Alabama Charity Registration Process

Although Alabama law requires that organizations and institutions that solicit contributions from Alabama to register with the Attorney General’s Office, they are one of the states that have made the registration process relatively painless.  For initial registration an organization can choose to use either the state form or the Unified Registration Statement.  Renewal is simple; the state form is one page long requiring the attachment of an organization’s most recent IRS Form 990 or a Written Report.  Visit  http://www.ago.state.al.us/Page-Consumer-Protection-Consumer-Charities for details and links to the forms.  Both initial and renewal registrations require a notarized signature along with a check for $25 made out to  Alabama Office of the Attorney General.

Unfortunately, the downside of the Alabama charity registration process is that the annual renewal is due within 90 days of the close of the organization’s fiscal year.  We all know this is almost impossible for most nonprofits, especially those requiring audits prior to completion of the IRS Form 990!  The Attorney General may approve an extension to file up to 180 days.

The Alabama law governing charity registration is found in Section 13A-9-70 through 13A-9-84 of the Code of Alabama.

The Unified Registration Statement for nonprofit organizations. You may also download this registration kit at http://www.multistatefiling.org/urs_webv401.pdf.