How to Complete and File Illinois Form CO-1: Charitable Organization Registration

Illinois Form CO-1 is the initial registration statement that charitable organizations file with the Illinois Attorney General’s Charitable Trust and Solicitations Bureau before soliciting donations in the state. You complete the two-page form with your organization’s identifying, governance, and fundraising details, pair it with Form CO-2 and required attachments, and submit the package online or by mail to the Bureau with a $15 filing fee.

Who Has to File

Two Illinois statutes drive the requirement. The Solicitation for Charity Act (225 ILCS 460) requires every charitable organization that solicits or intends to solicit contributions from people in Illinois to file a registration statement before any solicitation begins.¹ The Charitable Trust Act (760 ILCS 55) separately requires registration for any trustee holding charitable property worth more than $4,000.² If your organization falls under either statute, you file Form CO-1.

Solicitation is defined broadly. Mail, phone, email, social media, a donation button on your website, and in-person asks all count. An out-of-state charity that fundraises from Illinois residents is subject to the same requirement even without a physical presence in the state.

Organizations That Don’t Have to Register

A few categories are fully exempt from the Solicitation for Charity Act:

The University of Illinois, Southern Illinois University, and other named state universities, plus educational institutions recognized by the State Board of Education or accredited by a regional accrediting association, along with their affiliated foundations.
Fraternal, patriotic, social, educational, and alumni organizations that fundraise only from their own members.
People soliciting contributions for the relief of a specific named individual.

Religious organizations sit in a split position. Under the Charitable Trust Act, religious corporations and organizations directly supervised by a religious body are fully exempt.² Under the Solicitation for Charity Act, they still file the initial CO-1 but are exempt from ongoing annual reporting once the Attorney General confirms their exempt status. The same partial treatment applies to organizations receiving less than $15,000 in contributions during any 12-month period ending December 31: initial registration required, ongoing annual reports not required.¹

What to Gather Before You Start

Pull these together before opening the form. Most of them either supply information you need to enter or will be attached to your submission.

Articles of Incorporation (or Certificate of Authority) stamped or issued by the Illinois Secretary of State. Unincorporated associations use their constitution instead.
Bylaws covering meetings, voting, and officer elections.
IRS Determination Letter recognizing your tax-exempt status. If your application is still pending, use a copy of the Form 1023 or Form 1024 you submitted.
Your Federal Employer Identification Number (FEIN).
Your Illinois Secretary of State file number, if you are incorporated in Illinois.
Current officer, director, and trustee names, mailing addresses, and daytime phone numbers.
Any professional fundraiser contracts, if you have hired or plan to hire one.

Having everything in hand prevents the most common cause of delay: incomplete submissions the Bureau returns for corrections.

Filling Out Form CO-1

The form runs about two pages.

Organizational Identity

Enter the legal name exactly as it appears on your Articles of Incorporation. Not a trade name, not an abbreviation. Add your phone number, FEIN, and, if incorporated, your Illinois Secretary of State file number. The form also asks for your date of incorporation or formation and the state where you were organized.³

Provide your principal mailing address. If your books and records live at a different street address, list that separately. The Bureau wants to know where your financial documentation is physically kept.

Purpose and Fundraising

Describe your charitable purpose in the space provided. Keep the language consistent with your Articles of Incorporation. A mismatch between your organizing documents and your CO-1 description will get flagged and slow your registration down.

Check every method you plan to use to solicit contributions: direct mail, events, online, phone, or other. Enter your fiscal year end date. That date sets when future annual reports come due.

Professional Fundraisers

If you plan to use a professional fundraiser, answer “Yes” and give their name and address. Confirm whether the fundraiser has registered and filed a bond with the Attorney General, as the statute requires, and attach copies of all contracts with them.⁴ If the fundraiser has not completed their own registration, yours will stall.

