Treasurer of a nonprofit: what they do and must file

Last updated 2026-07-25

what does a treasurer do?

A nonprofit treasurer is the officer responsible for the organization's money: tracking it, reporting on it, and making sure someone with authority signs off before it moves. That's the short version. The longer version is that a treasurer sits at the intersection of bookkeeping, board governance, and compliance, and in a small booster club or PTO, they're often the only person who understands where the money actually is. Day to day, a treasurer reconciles the bank account against the books, pays bills, deposits cash from concessions or fundraisers, and keeps receipts organized enough that someone else could reconstruct the year if needed. Month to month, they build a budget, compare actual spending to it, and report variances to the board. Year to year, they close the books, prepare (or hand to a preparer) whatever tax filing the organization owes the IRS, and renew any state charitable registration or raffle license. The treasurer isn't usually the person who decides how money gets spent. That's the board's job, working from bylaws and budget votes. The treasurer's job is to make sure the board's decisions are recorded accurately, the cash matches the ledger, and nobody (including the treasurer) has unchecked access to move money without a second set of eyes. That last point is the one new treasurers underrate most, and it's also the one an audit or IRS inquiry will check first.

what is a treasurer, exactly, in a nonprofit's structure?

A treasurer is one of the standard officer roles in a nonprofit corporation, usually named in the bylaws alongside president, vice president, and secretary. Most state nonprofit corporation statutes require at least a president and secretary; a treasurer role (sometimes combined with secretary as "secretary-treasurer") is common but the exact requirement varies by state, so confirm what your state's nonprofit corporation law and your own bylaws actually require. Legally, the treasurer is a fiduciary. That means they owe the organization duties of care and loyalty, same as any other board member or officer: act in good faith, act in the organization's interest rather than personal interest, and exercise the judgment a reasonably careful person would in the same role. The treasurer doesn't personally guarantee the organization's finances, but they can be personally exposed if they knowingly sign off on self-dealing, ignore clear fraud, or fail to file required tax returns for years running. In practice, most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues are small enough that the treasurer is a volunteer parent with a day job, not an accountant. That's fine and completely normal. It just means the systems (a written procedure for deposits, a second signer on the bank account, a shared drive with prior years' filings) matter more than any individual's expertise, because the treasurer will change every year or two.

what do treasurers do month by month?

The rhythm of the job is pretty predictable once you've been through a full cycle. Here's a realistic monthly and annual breakdown for a small booster club or PTO. Monthly: collect and deposit cash/checks promptly (don't let deposits sit in someone's car for two weeks), reconcile the bank statement against your ledger, pay approved bills, and give the board a one-page summary of income, expenses, and current balance. If you're running a concession stand or fundraiser, count cash with a second person present and log the count on paper both people sign. Quarterly: check in on budget-to-actual for major line items (uniforms, tournament fees, facility rentals), and if the group holds a raffle, confirm your state's raffle license or registration is current before the next event, since state raffle rules and license terms vary widely and some states require renewal annually. Annually: close the books at fiscal year end, prepare or hand off information for the Form 990 filing, renew state charitable solicitation registration if your state requires it, and do a handoff packet for whoever takes the treasurer role next. The IRS notes that most small tax-exempt organizations "whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less" satisfy their annual reporting requirement by filing Form 990-N, the electronic postcard ^[1]. Bigger organizations owe more detailed forms, covered below.

what does a club treasurer do differently from a big nonprofit's treasurer?

A club treasurer, whether for a booster club, PTO, or youth sports league, does the same core job as a treasurer at a large nonprofit, just at a smaller scale and usually without paid staff to lean on. The fundamentals (bank reconciliation, board reporting, tax filing, controls) don't change. What changes is the tooling and the stakes per transaction. At a big nonprofit, the treasurer oversees a finance committee and maybe a paid bookkeeper or controller; they're setting policy and reviewing summaries, not entering every transaction themselves. At a booster club, the treasurer often is the bookkeeper, the person who counts concession cash, and the one who fills out the 990-N. There's no controller checking their work. That makes two things more important for club treasurers specifically: simple, written procedures (so the next volunteer can pick it up cold) and a second signer requirement on the bank account, even if it feels like overkill for an account with a few thousand dollars in it. Small-dollar embezzlement in volunteer-run groups is common precisely because oversight is thin and turnover is high; a second signature and a habit of the board reviewing monthly statements closes most of that gap for free.

what is Form 990 and does the club actually have to file it?

