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Northstar Toolkit is the nonprofit data platform — every US nonprofit and foundation from IRS 990 filings, as free search, a developer API, and an MCP server for AI agents. The 990 base layer is free, and stays free.
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Connect

Point Claude — or any MCP client — at every 990 ever filed. Free.

The Northstar MCP (Model Context Protocol) server gives AI assistants direct access to our modeled IRS 990 warehouse: every US nonprofit and foundation, with financials, executive compensation, grants, and semantic search. Paste one URL and start asking questions — no account required.

Server URL

https://www.northstartoolkit.com
/api/mcp

Works keyless with generous free limits. Add a free API key from your account to lift them.

Claude.ai

  1. Open Settings → Connectors in Claude.ai
  2. Click Add connector
  3. Paste the server URL: https://www.northstartoolkit.com /api/mcp

Claude Code

Run this in your terminal:

claude mcp add --transport http northstar https://www.northstartoolkit.com
/api/mcp

Claude Desktop

Add this to your claude_desktop_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "northstar": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://www.northstartoolkit.com
/api/mcp"
      ]
    }
  }
}

Cursor

  1. Open Settings → MCP in Cursor
  2. Click Add new MCP server
  3. Paste the server URL

ChatGPT

  1. Open a conversation and click the tools icon
  2. Select Add MCP connector
  3. Paste the server URL

Things to ask

  • “What does the Ford Foundation pay its executives, and how does that compare to similar foundations?”
  • “Find food banks in Texas with revenue over $5M and show their program-expense ratios.”
  • “Which foundations funded youth-homelessness work in the last three years?”

Available Tools

Organizations

org_lookup

Full profile for any EIN — identity, latest financials, people, and available filings

get_filing

The complete modeled 990 for a given year: line items, balance sheet, programs, compensation

financial_trends

Multi-year financial time series — revenue, expenses, net assets, program-expense ratio

get_people_compensation

Officers, directors, and key employees with reported pay per year

grants_made

Grants a foundation has paid (990-PF + Schedule I): recipient, amount, purpose, year

find_peers

Similar organizations by category, size band, and mission similarity

Search & benchmarks

search_nonprofits

Semantic search over missions and program text — describe what you mean, not just names

filter_organizations

Structured filters: state, NTEE, revenue and asset ranges, employees, and more

people_search

Find a person across all nonprofit filings — affiliations and compensation

benchmark_compensation

Compensation percentiles by sector and revenue band — the consultancy question, answered

search_grant_opportunities

Active grant opportunities from Grants.gov and hundreds of feeds

search_news

Nonprofit-sector news about philanthropy and organizations

Usage & limits

Keyless use is free with generous rate limits. A free API key raises them, and the Builder tier raises them further and permits commercial use. If you hit a limit, the error message tells you exactly what to do next.

Troubleshooting

  • 429 Too Many Requests— You've hit the keyless rate limit. Get a free key to lift it.
  • Connection errors — Make sure your client supports remote MCP servers over HTTP; older clients may need the mcp-remote bridge shown in the Claude Desktop section.
  • Timeout errors — Detail lookups on very large organizations can take a few seconds. Try again or narrow the query.