Form SI-100: California Nonprofit Statement of Information

Important note: This article is general educational information, not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Confirm any requirement with the California Secretary of State or a qualified professional before you rely on it.

You are probably here because a notice from the California Secretary of State arrived, or because someone on the board asked whether “the state form” was done and nobody was sure which form that meant. Form SI-100, California’s Statement of Information for nonprofit corporations, is short, costs $20 and comes around every two years — which is exactly why it is easy to lose track of.

The form itself asks for very little: who your three officers are, where the corporation can be reached, and who accepts legal papers for it. What makes it matter is what the state does with those answers.

Here is what the SI-100 asks, when your filing window opens, what happens if it is missed, and how to fix a missed one.

On this page

• A forwarding address, not a report
• What Form SI-100 asks
• When the SI-100 is due
• How to file and what it costs
• What happens if you don’t file the SI-100
• Fixing a missed or suspended filing
• Look-alike notices from private companies
• What to settle before you file
• Getting help with nonprofit accounting
• Sources reviewed
• Frequently asked questions
• Related NPO Resources guides

A forwarding address, not a report

Think of the SI-100 as the change-of-address card you leave with the post office. It reports nothing about your money or your programs. It tells the state who is in charge and where to send the mail — and every later step in California’s process starts with a piece of mail.

The Secretary of State sends a reminder about three months before your filing window closes. If the statement is not filed, a notice of delinquency follows. Both go to the address the Secretary of State has on record, which is normally the one on your last statement, and Corporations Code section 6210(c) is blunt about the result: “Neither the failure of the Secretary of State to send the notice nor the failure of the corporation to receive it is an excuse for failure to comply with this section.”

So the useful question is not only “did we file?” but “would we see the next notice?” If your last statement lists a treasurer who left, or an office you moved out of, the reminders and the delinquency notice go there. A current SI-100 is what keeps them reaching someone who will act.

What Form SI-100 asks

The form and section 6210 ask for the same short list:

The form also lets you opt in to email notices instead of postal mail; to change that choice later, you file a new complete statement. The officer titles are fixed: the form says “the preprinted titles on this form must not be altered,” though you may add a title, such as president, next to the chief executive officer or chief financial officer line. Your board’s own titles can differ; the state still wants the person in each of its three roles.

It works like the emergency contact card a school keeps for each student: it only helps if the names and numbers are still right when someone needs them.

Nothing here is financial. The SI-100 does not ask for revenue, assets or a copy of Form 990. If your organization is a registered charity, the financial reporting goes to the Attorney General instead, on the RRF-1 renewal.

When the SI-100 is due

A California nonprofit corporation files its first SI-100 within 90 days of incorporating, then every two years during a six-month window that ends on the last day of its incorporation month.

The first statement is due within 90 days after the articles of incorporation are filed. After that, the statement is due every two years, during what section 6210 calls the “applicable filing period”: the calendar month your original articles were filed and the five months before it. The Secretary of State’s FAQ adds that nonprofit corporations file every two years, “only in odd years or only in even years based on year of initial registration.”

The Secretary of State’s Statements of Information page publishes the window for each month. Your incorporation date appears as “Date Filed” on the state’s Business Search.

From the Secretary of State’s Statements of Information page, read 23 October 2026.

For example, a corporation incorporated in March files from the first day of October through the last day of March, every second year. Filing any time in the window is on time; if the window closes with nothing filed, the Secretary of State sends a notice of delinquency. You should also file a new statement between windows whenever the information changes, and you must file one to change your agent for service of process or the agent’s address. Each new statement replaces the last one.

The same rules reach religious corporations through section 9660 and its penalty provisions through section 9690; mutual benefit corporations have parallel sections of their own, 8210 and 8810.

How to file and what it costs

The filing fee is $20, with an optional $5 certification fee. The Secretary of State’s forms page lists online filings at “5 days or less” and paper forms at “10+ days.”

1. Check that you can file online. Since August 1, 2026, the Secretary of State says “web User Access is required for Statement of Information filings,” and the option to file only appears for users whose access is set up. If the person who filed last time has left, request access through bizfile Online before the window closes.
2. Look up your entity and confirm the exact name and entity number.
3. Enter the three officers and the addresses, using street addresses where the form requires them.
4. Confirm the agent for service of process, and that the agent still agrees to serve.
5. Opt in to email notices if a shared mailbox will be watched more reliably than the office mail.
6. Pay the $20 fee and keep the filed copy with your board records.

