How to Start a Nonprofit in Pennsylvania

Starting a nonprofit is overwhelming. We make it simple. Pennsylvania has two things you will not find in most states: a requirement to advertise your incorporation in two newspapers, and a brand-new annual report that replaced the old once-a-decade filing. The annual report is free for nonprofits, which is exactly why people forget it exists.

Here is the whole process in the order a Pennsylvania founder should do it.

The Pennsylvania steps at a glance

1. Check your name and reserve it if you need time.
2. Set up your registered office — a Pennsylvania street address, or a Commercial Registered Office Provider.
3. File Articles of Incorporation (Form DSCB:15-5306) with the docketing statement, including the IRS purpose and dissolution language.
4. Advertise your intent to incorporate, or the incorporation, in two newspapers.
5. Adopt bylaws and a conflict-of-interest policy and hold your organizational meeting.
6. Get your federal EIN.
7. Apply for 501(c)(3) status on IRS Form 1023-EZ or the full Form 1023.
8. Apply for Pennsylvania sales tax exemption on Form REV-72.
9. Register with the Bureau of Charitable Organizations on Form BCO-10 unless you are exempt.
10. File the annual report by 30 June each year. It is free, and it is not optional.

Step 1: Name your Pennsylvania nonprofit

The name must be distinguishable upon the record from other registered Pennsylvania entity names. Words implying a regulated industry or licensed profession — bank, trust, insurance, engineer, cooperative and similar — typically need prior written approval from the relevant regulator before the Bureau will accept the filing. Check the current restricted list on the PA Business One-Stop Hub if your name uses one.

Pennsylvania charges for both services: a name availability search of three names costs $15, and a name reservation costs $70. Confirm the current reservation duration and form number on pa.gov when you file.

Step 2: Directors, officers and your registered office

Directors: one minimum. Pennsylvania law says the board "shall consist of one or more members". As everywhere, the legal floor and the practical floor differ: the IRS commonly expects at least three unrelated directors as evidence the organization is not privately controlled, and funders expect the same.

Officers: a president, a secretary and a treasurer (or people acting as such, whatever their titles). The president and secretary must be natural persons of full age; the treasurer may be a corporation. Any number of offices may be held by the same person unless your bylaws restrict it, and officers need not be directors. There are no residency requirements.

Registered office, not registered agent. Pennsylvania is unusual here: it requires a registered office address — an actual Pennsylvania street address or rural route box; a P.O. box alone will not do — rather than a designated agent. If you have no Pennsylvania address, you can list a Commercial Registered Office Provider instead, but only after entering into a genuine service contract with one. Claiming a provider's address without a contract carries civil and criminal exposure.

Founders sometimes pay for a registered agent service in Pennsylvania that they do not actually need. Others fail to keep a valid Pennsylvania street address on file. Both are avoidable.

Step 3: File your Articles of Incorporation and docketing statement

The filing is Form DSCB:15-5306, Articles of Incorporation for a nonprofit, filed with the Bureau of Corporations and Charitable Organizations through the PA Business One-Stop Hub (Keystone Login) or by mail. The fee is $125.

Expedited service is counter-submission only and is not available by mail.

The docketing statement is required too. Form DSCB:15-134A, Docketing Statement — New Entity, accompanies the Articles at no additional fee. It captures your entity name, the person responsible for initial tax reports, a description of your activity, your FEIN if you have one, and your fiscal year end. Omitting it is a common reason filings get rejected, and it is not the same document as the Articles.

Add the IRS purpose and dissolution clauses to your Articles. Pennsylvania will not check for them; the IRS will.

Step 4: Advertise in two newspapers

Under 19 Pa. Code section 41.11, the incorporators must publish notice of the intent to incorporate — or that incorporation has occurred — in two newspapers of general circulation in the county where the registered office is located. One of them should be a legal journal or newspaper designated for legal notices. If the county has only one general-circulation paper, that one is enough.

The notice must contain: the corporation's name, a statement that it is or was incorporated under the Nonprofit Corporation Law of 1988, a brief statement of its purpose, and the date the Articles will be or were filed.

Two practical points. First, the notice may run before or after the Articles are filed — but Pennsylvania practitioners generally advise waiting for state confirmation, so you do not advertise a name that turns out to be unavailable. Second, and this is the part people get wrong: proofs of publication are not filed with the state. They go in your minute book.

Because the Bureau never checks, skipping the advertising is invisible at filing time. It is still a statutory corporate formality, and failing to observe corporate formalities is one of the factors a court can weigh when someone later asks it to pierce the corporate veil and reach directors personally. Budget roughly $200 or more for the pair of notices; the newspapers set their own rates.

Step 5: Bylaws, policies and your first board meeting

Adopt bylaws at the first board meeting; they are not filed with the state. Adopt a conflict-of-interest policy at the same time — Pennsylvania does not prescribe a form, but its absence is a standard IRS follow-up question and BCO-10 reviewers look for it too.

At the organizational meeting, approve the bylaws and policy, elect officers, authorize the bank account and EIN application, adopt the fiscal year, and ratify the advertising notice. Keep the minute book — it is where the publication proofs live. See our bylaws guide.

Step 6: Get your EIN

Free and immediate at IRS.gov once the Articles are filed. You will enter the FEIN on the docketing statement. See our EIN guide.

