a volunteer, often a parent, who inherited a checkbook, a shoebox of receipts, or a QuickBooks login from last year's treasurer with no real handoff. That's normal, and it's exactly why this job description exists: to spell out what the role actually covers so nobody is guessing. Legally, most state nonprofit corporation statutes don't require a treasurer by that exact title, but they do require someone to keep accurate financial records and make them available to directors. Your own bylaws almost certainly name the treasurer as that person. If you haven't read your bylaws' treasurer section in the last year, that's step one, before you read anything else here.

What does a treasurer do, exactly?

At the core, a treasurer does five things on repeat: record transactions, reconcile the bank account, report to the board, protect the money, and file the required tax paperwork. Everything else is a variation on those five. Record transactions. Every dollar in (dues, ticket sales, concession revenue, sponsorships, donations) and every dollar out (uniforms, referee fees, venue rentals, reimbursements) gets logged with a date, amount, and category. A spreadsheet is fine for a group with a five-figure budget. A dedicated small-nonprofit accounting tool makes sense once you're juggling multiple funds or grants. Reconcile the bank account. Monthly, the treasurer compares the bank statement to the internal ledger and explains any difference. This is the single most effective fraud-detection habit a small nonprofit has, and it's also the one that gets skipped when everyone's busy. Don't skip it. Report to the board. Most bylaws require a financial report at each board meeting: cash on hand, budget-to-actual, upcoming obligations. The treasurer doesn't need Excel wizardry here, just consistency: same format, same categories, every meeting. Protect the money. This covers physical cash handling at concession stands and events, dual signatures on checks over a set threshold, and making sure no single person both approves and pays an expense. See financial controls for the specifics. File the tax paperwork. Nearly every tax-exempt organization, regardless of size, has to file something with the IRS every year. Miss it three years running and the IRS automatically revokes your exempt status, no warning letter required beyond the notices they already sent. More on that below.

What do treasurers do in a club, PTO, or booster organization specifically?

A club treasurer's day-to-day is more hands-on than a large nonprofit's CFO-adjacent treasurer. You're more than approving budgets, you're often the one physically counting the concession stand cash box at 9pm after a Friday night game. Typical club treasurer duties include: managing the bank account and signers, collecting dues or fees, tracking fundraiser income (car washes, raffles, spirit wear, concessions), reimbursing coaches or parent volunteers for approved purchases, preparing a simple budget each season, and presenting a treasurer's report at monthly meetings. Many booster clubs and PTOs also handle raffles, which is its own regulatory layer separate from the IRS. Most states require a charitable gaming or raffle license before you sell a single ticket, and the rules (who can run it, where proceeds must go, reporting after the fact) vary by state. Check your state charity office or attorney general's charitable division before your first raffle, not after. A club treasurer of a small youth sports organization ($10,000 to $75,000 annual budget is a common range for these groups, though nobody publishes a definitive survey of this) is realistically doing bookkeeper, controller, and compliance officer work in one unpaid role. That's a lot for one volunteer, which is why splitting duties (one person handles deposits, another writes checks) matters even in a tiny club.

What is Form 990, and does the treasurer have to file it?

Form 990-N (e-Postcard)	Gross receipts normally $50,000 or less	Basic info only, filed online [2]
Form 990-EZ	Gross receipts under $200,000 AND total assets under $500,000	Short form [3]
Form 990 (full)	Gross receipts $200,000+ OR total assets $500,000+	Full form [3]
Form 990-PF	Private foundations	Regardless of size [4]	Most booster clubs and PTOs fall into the 990-N bucket. Don't assume, though: check your last three years of gross receipts against the thresholds every year, because a big fundraiser or grant can bump you into 990-EZ territory without anyone noticing until it's too late. The treasurer is typically the one who either files this directly or hands the numbers to whoever does (a board member, a volunteer accountant, or a paid preparer). Either way, the treasurer is accountable for knowing the deadline: the 15th day of the 5th month after your fiscal year ends. For a calendar-year organization, that's May 15. [5]

Form 990 is the annual information return that most tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS to report income, expenses, and activities for the year. It's not a tax bill in most cases (exempt orgs generally don't owe income tax on mission-related revenue), it's a disclosure document. The IRS states plainly: "Tax-exempt organizations, nonexempt charitable trusts, and section 527 political organizations file this form to provide the IRS with the information required by section 6033." ^[1] Which version you file depends on gross receipts and assets: | Filing | Who files it | Threshold |

What happens if the treasurer misses the 990 filing?

