nonprofits and charities

Many states also regulate charitable organizations and keep records on their operations.

In California charities must file annual reports with the Registry of Charitable Trusts, which is a division of the California Attorney General's Office.

The reports list a charity's address, its officers and directors and their salaries, and information on its types of income and how it spent its funds.

The organizations required to file with the Registry of Charitable Trusts typically are foundations, private charities and benevolent associations.

Indexes

An alphabetical index of the filings by all charitable organizations in California is kept at the Registry of Charitable Trusts office in Sacramento.

The file on each organization can be examined at the Sacramento office.

In most cases the organization will just file a copy of the form 990 it provided to the IRS.