Form your 501(c)(3) yourself — with the documents and the steps done right.
Starting a 501(c)(3) means a chain of filings — state incorporation, an EIN, the IRS application, state charity registration — and one wrong clause in your articles can get the whole application sent back. The expensive services sell you the chain. Freelancers sell you one link at a time. ExemptReady gives you the whole system: a free checker that tells you which IRS form your organization actually qualifies for, and a kit that generates your founding documents with the IRS-required language built in, then walks every filing in order.
ExemptReady is self-help education and document templates. We are not a law firm, we do not file anything for you, and we cannot promise the IRS will approve any application. You prepare and file your own documents — we make sure you know exactly what to prepare and how to file it.
The free eligibility checker
The EZ is shorter and cheaper ($275 IRS fee instead of $600) — but only organizations that pass every eligibility test may use it, and filing it when you don't qualify can cost you your effective date. Answer honestly; the checker applies the IRS's published eligibility criteria and shows you its reasoning, line by line.
The checker applies the eligibility criteria published in the Form 1023-EZ instructions and its eligibility worksheet (checked against IRS.gov, October 2026). It is an educational estimate, not an IRS determination — the IRS makes the final call on every application.
Why people overpay
| Route | What you get | Price |
|---|---|---|
| LegalZoom 501(c)(3) filing service | They prepare the EZ application for you. Formation is a separate product ($99 and up, plus state fees). | $595–$795 |
| Specialist formation services | Done-for-you packages from firms like InstantNonprofit, Foundation Group, and Harbor Compliance. | $877–$3,499 |
| Freelancers (Fiverr) | One seller has completed 4,200+ orders at $75 — for the articles alone. Bylaws, the application, and registration are separate gigs you stack and coordinate yourself. | $75 per piece |
| Static template bundles | Word and PDF files you fill in by hand, with no check on whether you picked the right form or the right clauses. | $20–$50 |
| ExemptReady Formation Kit | The eligibility checker, a document generator with the IRS-required clauses built in, field-by-field filing walkthroughs, the 41-state solicitation map, the reinstatement pack, and a first-year compliance calendar — one system, in order. | $49 one-time |
Swipe sideways to see the full table →
Prices checked on the sellers' own pages, October 2026. Government fees are separate everywhere: the IRS charges a $275 user fee for Form 1023-EZ and $600 for Form 1023, and your state charges its own incorporation fee. No honest route makes those disappear — anyone who folds them into a package price is charging you for them there instead.
The Formation Kit
One payment. No subscription, no upsells, no filing-service markup. Government fees are paid by you, directly to the government, at the amounts the government publishes.
How it works
A 501(c)(3) starts life as a state nonprofit corporation whose articles contain two specific IRS-required clauses. Get them wrong and the IRS sends the application back — this is the step the kit's generator exists for. See the state pages →
Free from the IRS, online, in one sitting — once the corporation exists. The kit covers who must be the "responsible party" and what to do if the online tool rejects the application.
Form 1023-EZ if the checker cleared you; the full Form 1023 if it didn't. Either way you file on Pay.gov with the IRS user fee — $275 or $600. Which one fits you →
Most states require charities to register before asking for a single donation — 38 states plus DC require it generally, and three more in limited cases. Nine states don't require it at all. The registration map, explained →
Straight answers
No. ExemptReady is self-help education and document templates — the same posture as a Nolo book. We explain the rules the IRS publishes, generate standard documents from your answers, and walk the filings. We are not a law firm, we do not file anything for you, and we cannot promise approval. Complex organizations — schools, churches, hospitals, anything with real estate, foreign activity, or major assets — should have a nonprofit attorney review their documents. The kit says so at those points, too.
Only if you pass every eligibility test: projected gross receipts of $50,000 or less in each of your first three years (and no past year over the line), total assets of $250,000 or less, an eligible organizational form, and none of the excluded activities or organization types. The free checker above applies the full worksheet. If any test fails, the full Form 1023 is your path — filing the EZ anyway risks your exemption's effective date.
Your state's nonprofit incorporation fee (varies by state — the state pages list the ones we verified), the IRS user fee ($275 for Form 1023-EZ, $600 for Form 1023), and, in most states, a charitable solicitation registration fee once you start fundraising. The EIN is free. These are the same fees on every route — services that "include" them have priced them into their package.
Automatic revocation happens after three consecutive years without the required annual filing, and it is more common than people think. Many small organizations qualify for streamlined retroactive reinstatement if they act within the IRS's window. The kit's reinstatement pack walks the eligibility test and the filing sequence. Start with the free guide: Automatic revocation and reinstatement →
In most states, yes — registration comes before the first solicitation, and "solicitation" includes a donate button on a website. The rules, the regulator, and the exemptions differ by state; our guide explains the map, and the kit gives you your state's specifics.
Because the expensive part of a filing service is a person's time, and the forms themselves are published by the IRS for free. We built the guidance once, as a system — the checker, the generator, the walkthroughs — and sell the system. You do the filing; that is exactly the trade the price reflects.
Free guides
Every eligibility test, what each form really asks, and what happens if you file the wrong one.
GuideThe purpose and dissolution clauses your articles must contain — and why applications get sent back without them.
GuideWhich states require registration before you fundraise, which don't, and the exemptions that actually apply.
GuideThree missed filings and your exemption is gone. The paths back — and the deadline that decides how much you recover.
GuideSometimes the right move is not to incorporate at all. How sponsorship works, what it costs, and when it beats forming.
GuideMandatory exceptions, the school paperwork the IRS requires, and why these organizations never use the EZ.