Bookkeeping and Accounting Setup
Assess whether your new business has a bookkeeping system, chart of accounts, and process to keep clean records from the start.
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For founders, new owners, and anyone starting out
Nonprofit Formation Readiness
Screen whether a nonprofit or 501(c)(3) structure fits your mission and what governance and filings you must prepare before applying for exemption.
4 guided steps
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Official guidance links
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Your free guided checker
Answer a few quick questions below. It is private - nothing is submitted or stored - and takes about a minute.
Informational business-formation diagnostic only; not legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Confirm entity, tax, and state decisions with a qualified attorney and CPA.
The questions this tool walks you through
Here is what the checker asks and why each step matters. Prefer to talk it through? Contact us and we will help directly.
Is the organization's core purpose charitable, religious, educational, scientific, or literary, serving the public rather than earning profit for the people who run it?
501(c)(3) exemption is limited to specific public-benefit purposes; a venture whose real aim is income for its founders does not qualify no matter how it is labeled.
Choose a for-profit, benefit-corporation, or fiscal-sponsorship path instead of 501(c)(3).
Official guidance: IRS applying for tax-exempt status
Will the organization be funded mainly by a broad base of donors, grants, and program revenue rather than by one person, family, or company?
Where the money comes from decides whether you are a public charity or a private foundation, and the two live under very different rules.
Plan for private-foundation rules, or build public support to qualify as a public charity.
Official guidance: IRS applying for tax-exempt status
Do you already have, or can you seat before applying, an independent board of at least three directors who are not all related to the founder?
The IRS looks for a board that can check the founder; a board that is one person or one family is a classic red flag for private benefit and self-dealing.
Build an independent board and bylaws before you apply for exemption.
Official guidance: IRS applying for tax-exempt status
Have you adopted, or are you ready to adopt, bylaws and a conflict-of-interest policy, and do you keep basic records of board decisions?
Articles with the required IRS dissolution and purpose clauses, bylaws, and a conflict-of-interest policy are effectively prerequisites for a clean Form 1023 approval.
Incorporate, adopt conflict-of-interest bylaws, get an EIN, and file Form 1023 or 1023-EZ. Build an independent board and bylaws before you apply for exemption.
Official guidance: IRS applying for tax-exempt status
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