To file on paper instead, mail the SI-100 PDF with a check or money order payable to the Secretary of State. Questions about User Access go to [email protected] or (916) 653-6814. An association formed to manage a common interest development, under the Davis-Stirling Act or the Commercial and Industrial Common Interest Development Act, must also file the Statement by Common Interest Development Association; the combined Form NP-CID costs $35 ($20 for the Statement of Information plus $15 for the CID statement).

What happens if you don’t file the SI-100

Read the suspension rule closely: it does not stack on top of the penalty, it takes its place. Because nonprofits file only every two years, one missed statement can be enough to leave nothing on file for the preceding 24 months. In that case, once the corporation is certified for that filing period, the Secretary of State sends a 60-day suspension notice instead of the $50 penalty, and the corporation can lose its “corporate powers, rights, and privileges.” Once suspended, the corporation can still file an application for exempt status and amend its articles for that purpose or to set a new name, and it can still file the statement itself.

Fixing a missed or suspended filing

The fix starts the same way in every case: file a current statement. Then:

• Filed within the 60 days after the delinquency notice? Under section 6810(e), if the corporation was certified anyway, the Secretary of State decertifies it and the Franchise Tax Board abates the penalty.
• Penalty already assessed? The Secretary of State can waive it for “reasonable cause or unusual circumstances.” Its FAQ says a request can be sent in writing to the Statement of Information Unit – Attention: Statement of Information Penalties, P.O. Box 944230, Sacramento, CA 94244–2300, or through its online penalty waiver request, and that a current statement must be on file before the request is considered. It also notes that not receiving a reminder does not excuse the late filing.
• Suspended under section 5008.6? Filing the statement lets the Secretary of State certify that to the Franchise Tax Board, and the corporation may then be relieved from suspension — unless the Franchise Tax Board is holding it in suspension for its own reasons under the tax code. In that case the tax side has to be cleared too.

Look-alike notices from private companies

The Secretary of State’s FAQ warns that private companies send mass mailings offering to prepare annual minutes or file the Statement of Information, made “to appear similar to our Statement of Information form.” A separate FAQ entry describes letters directing corporations to send “$495 or some other amount” to a private company to dissolve or to file a Statement of Information. These companies are not affiliated with the Secretary of State, annual minutes are not filed with the Secretary of State, and the state fee for the SI-100 is $20. If a notice asks for more, check who sent it before you pay.

What to settle before you file

Start with these, and add to them as the organization grows. A short list you actually run every two years beats a perfect one you avoid.

• Find your window: the incorporation month from Business Search, and whether you file in odd or even years.
• Name the three officers who hold the chief executive, secretary and chief financial roles today, not at the last filing.
• Confirm the agent for service of process still serves and still has the listed address.
• Set up User Access on bizfile Online for whoever will file, ideally a current officer, before the window opens.
• Put the window on the calendar — our nonprofit compliance calendar checklist has a place for every-other-year filings.

Getting help with nonprofit accounting

To work from the official sources directly, our filing requirements by state page lists California’s official pages with the date each was last checked.

Sources reviewed

Every fact above was read on the pages below on 23 October 2026. Fees, forms and procedures change; check the source before relying on any figure here.

• Form SI-100, Statement of Information (California Nonprofit, Credit Union and General Cooperative Corporations) — contents, due date, fee, agent, email notices.
• California Secretary of State — Statements of Information — User Access since August 1, 2026, the filing-window table, consequences.
• Corporations — Statement of Information forms and fees — fees and processing times.
• Business Entities FAQs — odd and even years, reminders, delinquency, penalty waivers, private solicitations.
• California Corporations Code 6210, 6810, 5008.6, 9660 and 9690, and Revenue and Taxation Code 19141.

Frequently asked questions

Related NPO Resources guides

• Form RRF-1: California charity registration renewal — the Attorney General filing California charities make every year.
• Charitable solicitation registration — what triggers registration across states.
• Form 990 filing requirements — the federal annual return.
• Nonprofit compliance calendar checklist — putting state and federal deadlines on one calendar.