What constitutes charitable, educational, or literary purposes?

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Charitable Purposes — Charitable purposes under the Internal Revenue Code
are broadly defined as services that are beneficial to the public interest and may
encompass some of the other specifically enumerated 501(c)(3) purposes (such as
religious or educational). The organization must serve an open class of people and
not limit its activities to specific individuals. For example, a charitable organization
established to provide food to the homeless in the community would be a charitable
organization, but an organization established to provide food to a designated set of
low-income families would not be. The beneficiary class needs to be open and
unspecified, but does not have to be large. An organization established to feed
the hungry in a certain two-block area would qualify as a charitable organization.
Examples of charitable purposes include: relief of the poor, distressed, or
underprivileged; advancement of education or science; erection or maintenance of
public buildings or monuments; lessening the burdens of government; elimination
of prejudice and discrimination; promotion and development of the arts; and
defense of human and civil rights secured by law.
Educational Purposes — Educational purposes under the Internal Revenue Code
include instruction of the public on subjects useful to individuals for the benefit of
the community and for self-development. The Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) will
generally find that a curriculum is educational if, when presenting particular
viewpoints, the curriculum provides a sufficiently full and fair exposition of
pertinent facts to permit an individual or the public to form an independent
opinion or conclusion. However, mere presentation of unsupported opinion is not
considered educational. Some examples of educational purposes include: publishing
public interest educational materials that do not conflict with the requirements
above; conducting public discussion groups, forums, panels, lectures, or workshops;
offering a correspondence course or one that uses other media such as television or
radio; operating a museum, zoo, planetarium, symphony orchestra, or other
performance groups; serving an educational institution, such as a college bookstore,
alumni association, or athletic organization; and publishing educational newsletters,
pamphlets, books, or other material.

Literary Purposes — Usually nonprofit organizations fall under educational purposes
when they involve publishing written materials. However, some organizations may
want to publish materials that are geared to the benefit of the public interest. As long
as the organization does not target its activities to commercial markets and sells
the publications at a modest price, public interest publishing groups can obtain
tax-exempt status. Some examples include publishing material on environmental
preservation, highway safety, or drug and alcohol abuse information.