Exactly what to do
- Everything stage 5 has you keep, the audit, the live 90/10 number, award and verification records, is what re-listing will ask for. Know your state's cycle once it publishes one (each list goes to the IRS by January 1), and we alert account holders when your state's re-listing window opens.
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Questions people actually ask
What if our state doesn't re-elect next year, or drops us from the list?
The organization survives; the credit pauses. Donations made while you were listed keep their treatment, but new gifts stop generating the federal credit the year your state (or your listing) lapses, so tell donors promptly and plainly: their gifts remain deductible charitable contributions, the credit is what's paused. Operationally you keep running as a scholarship charity, keep the compliance records current (they're your re-application), and pursue listing in another participating state that accepts out-of-state SGOs. Never keep marketing the credit after a lapse; that's the fastest way to burn donor trust.
The final regulations changed a rule we already built on. Now what?
The documents amend the same way they were adopted: bylaws by your amendment vote (the template's two-thirds), the award policy by board vote recorded in minutes, articles by a certificate of amendment with the state if the regulations ever touch that layer (unlikely). We re-verify every provisional item the week the regulations publish and email account holders exactly what changed; the fixes are typically an evening of board work, not a rebuild.