Miss it once, and for most small orgs, nothing dramatic happens immediately, though the IRS can assess penalties for late 990-EZ or full 990 filings. Miss it three years in a row, and the consequence is automatic and severe: the IRS revokes your tax-exempt status by operation of law, no appeal process for the revocation itself. The IRS's own guidance is direct: "Organizations that fail to file required Form 990-series returns or notices for three consecutive years will automatically lose their tax-exempt status." ^[6] This isn't rare. The IRS has revoked exempt status from hundreds of thousands of organizations under this rule since it took effect in 2010 (following the Pension Protection Act of 2006's new 990-N filing requirement for small orgs). If your booster club or PTO went a few years without a treasurer paying attention, checking the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search tool for your own name is a five-minute task worth doing today. If you've been revoked, you're not stuck. The IRS has a streamlined retroactive reinstatement process for small organizations that qualified for 990-N or 990-EZ, generally requiring Form 1023 or 1023-EZ filed within 15 months of the revocation date. ^[7] Confirm current procedures and fees with the IRS before assuming you qualify, since the rules and user fees change.

What does a treasurer of a club do that's different from a corporate treasurer?

A corporate or large-nonprofit treasurer often oversees investment policy, debt, cash-flow forecasting for a professional finance team. A club or booster treasurer almost never touches any of that. Instead the job is closer to bookkeeper-plus-compliance-officer: fewer dollars, but more hands-on transaction work and more exposure to informal cash handling (concession stands, bake sales, car washes) that a corporate treasurer never sees. The other big difference is turnover. Club and PTO treasurers typically serve one to three years, then hand off to someone new, often with minimal training. A corporate treasurer role has institutional continuity: manuals, finance staff, an audit committee. A club treasurer often has none of that unless the outgoing treasurer builds it. That's the whole reason a written handoff packet (bank access, passwords, filing history, vendor list) matters more here than almost anywhere else in the nonprofit world. One shortcut a lot of new treasurers use: a state-specific starter kit that bundles the bylaws-required treasurer report template, a 990-N eligibility checklist, and a bank-account handoff form in one place, so you're not building all of it from scratch in your first month. BoosterLedger's $99 one-time Treasurer Kit is built for exactly that first-90-days scramble, though you can absolutely assemble the same pieces yourself with the free IRS and state resources linked throughout this article.

What records does a treasurer have to keep, and for how long?

At minimum: bank statements, deposit records, receipts for expenses, board meeting minutes referencing financial decisions, the annual budget, and copies of every 990-series filing. The IRS recommends keeping records that support items on a return for at least 3 years from the filing date, and longer (up to 7 years) in some situations, such as if you filed a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad debt. Practically, most treasurer handoff guides recommend keeping at least 7 years of financial records on hand regardless, since state charity registration renewals and the occasional IRS inquiry can reach back further than you'd expect. Digital storage (a shared drive, not one person's personal laptop) solves 90% of the "the old treasurer disappeared with the files" problem that plagues small nonprofits.

Does a treasurer need to be a CPA or have accounting training?

No. Nothing in the IRS rules or in typical state nonprofit statutes requires a treasurer to hold any credential. Most booster club and PTO treasurers are parents or volunteers with no formal accounting background, and that's fine as long as the organization builds in basic checks: someone else reviewing the bank statement, a second signer on large checks, an annual outside review if the budget is big enough to justify it. Where a credential matters more is if your gross receipts push you into full Form 990 territory ($200,000+) or if your state requires an independent audit above a certain revenue threshold (several states set audit or CPA-review thresholds for charities, commonly in the $500,000 to $2 million range, though the exact number varies by state, so confirm with your state charity office).

What's the difference between treasurer duties and a bookkeeper's job?

A bookkeeper records transactions. A treasurer does that too, but also owns the bigger picture: budgeting, board reporting, compliance deadlines, and internal controls. In a large nonprofit these might be two different people or even two different departments. In a booster club, they're almost always the same volunteer wearing two hats. If your club is big enough (regularly clearing six figures a year, running multiple fundraisers and a paid coach or staff person), it's worth considering whether to split the roles: a treasurer who oversees policy and reporting, and a separate bookkeeper (paid or volunteer) who handles day-to-day entry. That split alone catches errors that one overworked volunteer doing everything solo tends to miss.

How does the treasurer role fit with state raffle and fundraising rules?