Form 990 is the annual information return that tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS to report income, expenses, activities, and governance. It's not an income tax return in the traditional sense (most exempt organizations owe no federal income tax), but it's how the IRS and the public track what a tax-exempt group is actually doing with its money. Nearly every organization that holds federal tax-exempt status under Section 501(c) owes some version of it every year, and there's no dollar threshold that lets you skip filing entirely, only a threshold that determines which version you file. The IRS states plainly: "Most tax-exempt organizations are required to file an annual return. Which form an organization must file generally depends on its financial activity" ^[2]. Skipping the filing entirely, for any size organization, is the mistake that leads to automatic revocation. So yes, your booster club or PTO almost certainly has to file something every year, even if it's the simplest version. Which version depends on gross receipts and assets, covered in the next section.

what is the 990 tax form, and which version does a small booster club file?

Form 990-N (e-Postcard)	Small orgs	Gross receipts normally $50,000 or less [1]
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 $200,000+ OR total assets $500,000+ [3]
Form 990-PF	Private foundations	All private foundations, regardless of size [3]	Most booster clubs, PTOs, and youth sports leagues fall into the 990-N bucket. The e-Postcard is genuinely simple: eight pieces of information (EIN, tax year, legal name, mailing address, website if any, confirmation that gross receipts are $50,000 or less, and a statement that the organization hasn't dissolved), filed electronically through the IRS's own portal [1]. There's no financial detail to report on the 990-N itself, though you still need to keep your own books straight enough to know your gross receipts qualify you for it. If your group's fundraising has grown past $50,000 in a year, you've likely stepped up to Form 990-EZ or the full Form 990, both of which ask for actual financial statements, program descriptions, and governance disclosures. That's a good trigger point to bring in a bookkeeper or accountant familiar with nonprofit filings, since the EZ and full 990 are meaningfully more involved than the e-Postcard. See our guides on [990](/articles/treasurer-basics/990), irs form 990, and 990 tax form filing basics for more detail on each version.

The "990 tax form" is really a family of forms, scaled to organization size. Here's the breakdown that matters for a volunteer treasurer: | Filing | Who files it | Rough threshold |

what is form 990-N, and why does it matter so much for small clubs?

Form 990-N is the electronic notice, called the e-Postcard, that small tax-exempt organizations file instead of a full return when their gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less ^[1]. It's free to file, takes about ten minutes if you have your EIN and basic org info handy, and is submitted through the IRS's own online system rather than mailed. The reason it matters disproportionately to booster clubs and PTOs is the penalty for ignoring it. The IRS doesn't send a bill for a missed 990-N. There's no late fee on the form itself. Instead, under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j), an organization that fails to file its required annual return or notice for three consecutive years automatically loses its tax-exempt status, with no advance warning letter required by law before that automatic revocation hits ^[4]. Because the 990-N has no financial penalty attached, a lot of volunteer treasurers assume it's optional or low-priority. It isn't. It's the tripwire for losing exemption entirely. Once revoked, the organization has to reapply for exempt status, potentially owing income tax retroactively and losing eligibility for grants and tax-deductible donations in the meantime. The IRS maintains a public Tax Exempt Organization Search where you can check your own organization's current status and filing history; if you're taking over as treasurer and you're not sure the prior person filed anything for the last few years, check that first, before you do anything else. See our form 990-n and 990n pages for the filing walkthrough.

what does a treasurer of a club do if the organization's exemption was already auto-revoked?

If you inherit the treasurer role and discover on the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search that the group's status shows "Revoked," don't panic, but do move quickly. Revocation is common in volunteer-run groups where treasurers rotate every year or two and nobody flags the annual filing to the next person. The fix, in general terms, is reinstatement: the organization typically has to file an application for recognition of exemption again (the specific form depends on the organization's type and history) along with the delinquent returns for the missed years, and in some cases pay a reduced fee if applying within a certain window after revocation. The IRS describes the process, along with the streamlined retroactive reinstatement option for organizations that were eligible to file Form 990-N or 990-EZ, in Revenue Procedure 2014-11 ^[5]. The exact forms, fees, and eligibility rules change periodically, so confirm the current process and fees directly with the IRS's exempt organizations guidance rather than relying on old blog posts, including this one, for the specific dollar figures. While you're sorting out reinstatement, also check whether your state requires separate action. Some states tie state tax exemption or charitable registration status to federal exempt status, so a federal revocation can cascade into state-level problems too. Confirm with your state's charity registration office or attorney general's office what happens on their end.

what does a treasurer of a nonprofit do around raffles and fundraising events?

