How 1 Abacus Fund operates.

1 Abacus Fund operates as a two-entity structure: FundEDU, the for-profit Pennsylvania business that provides marketing, technology, and administrative services; and the 1 Abacus Fund Scholarship Granting Organization, a 501(c)(3) (forming in Maryland) that receives donations, issues tax receipts, and awards scholarships. The structure is common in the nonprofit world — hospital management companies, university foundation managers, and many existing SGOs operate this way — and a governance firewall separates the two. This page explains it in plain English.

What each entity does.

FundEDU is a Pennsylvania for-profit business that already manages relationships in the PA EITC scholarship ecosystem on behalf of schools. For the federal EFTC program, FundEDU provides: donor and employer marketing and outreach; the technology platform (this website, the EFTC capacity calculator, the donor management system, the payroll reconciliation system); employer program administration (setup, training, remittance processing); and back-office program operations on behalf of 1 Abacus Fund under a Management Services Agreement.

1 Abacus Fund is a 501(c)(3) Scholarship Granting Organization (forming in Maryland) that operates under Internal Revenue Code Section 25F. 1 Abacus Fund: receives donations directly from individual donors; issues annual donation receipts that donors use to claim the federal EFTC credit; awards K-12 scholarships in accordance with federal eligibility rules; distributes scholarship funds to schools or directly to qualified educational expenses; submits annual reports to the IRS and to participating states; and operates under the oversight of its own independent board of directors. 1 Abacus Fund — not FundEDU — is the entity donors give to and receive receipts from.

The governance firewall.

1 Abacus Fund's independent board of directors (3-5 independent members, with FundEDU's partners explicitly excluded from a board majority) is the entity that approves the Management Services Agreement with FundEDU, sets scholarship policy, approves the annual budget, and reviews the financial audit. FundEDU is paid for its services through the MSA at arm's length, at rates the board reviews against market benchmarks. This separation is both a legal requirement (501(c)(3) prohibitions on private inurement) and a practical one — it gives donors confidence that scholarship decisions are not driven by the for-profit's commercial interests.

Where the money goes.

Federal law requires SGOs to use at least 90% of qualified contribution income on scholarships. Our internal operating target is to direct 90% or more of every donation to scholarships — meeting or exceeding the statutory floor. For employer-aggregated donations (where payroll deduction reduces our acquisition and administration costs), we target an even lower administrative share, in the 5-7% range. We will publish the actual scholarship-share-of-revenue ratio annually once 1 Abacus Fund's first audited fiscal year closes. Until then, the target is our public commitment.

Statutory authority.

The federal Education Freedom Tax Credit was created by Section 70411 of P.L. 119-21 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act), signed into law on July 4, 2025. That section added Internal Revenue Code Section 25F, which establishes the credit, defines a qualified SGO, sets the donor and student eligibility rules, and authorizes the Treasury Department to issue implementing regulations. The IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2026-6 on December 12, 2025, establishing the Advance Election process by which states opt in for 2027 using Form 15714. Final Treasury regulations under Section 25F are listed on the 2025-2026 Priority Guidance Plan and are expected in 2026. The U.S. Departments of Education and Treasury released a joint fact sheet on the program on January 27, 2026.

What we will publish, and when.

We commit to publishing the following on this page as each becomes available:

1 Abacus Fund's IRS 501(c)(3) determination letter (target: 2026).
1 Abacus Fund's federal Employer Identification Number (target: 2026, alongside the determination).
The Management Services Agreement summary between FundEDU and 1 Abacus Fund.
1 Abacus Fund's annual financial audit by an independent CPA firm (target: spring 2028 for FY 2027, then annually).
IRS Form 990 (target: when first filing is due — for a nonprofit formed in 2026, this is typically May 2027 for the short year, then annually).
Annual scholarship-share-of-revenue ratio (target: alongside the annual audit).
Charity Navigator profile (target: once three years of Form 990s are filed and we are eligible to be rated).

Until each artifact exists, this page will state plainly that it does not yet exist rather than substituting a borrowed credential. We will not display trust seals or third-party badges we have not legitimately earned.

Privacy and accessibility.

We do not run third-party advertising trackers (no Facebook Pixel, no Google Tag Manager, no HubSpot tracking) on this website or on the capacity calculator. We do not sell, rent, or share donor information with third parties for marketing purposes. We use cookieless or privacy-respecting analytics for internal site improvement only. This website conforms to WCAG 2.1 Level AA accessibility standards; report any accessibility issue at the contact page and we will respond. Our donor privacy policy and accessibility statement are linked from the global footer.