Step one
Pick the structure before you pick the state
The state changes your costs by a few hundred dollars a year. The structure decides who can fund you, who owns the assets, and whether you may speak about politics. Get this right first.
Charity
501(c)(3)
- Donations are tax-deductible
- Foundation and government grants
- Often exempt from state sales and property tax
- No owners, no equity, assets locked forever
- Political campaign activity is absolutely prohibited
- Lobbying capped; Form 990 is public
- Months to get IRS approval
Trade body
501(c)(6)
- Unlimited lobbying — the main reason to choose it
- Some political activity permitted
- No public-support test to pass
- Members usually deduct dues as a business expense
- No charitable deduction for donors
- Foundations effectively cannot fund you
- Must serve a whole line of business, not one member
Company
For-profit
- Ownership, equity, exit — you keep the upside
- Incorporate in a day; no IRS application
- Any revenue, any lobbying, private financials
- You pay tax
- No deductible donations, no foundation grants
- Mission lasts only as long as the cap table allows
→ Six ordered questions that decide it for you · Full side-by-side · Or run two entities
Step two
Where to form it
Colour the map by what you actually care about, then click a state for its numbers and its official filing links. Darker means better on the selected measure.
The mistake almost everyone makes. "Where do I incorporate?" matters far less than "where do I operate?" If you form in Delaware but your staff sit in New York, you must also register in New York as a foreign corporation and pay both states, forever. Unless you are raising venture capital, form where your office is. Why, in detail →
Everything, ranked
All 51 jurisdictions
Click any column to re-rank. Click a row to show it on the map. Scores are computed from the columns shown — the formula is in Method, and you can disagree with it.
Money
What it actually costs
State filing fees are the small number. The recurring compliance costs below are the ones that decide whether the structure is affordable.
Federal, one-off
| Step | Form | Cost | Timing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employer ID number | SS-4 | Free | Same day, online |
| 501(c)(3) exemption | Form 1023 | User fee in the high hundreds | Several months |
| 501(c)(3), small orgs | Form 1023-EZ | Lower user fee | Weeks — limited eligibility |
| 501(c)(6) exemption | Form 1024 | Comparable to 1023 | Months |
| Lobbying election | Form 5768 | Free | File it early — cheap insurance |
| For-profit | — | No application at all | Days |
Recurring, and easy to forget
Every year, every entity
- Registered agent, ~$50–$300 per state
- Annual or biennial report (the table above)
- Minimum franchise tax where one exists — California's $800 is the notorious one
- Charitable solicitation renewal in each state you fundraise in
Nonprofit-specific
- Form 990 preparation — the accountant, not the filing, is the cost
- Independent audit above a state revenue threshold, and most funders want one anyway: five figures
- D&O insurance — effectively mandatory to recruit a real board
- Grant accounting with restricted-fund tracking
Realistic first year
- Single-state c3, DIY-heavy: low thousands
- Single-state c3, lawyer-prepared: $5k–$15k
- c3 + c6 or c3 + LLC pair: roughly double
- Delaware C-corp or PBC, qualified at home: $1k–$3k
Sources
Where to get the information
Everything below is a primary source. Use these rather than the summaries on this page when you are about to spend money.
Federal — IRS
- Charities & Nonprofits hub
- Publication 557 — the manual
- Form 1023 · 1023-EZ · 1024
- Lobbying & campaign rules
- Look up any org's 990 — read your peers' before you file
Multi-state fundraising
- Unified Registration Statement
- Council of Nonprofits — state association directory
- Bolder Advocacy — what a c3 may and may not say
Statutes
- 26 U.S.C. §§ 501(c)(3), 501(c)(6), 501(h), 170, 162(e), 512–514, 527(f), 4958, 6033(e), 1202
- uscode.house.gov
- Annotated source list →
Business filing office, by state
Charity regulator, by state
Method
How the scores are built, and how much to trust them
Nonprofit score
35% local funder and institutional ecosystem · 25% three-year filing cost · 20% legal and administrative predictability · 20% absence of charitable solicitation registration burden.
Company score
30% investor familiarity — whether a funding round in this state is routine or a negotiation · 25% legal predictability · 25% three-year cost including minimum franchise tax · 20% personal income tax burden.
What is a judgement call
The funders, law and investors ratings are editorial, on a 1–5 scale. Everything else is a published fact. Weight them differently and the ranking changes — that is the point of showing the formula.
What is indicative
Dollar figures are base filing fees for a simple entity, gathered as a planning aid. They exclude expedite fees and change most years. Every state row links to its official fee schedule; check it before you budget.
Not legal or tax advice. This is a research summary meant to make you a better client of a lawyer, not a substitute for one. No attorney–client relationship arises from reading it.