If the club runs a raffle, 50/50, or similar game of chance, the treasurer is usually the one who has to secure the license, track ticket sales against prize payouts, and file whatever post-event report the state charity office requires. Raffle law is entirely state-level; there's no federal raffle license. Some states require a specific charitable gaming or raffle license with its own fee and application; others require nothing beyond general charitable registration; a few restrict raffles to certain types of organizations entirely. Because this varies so much, the treasurer's real job here is knowing to check before the event, not after. Confirm with your state's charity office, attorney general, or gaming commission what license or registration your specific fundraiser needs, what the fee is, and what reporting is due afterward, since running an unlicensed raffle can create real legal exposure for the organization and, in some states, for the individuals running it. Beyond raffles, general fundraising events (auctions, sponsorship drives, concession sales) mostly just need clean books: a record of what came in, what it cost to raise, and where it went. That record is also what supports your 990 filing and any state charitable solicitation report, so good event bookkeeping isn't extra work, it's the same work you'd need to do anyway, just organized by event.

what controls should a treasurer put in place from day one?

Financial controls sound like a big-organization concept, but the basics scale down fine to a five-person board and a $15,000 annual budget. A few things every new treasurer should set up in the first month: Two signers on the bank account, with any check or transfer over a set dollar threshold (pick something reasonable for your budget size, maybe $250 or $500) requiring both signatures or at least a second person's written approval. Never let one person both approve and execute a payment alone. A simple deposit log: date, source, amount, who counted it, who deposited it. If cash changes hands at a concession stand or gate, two people count it together and both sign the count sheet before it goes in a bag for deposit. Monthly bank reconciliation, reviewed (more than filed) by someone other than the treasurer, ideally the board president or a designated finance committee member. A reconciliation nobody else looks at isn't really a control. A written handoff document, updated as you go rather than written in a scramble in June, covering account logins, filing deadlines, license renewal dates, and where prior years' records live. This is the single highest-leverage document a volunteer treasurer can create, because it's what prevents the next person from re-learning everything from zero, or worse, missing a 990-N deadline because nobody told them it existed. If building that from scratch feels like a lot, a $99 State-Personalized Treasurer Kit packages the handoff templates, filing checklists, and state-specific raffle and registration reminders into one starting point, which is faster than assembling it yourself from a dozen government PDFs.

how does a treasurer hand off the role to the next volunteer?

Handoff is where a lot of small nonprofits quietly lose their compliance history. The outgoing treasurer knows where everything is; the incoming one doesn't; six months later nobody can find last year's 990-N confirmation or the raffle license renewal date, and the gap starts to compound. A clean handoff packet should include: the EIN and login for the IRS's exempt organization tools, copies of the last three years of Form 990 filings (whichever version applies), the state charitable registration renewal date if applicable, bank account details and current signers, the current budget and a summary of the prior year's actuals, and a list of recurring vendors or obligations (uniform suppliers, facility rental contracts, insurance). Do the handoff as a working session, not a box of papers dropped off. Walk the new treasurer through one bank reconciliation together, show them where the 990-N filing portal is, and confirm they know the deadline (the 990-N is due by the 15th day of the 5th month after the organization's accounting period ends, per IRS guidance ^[1]). If your state requires an annual charitable registration renewal, note that deadline too, since it's easy to miss when there's no penalty notice mailed automatically. Our audit and handoff resources cover the fuller checklist if you're building this out for the first time.

what happens if the treasurer just doesn't file anything?

Nothing happens immediately, which is exactly the trap. No late notice arrives in year one. No fee gets charged for a missed 990-N. The organization just quietly accrues a missed year, and then another, and by year three, under Section 6033(j), the exemption is automatically revoked with no separate notice-and-cure period required by statute before it takes effect ^[4]. After revocation, the practical damage stacks up fast: the organization is treated as a taxable entity going forward until reinstated, donations made to it may no longer be tax-deductible to donors, and grant-making foundations that require proof of current 501(c)(3) status (which is most of them) will decline to fund it until status is restored. Reinstatement is possible but takes paperwork, time, and in some cases fees, plus filing the returns that were missed. The fix costs nothing preventable: check the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search once a year, know your filing deadline, and file the 990-N (or EZ, or full 990) every single year even in a year where the club barely fundraised. It's the cheapest compliance task a treasurer has and the one with the worst consequence for skipping it.

Frequently asked questions

what does a treasurer do in a nonprofit?