If your club runs raffles, bingo, or other games of chance to raise money, that's regulated separately from your IRS filing status. Most states require a specific charitable gaming license, often issued by the state attorney general's office, secretary of state, or a dedicated gaming commission, and the license usually has to be renewed and reported on annually. The treasurer is typically the person who applies for or renews this license, tracks ticket sales against reported proceeds, and makes sure the raffle proceeds get spent on the stated charitable purpose (a common requirement in state raffle statutes). Rules on who can sell tickets, minimum ages, and reporting deadlines differ enough state to state that there's no single national answer here. Confirm with your state's charity office or attorney general before your first raffle.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What does a treasurer do?

A treasurer tracks all money coming into and out of an organization, keeps the books reconciled with the bank, reports finances to the board regularly, protects funds through basic controls (dual signers, receipts, reconciliation), and files the organization's required IRS return each year, whether that's the 990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990.

What is a treasurer?

A treasurer is the officer or volunteer responsible for an organization's money: recording it, reporting on it, and safeguarding it. In clubs, PTOs, and booster organizations, it's usually a parent or member volunteer rather than a paid professional, and the role is defined in the group's bylaws.

What do treasurers do in a typical month?

A typical month includes recording new income and expenses, reconciling the bank statement against the ledger, preparing a short financial report for the board meeting, paying approved bills or processing reimbursements, and tracking upcoming deadlines like fundraiser deposits or the annual 990 filing date.

What is Form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return the IRS requires from most tax-exempt organizations under Internal Revenue Code section 6033, reporting income, expenses, and program activities for the year. It's a public disclosure document, not typically a tax bill, and which version (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) depends on gross receipts and total assets.

What does a club treasurer do differently from a nonprofit treasurer?

The core duties are the same (record, report, protect, file), but a club treasurer usually does more hands-on cash handling, like counting concession stand proceeds, and less strategic financial planning. Club treasurers also turn over more often, typically every one to three years, making written handoff documentation especially important.

What is a 990 tax form used for?

It's used by the IRS to monitor whether a tax-exempt organization's activities and finances match its stated exempt purpose, and it's made public so donors and watchdogs can review it. Despite the name, most filers owe no tax with it; it's a reporting requirement, not typically a tax return in the income-tax sense.

What is the 990, in plain terms?

It's the annual report a tax-exempt organization files with the IRS. Small orgs (gross receipts normally $50,000 or less) file the simple 990-N e-Postcard online with basic information; larger orgs file the 990-EZ or full 990 with detailed financial statements and program descriptions.

Does every nonprofit have to file a 990 every year?

Almost every tax-exempt organization has to file some version of the 990 series annually, even tiny ones, using the 990-N if gross receipts are $50,000 or less. Very few exceptions exist (some churches and church-affiliated organizations); confirm your organization's specific filing requirement with the IRS.

What happens if a booster club or PTO treasurer misses three years of 990 filings?

The IRS automatically revokes the organization's tax-exempt status after three consecutive years of missed 990-series filings, per the Pension Protection Act of 2006's requirement. There's no appeal for the automatic revocation itself, though small organizations can often apply for retroactive reinstatement using a streamlined process within 15 months of the revocation posting.

Can a treasurer also be the club president or another officer?

Most bylaws and good-governance guidance recommend against combining the treasurer role with the president or check-signer role, since that removes a key internal check. If your organization is small enough that combining roles is unavoidable, add a compensating control, like a second person reviewing bank statements monthly.

Do treasurers need to be bonded or insured?

It's not a universal legal requirement, but many state PTO and booster associations recommend fidelity bond coverage for treasurers who handle significant cash, and some umbrella organizations (like state PTA affiliates) require it. Check your organization's insurance policy and any state or national affiliate bylaws for specifics.

What's the first thing a new treasurer should do when taking over?

Get bank account access transferred into your name, pull the last three years of 990 filings from the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool to confirm the group's status wasn't revoked, and request all financial records and passwords from the outgoing treasurer in writing before they're unreachable.

Sources

1. IRS, Form 990 instructions overview: Form 990 is filed under section 6033 by tax-exempt organizations to report required information to the IRS
2. IRS, Annual electronic filing requirement for small exempt organizations (Form 990-N): Organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less can file the 990-N e-Postcard
3. IRS, Form 990 Series which forms do exempt organizations file: Thresholds distinguishing 990-N, 990-EZ, and full Form 990 filers by gross receipts and total assets
4. IRS, About Form 990-PF: Private foundations file Form 990-PF regardless of size
5. IRS, Annual exempt organization return: due date: 990-series returns are due the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's fiscal year end
6. IRS, Automatic revocation of exemption: Organizations that fail to file required 990-series returns for three consecutive years automatically lose tax-exempt status
7. IRS, How long should I keep records: IRS recommends keeping records supporting a return for at least 3 years, up to 7 in certain situations