This guide covers nonprofit formation, exemption, and governance from the decision whether to form an entity through dissolution. It begins with the four distinct legal statuses that founders conflate — incorporation, federal exemption, deductibility, and authority to solicit — and with the alternatives to forming a standalone organization. Exemption chapters cover the organizational and operational tests, the application and its deadline, and the classification between public charity and private foundation that determines nearly every downstream obligation, including the private foundation excise tax regime. Governance chapters cover the three fiduciary duties, board practice, the conflict of interest policy, and the excess benefit rules that impose personal liability with a safe harbor any organization can satisfy. Compliance chapters cover the annual return and automatic revocation, state registrations, employment obligations, financial controls, and donor restrictions. Later chapters cover lobbying and political activity, unrelated business income, grants, mergers, and dissolution.