The federal SGO list: which organizations qualify and how donors verify one

This article is the companion to our SGO overview and governor opt-in explainer. Everything below traces to IRC §25F, Treasury’s October 2026 temporary regulations (which govern state lists and the IRS SGO list, applying from September 1, 2026) and proposed regulations (not final, but available to rely on for 2027 contributions), and the state-by-state record we track.

Why the list is what makes a donation creditable

§25F is a federal credit, but it only reaches families through a state-mediated gate. A Scholarship Granting Organization can be a well-run, fully compliant nonprofit and still not generate a creditable donation, if it isn’t on the list its state submits to the IRS for that year. The organization’s own compliance and its state’s participation are two separate conditions, and a donor needs both to be true before giving.

That two-part structure is deliberate. §25F gives each participating state the job of certifying which organizations located there meet the federal requirements, while the federal statute sets the floor every listed organization must clear regardless of state. Treasury’s temporary regulations make that job a certification, not a selection: the state must include every organization located in the state that meets the requirements and seeks inclusion, it may not impose operating rules more restrictive than §25F’s, and it can remove an organization only through a procedure that gives it due process. Each state list then feeds the national IRS SGO list that donors check. For the mechanics of the state side, see how governors opt states in.

How an organization gets on the list

Getting from “a nonprofit that awards scholarships” to “a qualifying SGO whose donations earn the §25F credit” runs through several steps:

1. The organization meets §25F’s federal operating rules. It must be a 501(c)(3) public charity (not a private foundation) that keeps a §25F segregated account holding only qualified contributions and their earnings, meets the 90/10 spending rule, serves 10 or more students who don’t all attend the same school, gives renewal-then-sibling award priority, doesn’t earmark, awards nothing to disqualified persons, and verifies that each student’s household income is at or below 300% of area median gross income and that the student lives in the state. See our SGO guide for the full rundown of these requirements.
2. The organization registers in the IRS SGO portal. Under the temporary regulations, every organization that plans to solicit §25F contributions must register electronically “as soon as possible and preferably before” it appears on any state list. Registration is how it gets the uniform format for donor numbers and where it authorizes the IRS to publish its name on the IRS SGO list. The IRS had not opened the portal as of October 1, 2026.
3. The organization’s state has opted in. A governor (or the state-designated authority) has to make the election for that year. For 2027, that means filing Form 15714 by January 1, 2027 and then submitting the state’s SGO list by February 15, 2027. A state that files the advance election but never submits a list is out for the year, and no organization in it qualifies. An organization in a state that hasn’t opted in cannot be listed, no matter how compliant it is.
4. The state includes the organization on its submitted list. How a state takes applications is up to the state (states with their own tax-credit scholarship programs already certify organizations through agencies such as Arizona’s Department of Revenue, Ohio’s Attorney General, and Indiana’s Department of Education). What a state may ask is bounded: it must require compliance with its general charity laws, and it must require applications, documentation, and financial reporting reasonably tailored to the federal tests and to fraud prevention. It then certifies that its list includes every organization located in the state that seeks inclusion and meets the requirements, so there are no discretionary exclusions.

New organizations and pending 501(c)(3) applications

A brand-new organization has no operating history to show a state, and the temporary regulations account for that. Until the organization files its first annual certification and audit, a state may rely on its governing documents, written policies and procedures, and other documentation, as long as those documents expressly require (beyond a general promise to follow the law) the §25F operating rules and show the organization’s ability and intent to meet them.

A state may also list organizations whose 501(c)(3) applications are still pending with the IRS, but only if it lists every pending applicant seeking inclusion (each reviewed under the new-organization rule above), marks each one as pending, and certifies that the exemption, if granted, will take effect on or before January 1 of the list year. The IRS adds such an organization to the IRS SGO list once it recognizes the exemption and the organization authorizes disclosure. In practice, a new organization aiming for a 2027 list should be formed by January 1, 2027, have its exemption application pending when the state submits its list, and file that application on time so the exemption reaches back to formation. Our story on the 2027 state-list calendar walks through the dates.

For an organization walking through this process itself, our how-to-start-an-SGO guide covers it step by step, including where the state-listing step sits relative to incorporation, the EIN, and 501(c)(3) approval.

What makes an organization a qualifying SGO

Being on the list isn’t just a paperwork event, it certifies that the organization meets the substantive federal bar. When a governor (or a designated state official) submits a state’s list, the certification carries weight: the state certifies that each listed organization is located in the state and meets §25F’s requirements, including:

• 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as a public charity, not a private foundation
• Located in the state: authorized to do business there and in compliance with the state’s general charity laws (no in-state headquarters or staff required)
• The 90/10 rule: at least 90% of the organization’s income spent on scholarships for eligible students. Under Treasury’s proposed regulations, each year’s income must be spent by the end of the following year, and income means gross receipts from all sources unless the organization is at least 85% scholarship granting and applies the test to its §25F account alone
• Serving 10 or more students who don’t all attend the same school
• Verified household income at or below 300% of area median gross income, for students who live in the state
• No earmarking of contributions for a particular student
• No awards to disqualified persons: substantial contributors, officers and directors, anyone who helps select recipients or set award amounts, and their families
• A §25F segregated account that prevents co-mingling of qualified contributions (one per state for an SGO on more than one state’s list)

A state cannot weaken this floor, and under the temporary regulations Treasury issued October 1, 2026 it cannot raise it either: a state may not require SGOs to operate under rules more restrictive than §25F’s, such as by limiting the type of school recipients may attend or the qualified expenses scholarships may cover. States still apply their general rules for charities and must require applications, documentation, and financial reporting tailored to the federal tests and to fraud prevention. Before certifying an established SGO again, the state reviews its annual audit and the annual certifications it gives the IRS, and a state’s procedures are themselves subject to federal review: after a pattern of irregularities, the IRS can require a state to change them. Our news story on the one national standard for SGOs covers this rule in detail.

