State guide — Georgia

Incorporate a nonprofit in Georgia

State facts checked against Georgia official sources — October 2026

Georgia is the state where a document generator earns its keep: the state publishes no fill-in articles form at all. Your articles are drafted to the statute — O.C.G.A. §14-3-202 — and the Corporations Division's own filing procedures warn that a 501(c)(3) applicant must include provisions the IRS requires, on which SOS staff cannot advise. Drafting is not optional here; it's the whole filing.

The steps

1. Choose a name and confirm it is available in Georgia — and distinguishable from existing entities in the filing office's records.
2. Line up your agent: registered agent and registered office (street address, with the county stated).
3. Draft the articles with the 501(c)(3) clauses in them — see the language section below. This is the step that decides whether the IRS accepts your application months from now.
4. File with Secretary of State and pay the state fee. File online through eCorp to pay $100 instead of $110. After formation, an initial annual registration is due within 90 days — a separate, small filing new Georgia nonprofits routinely miss.
5. Get the EIN — free from the IRS once the corporation exists. The EIN guide covers the traps.
6. Run the eligibility checker and file Form 1023-EZ or Form 1023 on Pay.gov. Then handle Georgia charity registration (below) before you fundraise.

The 501(c)(3) language in Georgia

Your Georgia articles must state that the corporation is organized under the Georgia Nonprofit Corporation Code, state whether it will have members, and — for exemption — carry the IRS purpose limitation and dissolution dedication. Because there is no state form to lean on, the kit's generator output is the filing document: statute-shaped articles with the federal clauses built in, plus Form CD 227 as the transmittal sheet for paper filings.

The federal requirement underneath all of this is the organizational test: your organizing document must limit the organization to exempt purposes and permanently dedicate its assets to exempt purposes on dissolution. The IRS publishes sample wording — a purpose clause and a dissolution clause — and the kit's generator builds both into your articles automatically.

Georgia traps and notes

• Paper costs $10 more. The $110 paper route buys you nothing the $100 online route doesn't do.
• The 90-day initial annual registration ($30 for nonprofits) is a post-formation trap — calendar it at filing time.
• No state form: anyone selling you 'the Georgia form' is selling you a template — which is fine, as long as it's drafted to §14-3-202 with the IRS clauses, like the kit's.

After incorporation: Georgia charitable solicitation registration

Status: Required. Regulator: Secretary of State — Charities Division (Securities and Business Regulation).

Georgia charities register with the Secretary of State's Charities Division before soliciting contributions in Georgia, and renew on the Division's cycle. Confirm your category and any exemption with the Division.

The national picture — which states require registration, which don't, and the exemptions that actually apply — is in our guide to charitable solicitation registration.