A board discovers the revocation, searches for someone to fix it, and finds a market that is hard to read. Some of the results sell reinstatement. Some sell the annual filing that would have prevented it. Some sell neither and are simply writing about it. Almost none of them state a price.
There are four genuinely different routes, and they differ less on price than on who does the arguing.
1. Do it yourself, straight to the IRS
Reinstatement is a form the organization can file itself. The IRS charges a user fee of $275 for Form 1023-EZ and $600 for the full Form 1023, and that fee is unavoidable — every other route on this page is a cost on top of it, not instead of it.
What you are buying when you pay anyone else is not permission to file. It is the work of establishing which dates govern, which of the two reinstatement routes you qualify for, and which back filings have to accompany the application. Organizations that have their records, know their dates, and had a simple filing history can reasonably do this themselves.
2. A firm that represents you before the IRS
Foundation Group, which operates 501c3.org, offers to evaluate the situation federally and at state level, prepare the documents, and — the part that distinguishes this route — “represent your case with the IRS and handle any questions.” Nonprofit attorneys and CPA firms offer the same thing.
That is a real difference and it is worth paying for in some cases. If the IRS comes back with questions, someone who can answer on your behalf is the difference between a resolution and a second scramble. The trade is transparency: the Foundation Group reinstatement page carries no price at all, and routes to a consultation instead. Expect a quote, not a number, and expect it to depend on how bad the filing history is.
3. A 990 e-filer — which is not reinstatement
File 990 ranks well for revocation searches and is easy to mistake for a reinstatement service. It is not one. It sells e-filing of Form 990-EZ and Form 990-N at under $100 per filing, and its own guidance sends readers to the IRS for Forms 1023 and 1023-EZ.
This is still worth knowing about, in sequence rather than instead. Reinstatement fixes what already happened; an e-filer is how you avoid doing it twice. The revocation was caused by three consecutive missed annual returns, and nothing about being reinstated changes the obligation that caused it.
4. Flat-fee preparation
The route GoodStanding occupies: every filing that cures the revocation, prepared end to end, at a price printed on the page — $349 for the Streamlined Cure Pack and $699 for the Full Reinstatement Pack, one-time, plus the IRS user fee above.
The boundary is the same one the representation route crosses and this one does not. GoodStanding is not a law or CPA firm and does not represent anyone before the IRS. We prepare; the organization signs and files. If your case is likely to be argued rather than simply filed, route 2 is the better purchase and this page is telling you so.
Why the prices are so hard to compare
Because two of the four routes are not selling the same thing. A quote that includes IRS representation and the preparation of several years of back returns is not comparable to a flat fee for preparing one application, and neither is comparable to a per-filing e-filing charge. The only figure that is genuinely constant across the market is the IRS user fee, which is why it is the one to anchor on when a proposal arrives.
The second reason is that cost is driven by facts about your organization, not by the provider. Whether you qualify for the streamlined route rather than the full one changes the IRS fee, the volume of work, and whether anyone has to write a reasonable-cause narrative at all. That question is answerable before you buy anything from anyone.
Deciding without a consultation
Two facts settle most of it, and both are on the public record: which 15-month clock applies to you and whether you were eligible to file Form 990-EZ or 990-N in each of the three years you missed. Inside the window and eligible, the streamlined route is open and no reasonable-cause narrative is required — which is the cheapest version of this on every route, including doing it yourself.
The free diagnostic on the home page pulls that record and returns both answers with no account and nothing bought. Take the result to whichever of the four routes fits, including the one that is not us. Contact us reaches a person.
Provider claims on this page were read from the providers’ own pages on 30 July 2026 and the IRS user fee from the IRS fee page; prices set by other companies change without notice, so check before you buy. Nothing here is legal or tax advice.