501(c)(3)

A 501(c)(3) is the ugly government tax chitty way of calling a collective effort of people, aka a "company," a charity. But it sounds way more edgy if you call it a number. With a letter. Then a number.

Double 0-7. Way cooler than "James." Right? Well, 501(c)(3) is the United States legal code number that created space for Federally tax exempt charities. And there are 29 flavors of charitable category that they address. The government is working hard to catch up to Baskin Robbins’ numbers, but they’re not there yet.

Specifically, some of those 29 flavors include: religious organizations, scientific, literary or educational charities, charities for amateur sports, testing for public safety, charities involving cruelty to children, women, and animals (yeah, these are, uh... anti-).

So why the special treatment? Well, if a 501(c)(3) follows the many strict rules to maintain its non-profit status, then donors giving money to it get to deduct that money right off the top when doing their taxes. Like… if a taxpayer is paying 40 percent marginal tax, and they donate a dollar, that dollar only cost them 60 cents to donate. The U.S. Government essentially underwrites charitable donations, at least to a point. And that’s a good thing. We need noblesse oblige charities in the world. They do good work. Well, most of them do...