Five organizations have applied for Oklahoma's §25F list so far, a month before the December 15 deadline

Oklahoma's list has room. Five scholarship granting organizations have applied to the Oklahoma Tax Commission, Oklahoma Watch reported on November 13, and the Commission is “not experiencing an influx of applications,” spokesperson Emily Haxton told the outlet. Applications are due December 15, a month from now. Oklahoma uses one application, Form 80002, for its own SGO program and for the federal list, and the report doesn't say how many of the five asked to be on the federal list. Either way the field is wide open. Oklahoma's list has to include every qualifying organization located in the state that asks, and a donor in any state can claim the federal credit for a gift to an organization on it.

A public school group is getting ready. The Oklahoma Public School Resource Center is among the interested organizations, Oklahoma Watch reported. It already runs a framework similar to an SGO through its Catalyst program and plans to adapt it to the federal requirements. “This is for people who are focused on supporting public schools,” said April Grace, the center's executive director. “Even if they do make it difficult, we're going to find a way to help people.” She expects most donors to give at year-end. Public school groups elsewhere are moving the same way, from Sioux Falls to Johnston County, North Carolina and the 41 Kentucky districts working with a statewide SGO (how §25F works for public schools).

The rules are far enough along to apply. Grace told Oklahoma Watch the center is waiting on more exact federal rules. The ones that decide who gets on a state list are already out: Treasury's temporary regulations take effect without a comment period and apply from September 1, 2026, and taxpayers may rely on the proposed rules for 2027. Comments on the proposal close December 1, and Treasury's acting tax policy chief said November 12 that the IRS is targeting an update by year-end (what he said). Oklahoma's date doesn't move with it. Form 80002 and its eight documents are due December 15, signed and mailed to the Commission, which accepts organizations whose Form 1023 is still pending and sends Oklahoma's list to the IRS by February 15, 2027. The Commission will post approved organizations, state and federal, on its SGO page.

For donors. The federal credit is up to $1,700 per taxpayer for gifts made from January 1, 2027, or $3,400 on a joint return when each spouse gives, under the proposed rules. Only individuals can claim it; Oklahoma's state program also takes business gifts. An organization in both programs has to keep the two kinds of gifts apart, Haxton said, so a donor who wants both credits makes separate gifts. How to apply in Oklahoma has the form and a checklist, and the Oklahoma SGO page will show the Commission's approvals as it posts them.