How to look up Charitable Organizations 501(c)3

Find out if a charity is a real 501(c)3 or not.

In the United States, there are two ways I know of to verify whether or not a, not-for-profit has filed the required paperwork with the IRS.

1- You can visit Guidestar.org. They list all registered charitable organizations. The only problem with them is the charity actually has to send them their IRS designation papers. Meaning some charities are unaware that it’s their responsibility to forward their information.

2- You can visit the IRS site, a charitable organization should be listed here, if they applied for and were granted their Not-for-Profit status.

How to search on either one of the above sites :

You must have the corporation name of the charity your searching for, not their web address. Usually at the bottom of one of their web pages, you will be able to find their corporation name and their address. Or it should be listed on their “about” page, If they don’t list their official corporation name, I would be careful. Additionally before an organization can apply for their “not for profit” status, they must first file for their articles of incorporation in their given state.

An example would be Spirit Animal Sanctuary inc.

If you search using our web address www.spiritanimal.org , you will receive a search again notice. But if you type in Spirit Animal Sanctuary Inc. , Then you will find us listed on both Guidestar.org and the Internal Revenue Service’s websites.

IRS

Guidestar.org

The Spirit Dog

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