Tax-Exempt Status

Indicate whether the IRS has recognized you as tax-exempt and under which section of the Internal Revenue Code. If your application is still pending, check that box. Either way, attach either the IRS Determination Letter or a copy of your pending Form 1023 or 1024.³

Officers and Directors

Attach a list of every current officer, director, and trustee with name, mailing address, and daytime phone number. This must reflect who is serving now, not last year’s board or people who have been nominated.³

Completing Form CO-2

CO-1 does not travel alone. Illinois Administrative Code requires initial registration to include both a completed CO-1 and a completed CO-2, the Charitable Organization Financial Information Form.⁵ CO-2 is specifically required for organizations in operation less than one year, and the Bureau expects financial information from all registrants.⁶

CO-2 asks for your organization name, address, and phone number; the location of your books and records if different from the mailing address; whether gross receipts are expected to exceed $10,000 for the current fiscal year; and financial data from inception to the current date. The financial section breaks gross receipts into contributions, program service revenue, dues, interest and dividends, rents, fundraising events, and other revenue, and reports total assets including cash, receivables, inventory, investments, and property.

If you have a current treasurer’s report covering the same categories, submit that in place of filling in each line. Two people must sign the CO-2: your president (or another authorized officer) and your chief fiscal officer. They cannot be the same person.⁶

Required Attachments

Bundle these with your completed CO-1 and CO-2:³

Corporations: Articles of Incorporation and/or Certificate of Authority stamped by the Secretary of State, any amendments, and bylaws.
Unincorporated associations: constitution and bylaws.
Trusts: the trust instrument.
IRS Determination Letter, or a copy of your pending Form 1023 or 1024.
List of officers, directors, and trustees with mailing addresses and phone numbers.
Professional fundraiser contracts, if applicable.

Missing one attachment gets the package kicked back. The Bureau will not process an incomplete filing; they send a formal request for corrections and the clock restarts.

How to Submit

Online

The Attorney General’s Charitable Trust Online Filing System at charitable.illinoisattorneygeneral.gov lets you create an account, complete the initial registration, upload attachments, and pay the $15 fee electronically. Online filings receive priority handling, so this is the faster route.⁷

By Mail

For paper filing, send the completed CO-1, CO-2, all required attachments, and a check or money order for $15 payable to the “Illinois Charity Bureau Fund” to:⁸

Office of the Illinois Attorney General
Charitable Trust Bureau
100 West Randolph Street, 11th Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60601

Note an address discrepancy: the CO-1 form itself prints a different Chicago address (115 S. LaSalle Street), which was the Bureau’s previous location. The instructions and the online portal both direct filers to Randolph Street. Use Randolph Street to avoid routing delays.

After You File

Bureau staff review submissions for completeness: every field filled, every attachment present, correct fee included. If everything is in order, the Bureau assigns a registration number that you will use on all future filings. If something is missing, they issue a deficiency notice and hold the registration open until you respond. The Attorney General’s office does not publish a guaranteed processing timeline, but online filings are handled first.

What Registration Commits You To Going Forward

Registration is not a one-time event. Once registered, your organization must file Form AG990-IL, the Charitable Organization Annual Report, each year with the Charitable Trust Bureau.⁹ Each annual report carries a $15 filing fee. Late reports carry an additional $100 late fee per report, and the Bureau will not accept the report without it.¹

If you use professional fundraisers, you also attach an IFC (Individual Fund-Raising Campaign) report to your AG990-IL for each campaign conducted during the reporting year. You can request an extension for the annual report deadline through the Attorney General’s office; the request forms are on the Charity Registration page of the Attorney General’s website.

Skipping registration carries real cost. Under 225 ILCS 460/9, the Attorney General can cancel a violating organization’s registration, seek a court injunction barring further charitable activity, remove officers, and pursue triple the amount collected through unlawful solicitations plus reasonable attorney’s fees and costs.¹⁰ If your registration lapsed or you never registered and you now need to come into compliance, re-registration requires a current CO-1, financial reports for every past year, and a $200 penalty registration fee on top of any outstanding annual report fees.¹ Every year you wait adds another $15 back report and another $100 late fee.

1
Illinois General Assembly. 225 ILCS 460 – Solicitation for Charity Act
2
Illinois Attorney General. 760 ILCS 55 – Charitable Trust Act
3
Illinois Attorney General. Form CO-1 Charitable Organization Registration Statement
4
Illinois Attorney General. Charitable Organization Registration Statement Form CO-1
5
Legal Information Institute. Illinois Administrative Code tit. 14, Section 400.30 – Registration
6
Illinois Attorney General. Charitable Organization Financial Information Form CO-2
7
Office of the Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul. Charitable Trust Online Filing System
8
Illinois Attorney General. CO-1 Illinois Charitable Organization Registration
9
Illinois Attorney General. Charity Registration
10
Illinois General Assembly. 225 ILCS 460/9