Starting and running a nonprofit in Kansas

Forming your nonprofit corporation

The state creates your organization; the IRS separately recognizes it as tax-exempt. This is the state part.

Where you file

Kansas Secretary of State (Docking State Office Building, 915 SW Harrison Street, Topeka). You can file online through the Secretary of State's Register a Business page, where processing happens within minutes, or mail the paper form.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Form

Articles of Incorporation, Domestic (Kansas) Corporation (Form AI), checking the not-for-profit box (code 51-02), filed under K.S.A. 17-6002. You can attach language for 501(c)(3) income tax exemption.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Filing fee

$20, whether you file on paper or online.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Information report

Every two years. Nonprofits formed in an even year file in each following even year, and those formed in an odd year file in odd years; nonprofit reports are due by June 15. If you miss it, you get a three-month delinquency period, then your corporation forfeits.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Information report fee

$80, online or on paper (Form INP).

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Then get your EIN and apply to the IRS for 501(c)(3) status: the formation stage walks through both.

Registering to ask for donations

Many states want charities to register before they ask residents for money. Here's what this state says.

Do you have to register?

Yes, unless you're exempt: before soliciting funds in Kansas, a charity must file a registration form with the Kansas Attorney General giving its location, purpose, the people responsible for it and a financial statement (K.S.A. 17-1763).

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Exempt

K.S.A. 17-1762 lists the exemptions. The ones most small charities use: you don't intend to receive and don't actually receive more than $10,000 in contributions in your tax year and all your fundraising is done by unpaid people (if you go over $10,000, you must register within 30 days after the tax year ends); or you don't solicit or receive contributions from more than 100 people. Others include religious organizations, many accredited schools, fraternal, patriotic, social, educational and alumni groups and historical societies that only solicit their own members, and charities getting money from a United Way.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Fee

$25 with each registration (K.S.A. 17-1763). Charities that received more than $500,000 in contributions in their last fiscal year must also send audited financial statements.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Renewal

Every year. Your registration expires on the last day of the sixth month after your fiscal year ends (June 30 for a calendar year) (K.S.A. 17-1763).

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

State tax exemption

IRS approval doesn't automatically exempt you from state taxes. Here's how this state handles them.

Income tax

If you're exempt from federal income tax and file Form 990 or 990-EZ, you're exempt from Kansas income tax for each year you meet the federal requirements. If you have unrelated business income and file federal Form 990-T, you also owe Kansas tax on it and file Kansas Form K-120.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Sales tax

Not automatic. The Kansas Department of Revenue says 501(c)(3) status doesn't make you exempt from sales tax: only the types of organizations listed in Kansas sales tax law are (for example nonprofit 501(c)(3) religious organizations, museums, historical societies, zoos and primary care clinics, nonprofit educational institutions and hospitals, and nonprofit youth development programs). Charitable and benevolent organizations in general are listed as not exempt. If you qualify, apply online on the Department of Revenue's website for a numbered Tax-Exempt Entity Exemption Certificate and give it to sellers; certificates have an expiration date.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Your board

The smallest board the state's nonprofit law allows. Many charities choose more.

Minimum directors

One or more, each a natural person, with the number fixed by or under your bylaws unless your articles set it (K.S.A. 17-6301(b)). Kansas nonprofits are formed under the general corporation code, and a nonstock corporation's articles can provide for different management.

Official source · checked October 22, 2026

Every year

• Kansas Attorney General: charitable organization registration renewal

  Charities must register with the Kansas Attorney General before asking for donations in Kansas. Each registration expires on the last day of the sixth month after your fiscal year ends, so renew by then (June 30 for a December 31 year end). The fee is $25 with each registration. A charity that took in more than $500,000 in contributions last year must also send an audited financial statement. You don't have to register if you don't receive more than $10,000 in contributions in a tax year and all your fundraisers are unpaid, or if you solicit or receive contributions from no more than 100 people; other exemptions cover some schools, religious groups and member-only solicitations. Confirm with the Attorney General.

  Official source · checked October 17, 2026

• Kansas Secretary of State: information report

  Kansas not-for-profit corporations file an information report with the Secretary of State every two years, by June 15. If you formed in an even-numbered year you file in even years, and if you formed in an odd-numbered year you file in odd years. The filing fee listed on the form is $80. You get a three-month delinquency period after the due date, and after that the corporation forfeits. Confirm with the Secretary of State.

  Official source · checked October 17, 2026

Federal deadlines (the Form 990 family) depend on your fiscal year and size. The compliance calendar puts them and Kansas's in date order.

Make my Kansas calendar

Who to ask

We don't list a free legal help program for Kansas charities yet. The directory has the programs we know of.