501(c)(3) organization
US nonprofit exempt from federal income tax
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association, or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 501(c) nonprofit organizations in the U.S.
501(c)(3) tax-exemptions apply to entities that are organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational purposes, or for testing for public safety, to foster national or international amateur sports competition, or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals. The 501(c)(3) exemption applies also for any non-incorporated community chest, fund, cooperating association or foundation organized and operated exclusively for those purposes. There are also supporting organizations—often referred to in shorthand form as Friends of organizations.
26 U.S.C. § 170 provides a deduction for federal income tax purposes, for some donors who make charitable contributions to most types of 501(c)(3) organizations, among others. Regulations specify which such deductions must be verifiable to be allowed (e.g., receipts for donations of $250 or more).
Due to the tax deductions associated with donations, loss of 501(c)(3) status can be highly challenging if not fatal to a charity's continued operation, as many foundations and corporate matching funds do not grant funds to a charity without such status, and individual donors often do not donate to such a charity due to the unavailability of tax deduction for contributions.
Types
The two exempt classifications of 501(c)(3) organizations are as follows:
A public charity, identified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as "not a private foundation", normally receives a substantial part of its income, directly or indirectly, from the general public or from the government. The public support must be fairly broad, not limited to a few individuals or families. Public charities are defined in the Internal Revenue Code under sections 509(a)(0) through 509(a)(4).
“501(c)(3) organization” enters the record as uS nonprofit exempt from federal income tax. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what organization, nonprofit and exempt can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“501(c)(3) organization” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, organization, nonprofit and exempt provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 6, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q18325436. VIAF identifies the subject as 651153289903132770008. The Library of Congress control number is n2018042790. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “501(c)(3) organization” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.