We launched our Nonprofit Explorer app in May, combining several IRS open data sets to create an easy-to-use tool for journalists and others who want to research nonprofit groups. Today we’re releasing an update to Nonprofit Explorer, with two new features: First, we now include data for organizations that reported finances on Form 990-PF. That means nearly 100,000 private foundations and charitable trusts are now included in the Nonprofit Explorer database.

Today’s update also includes a free-to-use API that developers can use to access the data behind Nonprofit Explorer programmatically. Developers can use the API to enhance or build their own reporting tools and apps. The API includes endpoints for organization profiles and for full-text search. It returns all of the data we have in our database on a given organization, including dozens of form-specific fields even information that isn’t displayed on the public-facing Nonprofit Explorer website. The API also returns links to all available Form 990 PDF files (as provided by Public.Resource.Org). Our API is available for free as long as you follow our simple Data Terms of Use.

We expect to update the Nonprofit Explorer database each spring, when the Annual Extract of Tax-Exempt Organization Financial Data is released by the IRS.

We’re excited to open this database to other developers. See the documentation for more information and let us know what you’re building with it. We’d love to see what you make.