A nonprofit's tax-exempt status was revoked. What does that mean?
Free, no login. Checks IRS recognition, deductibility, revocation history and filing recency.
Why it happens
Since 2010, federal law (IRC §6033(j)) requires the IRS to automatically revoke exemption after three consecutive years of non-filing. No hearing, no warning letter beyond the standard notices — it is automatic. That is why the vast majority of revocations are administrative failures rather than findings of wrongdoing.
Small organizations are hit hardest. An all-volunteer group that never realised the 990-N e-Postcard applied to it can lose its status without anyone intending harm.
What it means for your donation or grant
Contributions made after the revocation date are generally not deductible. For a grantmaker, the exposure is larger than deductibility: a grant to a revoked organization can jeopardise your own expenditure-responsibility position, so most funders treat a live revocation as a hard stop until it is resolved.
Revoked is not always permanent
Organizations can apply for reinstatement, sometimes retroactive to the revocation date. This matters enormously when reading the data: an organization that was revoked in 2015 and reinstated in 2016 is in good standing today, even though it still appears on the IRS auto-revocation list forever.
A tool that reports the revocation without reconciling the reinstatement will tell you an organization in good standing is revoked. This checker reconciles them — 161,185 organizations in the current data were revoked at some point and later reinstated.
How to check
Search the organization above. A red verdict means the latest event on record is a revocation with no subsequent reinstatement. An amber verdict with a reinstatement note means there was a lapse that has since been cured — worth a question, not a veto.