How do you check if a charity is tax deductible?
Ask the organization, which most can answer, or look it up in the IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search at IRS.gov/TEOS, which lists the organizations that can receive deductible gifts.
The rule
Publication 526 gives two ways. Ask the organization whether it is qualified to receive tax-deductible gifts; most will tell you, and many print it on their receipts. Or search for it by name or employer identification number in the IRS’s Tax Exempt Organization Search.
The search shows whether an organization is eligible to receive deductible gifts and whether its exemption has been revoked, which happens when an organization stops filing its annual return for three years.
Check before a large gift, a gift to a group you found through a fundraising call or a social post, or a gift to a name that sounds like a well-known charity.
- What to keep
- The charity’s receipt or your bank record, and for a gift of $250 or more its written acknowledgment.
- Watch for
- Being exempt from tax isn’t the same as being able to receive deductible gifts. A civic league or a union can be the first and not the second.
Checked on October 2, 2026 against Publication 526, Charitable Contributions, IRS, Tax Exempt Organization Search and 26 U.S.C. 6033(j), revocation for not filing. An estimate for your records, not tax advice.
Federal tax only. States set their own rules for gifts.
Keep every gift with its receipt.
From 2026, up to $1,000 of cash gifts counts even without itemizing. Reimburse keeps each gift with the charity’s receipt, asks for the paper the IRS wants, and shows what it puts back.