Why the IRS’s published list can run behind a state’s roster

Participation happens in two distinct steps, and they don’t happen at the same time. First, a state makes an advance election: for 2027, on IRS Form 15714 under Rev. Proc. 2026-6, due by January 1, 2027. Second, and separately, the state perfects that election by submitting its actual list of qualifying SGOs through the IRS State section 25F portal, due by February 15, 2027 for the first year. The IRS publishes the states that have made advance elections; the SGO list is what actually makes specific organizations creditable. Under the temporary regulations, a state that files the advance election but never submits a list is out for the year.

From 2028 on, the cycle repeats every year: an advance election between January 2 and September 30 of the prior year, then the list between October 1 and January 1 (a state past its first year can also elect by submitting its list in that window). Three more things can make the IRS SGO list differ from a state’s announcements. A state may replace or add to its list until the deadline, but later additions wait for the next year’s list. An organization with a pending 501(c)(3) application appears only after the IRS recognizes its exemption. And an organization that doesn’t authorize disclosure won’t appear on the IRS list at all, in which case Treasury says a donor would need other evidence that the organization is an SGO.

That gap between commitment and final listing is exactly why you will sometimes see a state reported as having “opted in” or “advanced” §25F in the news, in legislative records, or on our own state-by-state status map, while the IRS’s own published roster hasn’t yet caught up to reflect it. A governor can sign an advance election, and a legislature can pass and even enact implementing legislation, before the federal paperwork transmitting the state’s full SGO list is complete. Neither step is fake or premature, they’re just different stages of the same pipeline, and the lag between them is a normal feature of a new federal program ramping up, not an error.

How a donor verifies an SGO before giving

Treasury’s October 2026 temporary regulations call for a national IRS SGO list on irs.gov, organized by state. An organization that a state or the IRS removes stays on the list in strike-through, with the date of removal, so a donor can see whether it was listed on the day of a gift. Once the list is live, it is the first place to check: under the proposed regulations (which donors may use for 2027 contributions), a donor may rely on an organization being on the list (and not shown as removed) at the time of the gift to establish that it is an SGO. The exceptions are narrow: that reliance doesn’t cover a donor who knew the organization didn’t qualify, or who was at least partly responsible for, or aware of, the problem that later got it removed.

The list is not live yet. Until it is, verification is a three-step check:

1. Confirm the state has opted in. Check our state-by-state status map for the SGO’s state (participation is annual, a state can opt in one year and not the next).
2. Confirm the organization is on that state’s current list. Under the temporary regulations, any public list a state keeps must match the list it submitted to the IRS and link to the IRS SGO list; the proposed version of the rule adds that it must tell donors they may rely on the IRS list. Reputable SGOs also publish their designation status, award criteria, and financials. Our SGO directory catalogs organizations already running today’s state tax-credit-scholarship programs, many of them positioned to seek a place on their state’s §25F list, though it is not itself the federal designation list.
3. Ask the SGO directly for proof of listing and how it will document your gift. You designate the gift as a §25F contribution when you make it, and the designation can’t be undone. By January 31 of the following year, the SGO owes you a written acknowledgment with its EIN, your designated total, your unique donor number, and a statement of any goods or services you received. Under the proposed rules you report that donor number on Form 8525, and leaving it off creates a presumption that you made no qualified contribution. The SGO doesn’t need your Social Security number. If an organization can’t point to its state listing or can’t explain how it will acknowledge donations, treat that as a red flag before giving.

Remember, too, that a donor doesn’t have to live in a participating state to claim the credit, only the SGO’s state has to be opted in. The proposed regulations say a donor may give to any SGO on any state’s list, regardless of where the donor lives, so a donor in a non-participating state can still give to a listed SGO elsewhere and claim §25F. The scholarship dollars go to students who live in the SGO’s state, wherever they attend school.

For SGO operators: staying on the list

For an organization, appearing on the list once isn’t permanent. Participation is annual on both the state and organization side, a state resubmits its list each year, and an organization that drifts out of compliance (the 90/10 ratio, income verification, anti-earmarking) risks falling off it. Operators who manage listings, donor substantiation, and per-state compliance across the year typically use dedicated systems rather than spreadsheets to keep the underlying ratios auditable; SGO HQ is built around exactly this kind of ongoing, per-state §25F compliance tracking.

The temporary regulations spell out how an organization comes off a list. A state can remove an SGO during the year only through a procedure that gives it due process, and it must honor an SGO’s own request to be removed; either way the state notifies the IRS, which marks the removal and its date on the IRS SGO list. The IRS removes an organization that loses its 501(c)(3) or public-charity status, and it may remove one for failing §25F’s requirements or its reporting duties (including the February 28 donor report); that determination can be taken to the IRS Independent Office of Appeals. A multistate SGO removed by one state stays listed for its other states as long as it still qualifies there.

Staying listed also means producing what the state reviews before it certifies you again. Under Treasury’s proposed regulations, that is an annual certification and report attached to Form 990, with a copy to each state that lists you, and an annual financial and programmatic audit sent to each of those states. Our SGO compliance calendar puts every one of these dates in order.

For the full operating-rule checklist an organization has to hold to stay listed, see our SGO guide, and for state-by-state opt-in mechanics, see how governors opt in.

Frequently asked questions