nonprofitStatus

nonprofitStatus · Optional

Appears in

Organization

What is it?

nonprofitStatus identifies the legal tax-exempt status of a nonprofit organization. It uses a controlled vocabulary of enumeration values defined by schema.org to classify organizations by IRS category or equivalent, so machines can interpret the difference between a 501(c)(3) public charity, a 501(c)(6) business league, and other nonprofit types.

The field expects a NonprofitType enumeration value rather than free text, which makes the value machine-readable rather than just human-readable.

Why this matters for AEO

AI answer engines increasingly surface entity-level facts when answering queries about organizations. When someone asks "Is the ACLU a nonprofit?" or "What type of nonprofit is the Red Cross?", models trained on structured data can return precise answers when nonprofitStatus is present. The field contributes directly to entity disambiguation: two organizations can share a name but carry different nonprofit classifications, and this property helps AI systems distinguish them. For organizations seeking to appear in knowledge panels or AI-generated summaries, declaring nonprofitStatus signals tax-exempt status without relying on unstructured text that models must interpret.

What the specs say

Schema.org:nonprofitStatus expects a NonprofitType enumeration value. It indicates the legal status of a non-profit organization in its primary place of business. [Source: https://schema.org/nonprofitStatus]

Google: Not mentioned. This field is not listed in Google's structured data documentation for Organization. [https://developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/structured-data/organization]

How to find your value

Your nonprofit classification comes from your IRS determination letter, which you received when your tax-exempt status was approved. The letter specifies the IRC section under which you are exempt. If you no longer have the letter, the IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search at apps.irs.gov lets you look up any organization by name or EIN and see its subsection code.

For organizations outside the United States, schema.org includes a small number of non-US types. If your jurisdiction is not covered, omit the field rather than using an incorrect value.

Valid enumeration values

Schema.org defines these NonprofitType values:

• schema:Nonprofit501c1 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(1): corporations organized under Act of Congress
• schema:Nonprofit501c2 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(2): title-holding corporations
• schema:Nonprofit501c3 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(3): charitable, religious, educational organizations
• schema:Nonprofit501c4 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(4): civic leagues and social welfare organizations
• schema:Nonprofit501c5 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(5): labor, agricultural, horticultural organizations
• schema:Nonprofit501c6 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(6): business leagues, chambers of commerce
• schema:Nonprofit501c7 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(7): social and recreational clubs
• schema:Nonprofit501c8 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(8): fraternal beneficiary societies
• schema:Nonprofit501c10 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(10): domestic fraternal societies
• schema:Nonprofit501c12 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(12): benevolent life insurance associations
• schema:Nonprofit501c13 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(13): cemetery companies
• schema:Nonprofit501c19 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(19): veterans organizations
• schema:Nonprofit501c27 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(27): state-sponsored workers' compensation reinsurance
• schema:Nonprofit501c28 — Organizations under IRC 501(c)(28): national railroad retirement investment trusts
• schema:Nonprofit501a — Organizations under IRC 501(a): organizations exempt from tax
• schema:NonprofitANBI — Netherlands: Algemeen Nut Beogende Instelling
• schema:NonprofitSBBI — Netherlands: Sociaal Belang Behartigende Instelling

The most common value by far is schema:Nonprofit501c3, which covers public charities and private foundations including organizations like the American Red Cross, Wikipedia Foundation, and ACLU.

Format and code

Use the enumeration value as a string with the schema: prefix to indicate the vocabulary namespace.

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "American Civil Liberties Union Foundation",
  "url": "https://www.aclu.org",
  "nonprofitStatus": "https://schema.org/Nonprofit501c3"
}

For a business league or chamber of commerce:

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "U.S. Chamber of Commerce",
  "url": "https://www.uschamber.com",
  "nonprofitStatus": "https://schema.org/Nonprofit501c6"
}

Use the full URI form (https://schema.org/Nonprofit501c3) rather than the prefixed form (schema:Nonprofit501c3) in JSON-LD. Both are valid per the specification, but the full URI is unambiguous in most parsers.

Webflow implementation

Static pages

Add the JSON-LD block to your organization page (About page or homepage) via Page Settings > Custom Code > Head Code. Hard-code the enumeration value since it will not change.

CMS template pages

nonprofitStatus is unlikely to need a CMS field since an organization has a single fixed status. Hard-code the value in the template's custom code rather than binding it to a CMS field.

In Schema HQ

The organization schema editor includes nonprofitStatus as a dropdown field populated with valid NonprofitType enumeration values. Select the applicable category and publish to your Webflow site's custom code.

Real examples

Wikimedia Foundation (501(c)(3)):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "Wikimedia Foundation",
  "url": "https://wikimediafoundation.org",
  "nonprofitStatus": "https://schema.org/Nonprofit501c3"
}

American Farm Bureau Federation (501(c)(5)):

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "American Farm Bureau Federation",
  "url": "https://www.fb.org",
  "nonprofitStatus": "https://schema.org/Nonprofit501c5"
}

Related fields

• legalName
• taxID
• foundingDate
• hasCredential
• sameAs

FAQ

What is the difference between nonprofitStatus and taxID?

taxID is your organization's identifying number (EIN in the US). nonprofitStatus is the legal classification of your tax-exempt status. Use both together for maximum entity clarity: taxID lets systems find your record, nonprofitStatus tells them what kind of organization you are.

Do I need the schema: prefix or the full URI?

In JSON-LD, use the full URI: "https://schema.org/Nonprofit501c3". The prefixed form schema:Nonprofit501c3 works in Microdata and RDFa contexts but is less portable in JSON-LD without declaring the prefix in the context.

Will this field affect my search rankings?

Google does not document nonprofitStatus as a ranking signal or as a trigger for rich results. Its value is in entity disambiguation and AI-readability rather than direct ranking impact. Nonprofits that appear in knowledge panels benefit from having their classification explicitly declared in structured data.