Free Interactive Tool
Nonprofit EIN, NTEE, and UN SDG Classification
With millions of tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations in the US, finding relevant information about them can be a daunting experience. Use our NTEE Code Finder tool below to find the answers to common questions about over 3.7 million US tax-exempt organizations.
If you find this tool useful and would like to help keep it free for all, show your support by making a donation to Giving Compass. Giving Compass Insights, formerly X4Impact, is the data services initiative of Giving Compass Network.
Request an Update of Your Organization’s Data
If any information displayed for your organization (website, address, NTEE Code, UN SDG classification, etc) needs to be adjusted in our database, an officer of your organization can request an update here.
Need Help With Your Organization’s NTEE Code?
It’s estimated that up to 33% of nonprofit organizations in the US have the wrong NTEE Code assigned, or don’t have one at all, which can have significant impacts on an organization’s fundraising efforts. We’ve designed two easy-to-use tools specifically to help nonprofit executives understand the NTEE classification system, determine your correct code, and request an official update with the IRS:
Nonprofit Data for Business Use
GC Insights works hard to ensure we have the cleanest nonprofit data in the industry. We created the Nonprofit Code Finder as a service to all. It is meant to help individual nonprofits in getting transparency into the data that is reported on their organization as a pathway for data integrity.
We also license our data through custom datasets and our API to impact-driven donors, solution providers, and nonprofit leaders to facilitate the understanding of the US nonprofit sector and power the social impact solutions of tomorrow. Learn more about our data licensing.
Looking for free nonprofit data? Learn about our complimentary daily query limits here.
A Comprehensive View of an Organization’s NTEE Code
The National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) system was developed by the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS) and is used by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and NCCS to classify tax-exempt organizations. A specialist from the IRS assigns an NTEE code to each organization exempt under I.R.C. § 501(a) as part of the process of closing a case when the organization is recognized as tax-exempt. For more information and more detailed definitions of these codes developed by the National Center for Charitable Statistics (NCCS), visit the Urban Institute.
The code may be adjusted later on by the IRS to better reflect the nature of the mission of the organization. Many private organizations and foundations rely on the NTEE code to approve grants, but in close to 33% of cases, there are significant discrepancies between the code reported by the IRS, the one reported by the NCCS, and the one inferred from the mission statement of the organization.
- NTEE reported by the IRS, updated monthly.
- NTEE reported by the NCCS, updated annually.
As well as the category the organization falls under based on the automated analysis of the organization’s mission statement and impact areas as reported in the organization’s filing with the IRS, updated monthly.
What is an EIN Number?
Each organization has a distinct EIN number provided by the Internal Revenue Service. EIN stands for Employer Identification Number and is also known as the Federal Employer Identification Number or the Federal Tax Identification Number. This is a unique nine-digit number assigned by the IRS to business entities operating in the United States for the purposes of identification. Both for-profit and nonprofit organizations have IRS EIN numbers.
UN SDG Classification and NTEE Updates
The UN Sustainable Development Goals provide a common framework for organizing funding, partnerships, and support for the millions of organizations working on key issues like poverty alleviation and climate change. We have classified organizations under the UN SDGs based on how their mission, impact statements, website content, and other information reported to the IRS aligns with the 169 Targets and 231 Indicators defined by the UN.
The NTEE code might be adjusted by the IRS to better reflect the nature of the mission of the organization. The IRS publishes an updated table of the NTEE codes by EIN periodically and we update our database weekly. If you think that your NTEE code needs to be adjusted with the IRS, follow these guidelines from the IRS.
How are UN SDG Classification and NTEE Codes Used?
Using NTEE codes and the UN SDG taxonomy helps capital sources, donors, foundations, and impact investors inform social impact funding strategies. Thanks to our Founding Partners, we offer this free tool to simplify your EIN search, NTEE code lookup, and understanding of an organization’s alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals. We process over one million IRS records monthly to keep this tool updated.