Anything Goes: Approval of Nonprofit Status by the IRS

Rob Reich

IRS approval trends indicate a 50% growth of 501c3 nonprofits in the past decade.

The IRS has been approving more than 50,000 organizations as 501c3 nonprofits for every year of the past decade, leading to a massive growth in the nonprofit sector. What kinds of organizations are most often approved? How strict or lax is the approval process? Stanford’s Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (PACS) new report examines the approval of nonprofit status by the IRS based on research conducted by faculty co-director Rob Reich over the summer with two terrific students, Lacey Dorn and Stefanie Sutton.