A nonprofit treasurer manages the organization's money: reconciling bank accounts, paying approved bills, tracking income from dues or fundraisers, reporting to the board monthly, building the budget, and making sure the required IRS filing (990-N, 990-EZ, or full 990) and any state charitable registration get filed on time each year.

what is a treasurer's main legal responsibility?

The treasurer's core legal duty is fiduciary care: keeping accurate records, avoiding self-dealing, and making sure the organization files its required annual IRS return. Missing that filing for three straight years triggers automatic revocation of tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j), which is the single biggest preventable failure a treasurer can allow.

what is Form 990?

Form 990 is the annual information return tax-exempt organizations file with the IRS reporting income, expenses, and activities. It comes in several versions (990-N, 990-EZ, full 990, 990-PF) scaled to organization size, and nearly every 501(c) organization owes one version every year, per IRS guidance on annual exempt organization returns.

what is Form 990-N and who has to file it?

Form 990-N, the e-Postcard, is the simplified annual filing for tax-exempt organizations whose gross receipts are normally $50,000 or less. It's free, filed electronically through the IRS, and requires only basic identifying information, no financial detail, according to IRS guidance on annual electronic filing requirements.

what does a club treasurer do differently from a corporate treasurer?

A club treasurer at a booster club or PTO usually does the bookkeeping personally, with no paid staff or finance department behind them, unlike a treasurer at a large nonprofit who oversees a committee. The core duties (reconciling accounts, reporting to the board, filing the annual IRS return) are the same, just handled solo and at a much smaller scale.

does a small booster club really have to file taxes every year?

Yes. Even booster clubs and PTOs with under $50,000 in gross receipts must file Form 990-N annually. There's no exemption from filing based on small size, only a simpler version of the form. Skipping it for three consecutive years causes automatic loss of tax-exempt status under federal law.

what happens if a nonprofit misses its 990 filing?

One missed year usually triggers no immediate penalty or notice. But missing three consecutive years causes automatic revocation of federal tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 6033(j), with no required advance warning. Reinstatement afterward requires reapplying for exempt status and filing the delinquent returns.

how do I check if my nonprofit's tax-exempt status was revoked?

Use the IRS's Tax Exempt Organization Search tool (apps.irs.gov/app/eos) and search by name or EIN. It shows current exempt status and filing history, including whether the organization was automatically revoked for missed 990 filings. New treasurers should check this in their first week on the job.

does a treasurer need to be a licensed accountant?

No. Most booster club, PTO, and youth sports treasurers are volunteer parents with no accounting license or formal training. What matters more is following clean procedures: reconciling accounts monthly, requiring two signers on payments, and keeping records organized enough for the next volunteer to pick up. This is general information, not accounting or legal advice.

what records should a treasurer keep and for how long?

Keep bank statements, deposit logs, receipts, board-approved budgets, and copies of every IRS filing (990-N confirmations, 990-EZ, or full 990) for at least the current year plus several prior years. The IRS can ask about a filing years after submission, and a clean multi-year paper trail is also what protects an incoming treasurer during handoff.

does a nonprofit treasurer need a raffle license to run a 50/50?

It depends entirely on the state; there's no federal raffle license. Some states require a specific charitable gaming or raffle license with its own fee and reporting requirements, others fold it into general charitable registration, and a few restrict who can run one at all. Confirm directly with your state's charity office or attorney general before the event.

who is legally responsible if a nonprofit treasurer mishandles funds?

The treasurer, as a fiduciary, can face personal exposure for knowing misconduct like self-dealing or covering up fraud, though ordinary honest mistakes are generally not personally punishable if the board exercised reasonable oversight. This varies by state nonprofit corporation law and isn't legal advice; consult an attorney for a specific situation.

Sources

1. IRS, Annual Electronic Filing Requirement for Small Exempt Organizations (Form 990-N): 990-N eligibility threshold and filing requirements for organizations with gross receipts normally $50,000 or less
2. IRS, Annual Exempt Organization Return: Who Must File: most tax-exempt organizations must file an annual return, version depending on financial activity
3. IRS, Form 990 Series Which Forms Do Exempt Organizations File: gross receipts and asset thresholds determining 990-EZ, full 990, and 990-PF filing requirements
4. 26 U.S.C. Section 6033(j), Internal Revenue Code: automatic revocation of tax-exempt status after failing to file required annual returns for three consecutive years
5. IRS Revenue Procedure 2014-11: streamlined retroactive reinstatement process and reduced-fee eligibility window for organizations auto-revoked under Section 6033(j)
6. IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search: public tool for checking an organization's current exempt status and filing history, including automatic revocation