501(c)(3)
The section of the US tax code that exempts charitable, educational, religious and scientific organisations from federal income tax and makes gifts to them deductible. It is the status most grant eligibility lists are written around.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Tax-exempt status · Charitable status
In detail
Holding it is not the same as being eligible. Plenty of programmes are open to 501(c)(3) organisations and closed to most of them for reasons of geography, size or field.
A determination letter is the evidence, and funders ask for it. An organisation waiting on one usually applies through a fiscal sponsor instead, because the letter can take months and the deadline will not wait for it.
Against our eligibility vocabulary
`elig_entity_types` records the applicant classes a notice names, folded into a small vocabulary so that a search works across sources that divide the world differently. "Nonprofit" in that vocabulary is not a claim that a programme requires 501(c)(3) status specifically — the notice’s own wording is kept in `elig_note`, because those are different facts and only the notice can settle which one it meant.
How GrantTrove stores it
- Eligibility values are the source’s own, mapped into our vocabulary only where a mapping is honest, and a value with no honest home stays unmapped rather than being forced.
- Where a notice says nothing about who may apply, the record reads Not stated rather than listing every type it did not rule out.
Common questions
Do I need 501(c)(3) status to apply?
It depends on the notice. The record’s eligibility note carries the notice’s own words.
Does "nonprofit" in a filter mean 501(c)(3)?
Not necessarily. It is our fold of many source categories; the note has the source’s wording.
What if we are waiting on a determination?
A fiscal sponsor is the usual route. Whether the programme accepts one is a question for the programme.