What's the best route to 501(c)(3) status for your organization? Educational? Charitable? Qualified Amateur Sports Organization?
You'll need to prepare and file IRS Form 1023, Application for Tax Exempt Status. It is a long and complicated form but can be prepared successfully by most anyone willing to invest the time and effort to read the form instructions and understand the sometimes complicated rules that apply to amateur sports organizations.
The most important part of the form is the narrative that describes your organization, its purposes and its activities. You have to convince the IRS that the organization actually qualifies for 501(c)(3) status.
You may qualify as an educational organization, a charitable organization, or as an organization that promotes national or international sports competition and trains athletes for those competitions. The devil is in the details, as they say.
Fortunately, there is quite a lot of guidance published by the IRS on amateur athletics organizations.
Unfortunately, it can get pretty complicated.
That's where I can help. I've written a guide book and reference that brings all the IRS and Tax Court sources into one handy e-book that distills all the legal gobbledygook into easy-to-read plain English. And I've kept it to fewer than 90 pages of easy-to-understand explanations.
I've also included in the e-book the descriptive narrative from Form 1023 of a high school sports booster club that I helped get 501c3 status so you can see exactly how its done. It's almost like having me right there with you giving you guidance.
Contents
PDF Book: How to Qualify Amateur Athletic Organization as 501c3 (Updated 2025)
906 KB
Education, Training, and Solutions for Nonprofits
David McRee, CPA has been helping nonprofit organizations apply for tax-exempt status, meet their government filing obligations, and get out of trouble with the IRS for over 24 years. As economic conditions have shifted in recent years, he has seen a tremendous increase in demand for training for those individuals wanting to "do-it-themselves" rather than hire a professional. He is committed to providing accurate, easy-to-understand instruction to nonprofit officers, directors, volunteers, CPA's and to other professional advisors serving nonprofits.
Does this e-book explain how to prepare IRS Form 1023?
No. This is not an instruction manual on how to prepare Form 1023. However it does provide a sample narrative that was used on Form 1023 for a high school sports booster. The most important part of Form 1023 is the narrative where you make your case to the IRS that you are tax-exempt. This book tells you how to make your case.
