State incorporation

Nonprofit incorporation, state by state

Every 501(c)(3) begins as a state filing — and every state runs it differently: a different office, a different form, a different word for the registered agent, and a different answer to the only question that really matters: does the state's paperwork carry the clauses the IRS requires?

This hub covers the 16 states where we verified the formation facts page-by-page against official state sources in October 2026. Each state page gives you the filing office, the form, the fee exactly as the state publishes it (or an honest note where we could not verify one), the 501(c)(3) language situation, the state's traps, and its charity-registration rule. If your state is not here yet, the framework below still applies — and the eligibility checker and the guides work in all 50 states.

The 16 verified state pages

Fees shown are the state filing fee for the articles themselves, checked October 2026. Three states — Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Colorado — show a "fee note" instead of a number: we could not confirm the current fee on an official state page, and we do not publish fees we cannot verify. Their pages say exactly that, and why.

What every state asks for

The vocabulary changes; the skeleton doesn't. Everywhere in America, incorporating a nonprofit means filing a document that gives the state:

• A name, available and distinguishable in that state's records;
• A purpose — and for exemption, a specific exempt purpose, not "any lawful business";
• An agent for legal process — called a registered agent in most states, a statutory agent in Ohio and Arizona, a resident agent in Michigan, and handled by a registered-office system in Pennsylvania;
• An incorporator who signs and files;
• Initial directors (most states want three or plan for them);
• The dissolution answer — where assets go if the organization ends. For 501(c)(3) purposes this must be: to another exempt organization, or to a government, for exempt purposes.

Two states in this series don't even file with the office you'd expect: Virginia charters corporations through its State Corporation Commission, Arizona through its Corporation Commission, Michigan through LARA, and New Jersey through the Department of the Treasury. The office is part of the filing — get it wrong and your paperwork tours the state government before it lands.

The fee landscape, honestly

Across the 13 states whose fees we verified on official pages, articles fees run from $20 total in Michigan to $100 in Georgia (online). Most sit between $25 and $80. Add the federal layer — $275 for Form 1023-EZ or $600 for Form 1023, paid to the IRS on Pay.gov — and the EIN, which is free, and you have the complete government cost of forming. Anyone quoting you a four-figure "formation package" is selling their time on top of these numbers; the numbers themselves are public.

The rule that travels across all 50 states

However your state words it, the IRS applies the same organizational test to your articles: purposes limited to exempt purposes, assets permanently dedicated. A state form that prints that language (California's does) is a gift; a state form that can't hold it (Illinois's online form) is a trap; a state with no form at all (Georgia) is a drafting job. The kit's generator exists for all three cases.