Step 7: Apply for 501(c)(3) status

Identical in every state. Most small Pennsylvania nonprofits use Form 1023-EZ ($275 user fee); larger organizations file the full Form 1023 ($600). The IRS issues 80% of 1023-EZ determinations within 22 days and 80% of full Form 1023 determinations within 191 days. Our Form 1023 vs 1023-EZ guide covers eligibility.

Pennsylvania tax, and the purely public charity test

Corporate net income tax. A 501(c)(3) that receives its IRS determination letter is generally treated as exempt from Pennsylvania corporate net income tax without a separate state exemption application for that specific tax.

PA-100 enterprise registration. Even income-tax-exempt organizations often need to register with the Department of Revenue — for employer withholding if you will have paid staff, for unemployment compensation, and historically for a sales tax licence. Registration is free and handled through the Department's online system.

Sales tax exemption, and the standard behind it. Apply on Form REV-72, Application for Sales Tax Exemption, now available online through myPATH. You submit your Articles (or bylaws, if unincorporated) with a non-inurement clause, current financial statements or a budget if you are new, your IRS determination letter if issued, and your most recent Form 990.

To qualify, you must be an "institution of purely public charity" — a Pennsylvania standard that is stricter than being a 501(c)(3). It comes from the HUP case and Act 55 of 1997, and it has five parts. The organization must: advance a charitable purpose; donate or render gratuitously a substantial portion of its services; benefit a substantial and indefinite class of people who are legitimate objects of charity; relieve government of some of its burden; and operate entirely free of private profit motive.

Property tax uses the same purely-public-charity standard, and it is decided at the county level — you apply to the county Board of Assessment Appeals (in Philadelphia, the Office of Property Assessment). Your federal 501(c)(3) letter does not by itself grant Pennsylvania property tax exemption; the county makes an independent determination, and denials are commonly appealed to the Court of Common Pleas. All 67 counties administer their own process, so confirm forms and deadlines locally.

Step 8: Charitable solicitation registration (BCO-10)

Pennsylvania charities register with the Bureau of Charitable Organizations on Form BCO-10.

The exemption. Organizations receiving $25,000 or less a year in contributions, with no compensated solicitor, are generally exempt from registration. Religious institutions and certain other organization types have separate statutory exclusions.

When to register. Before any paid solicitation begins; or, if your fundraising is all-volunteer, within 30 days of exceeding $25,000 in gross contributions. That trigger catches volunteer-run start-ups mid-year, which is exactly when nobody is watching the number.

Renewal is due by the 15th day of the 11th month after the close of your fiscal year — 15 November for a calendar-year organization. Late filing costs $25 for each calendar month or part of a month, capped at $600, and you can be listed as delinquent and lose solicitation privileges.

Financial statement requirements scale with contributions: internally prepared or better up to $100,000; compiled, reviewed or audited from $100,000 to $249,999; reviewed or audited from $250,000 to $749,999; audited at $750,000 and above.

The new Pennsylvania annual report

Act 122 of 2022 replaced Pennsylvania's old decennial report with a true annual report, effective 1 January 2025. For nonprofit corporations the fee is $0 and the deadline is 30 June each year, filed through the state's business filing portal. Your first report is due the year after formation.

Because it is free and easy to dismiss, it is the filing Pennsylvania nonprofits are most likely to miss — and non-filing eventually leads to the entity being listed delinquent and, after a notice period, administratively dissolved, with the name released for someone else to take. Confirm the current enforcement posture on pa.gov, since the Department has been phasing in the new regime.

Pennsylvania fees at a glance

A small Pennsylvania nonprofit filing the 1023-EZ realistically spends around $615 once the newspaper advertising is included — the advertising step is what makes Pennsylvania pricier than its filing fee suggests. Compare in our 50-state registration fee guide.

How long the whole thing takes

Realistically, two to five months from a standing start to a usable 501(c)(3) with Pennsylvania sales tax exemption on the 1023-EZ track, and four to nine months or more on the full Form 1023.

Six mistakes Pennsylvania founders make

1. Skipping the newspaper advertising. Nobody at the Bureau checks, so founders never learn they missed it — until an attorney or funder asks for the minute-book proofs.
2. Assuming a 501(c)(3) letter exempts you from Pennsylvania property tax. It does not. The county applies the purely public charity standard independently, and denials are common.
3. Missing the BCO-10 $25,000 trigger. Volunteer-run organizations cross it mid-year and have 30 days to register, with a $25-per-month late fee if they do not.
4. Paying for a registered agent Pennsylvania does not require — or, worse, failing to keep a valid Pennsylvania street address on file at all.
5. Forgetting the annual report because it is free. Nonprofits used to filing once a decade are drifting toward administrative dissolution under the new regime.
6. Treating the docketing statement as optional. DSCB:15-134A is a separate required companion form, and omitting it gets filings rejected.

Starting a nonprofit in another state?

The federal steps are the same in all 50 states; only the state incorporation, tax exemption, and charitable registration details differ. See our guides for New York, Ohio, Michigan, or browse all our guides. Book a free call and we will map the exact steps and current fees for your state.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Rules and fees change, so confirm current requirements with Pennsylvania's agencies and the IRS, or with a qualified professional, before you file.