Three ways in. One platform underneath.
Almost every conversation we have comes down to two questions: whose SGO is it, and who does the work? Answer those and there are three sensible outcomes — start your own, keep the entity and hand us the operating work, or join one we already run. Everything else on this page is what runs underneath whichever you pick.
Whichever row you land on, at least 90% of every qualified contribution reaches students. Every fee in every model is paid from the ≤10% operating allowance.
Everything in one place
Donor data, scholarship records, compliance monitoring, and reporting all share a single source of truth. No reconciling between systems. No data falling through the gaps.
Built for SGOs — not adapted for them
Every product was designed from the ground up for Section 25F: the $1,700 donor limit, 300% AMI income verification, the 90/10 ratio, no-earmarking rules. Generic software handles none of this.
Compliance first, always
Compliance isn't a feature layer on top of an operations platform. It's the foundation. Every transaction, receipt, and award decision is structured around regulatory requirements from day one.
Whose SGO is it, and who runs it?
These are the only three things anyone chooses between. Two of them produce an identical legal entity and differ solely in who staffs it — so if you are torn between the first two, form the SGO now and decide the staffing question later.
Start your own SGO
ClearPath Launch
Full-service SGO formation: 501(c)(3) structuring, governing documents, state opt-in registration, and Section 25F (Education Freedom Tax Credit) compliance from the ground up. The legal foundation every other ClearPath product is built on.
The trade
You staff it. The administrative share of every gift is yours to keep.
We run your SGO
ClearPath Managed
Full outsourced administration of an SGO you own. Your nonprofit, your board, your brand on every receipt — and our team doing the operating work: donor processing and receipts, application intake and income verification, disbursement, 90/10 accounting, state reporting, and audit preparation. You keep the entity and every decision that has to be the board's; you do not staff the back office.
The trade
You keep the entity and every decision that has to be the board's. You do not hire a back office.
Join our SGO
ClearPath Partner Schools
The fastest way for a school to offer federal tax-credit scholarships: join an SGO we operate instead of forming your own. $0 to start. Your school gets a branded giving page and QR code, donors can name your school as their preferred school, your school confirms enrollment in one click, and the SGO carries every Section 25F obligation.
The trade
Nothing to form and nothing to audit — and you never own an SGO.
Someone still has to go and raise the money.
Every one of the three paths ends the same way: a school asking its community for gifts. ClearPath Advance is what does the asking — a donor CRM, outreach campaigns, printed pieces and tracked QR codes, and an ask that shows each family what the gift actually costs them after the credit. It works with any SGO, including one that isn’t ours.
How your SGO runs on ClearPath
Six integrated products for SGOs, three phases of operation. Every piece connects — no switching between systems, no compliance gaps, no manual reconciliation.
Get formed and approved
ClearPath Launch handles every step of SGO formation — entity structuring, governing documents, state registration, and federal Section 25F compliance. Without this done correctly, nothing else works.
ClearPath Launch
One-time service
Launch your donor and scholarship platform
ClearPath Donors and ClearPath Scholarship launch together on day one. Donors give through a compliant portal. Families apply through a branded scholarship portal. Both platforms run in parallel, sharing data.
ClearPath Donors
Ongoing service
ClearPath Scholarship
Ongoing service
Stay compliant. Stay informed.
ClearPath Shield monitors your compliance in real time — 90/10 ratios, state deadlines, regulatory changes. ClearPath Insights aggregates data from across your platform to produce the reports your board, donors, and regulators each need.
ClearPath Shield
Ongoing service
ClearPath Insights
Ongoing service
ClearPath Advisory
Free advice on structure, state, and growth decisions — before the first phase, and at any stage after it.
The first nonprofit operating system designed for SGOs
An SGO is not just a software portal or a compliance checklist. It is a full operational organization that requires donor CRM, scholarship administration, legal compliance, bookkeeping, and marketing. ClearPath is the only platform that bundles all of these services in one place, shielding your team from the operational friction of doing it alone.
Why SGO administrators get overwhelmed
If you run your SGO on generic church or school software, your team will end up wasting hundreds of hours on manual administrative tasks:
Lifecycle Categories
Donor Services
Build donor trust and simplify the donation lifecycle under your own SGO brand.
- Manually mailing tax receipts for every contribution.
- Answering frantic donor emails for lost receipts in April.
- Losing potential corporate matches because donors must look them up manually.
- Failed payment recovery requires manual phone calls and tracking.
- Manual tracking of written acknowledgments for gifts over $250.
- Branded, ACH-first public giving page & self-service donor portal.
- Automatic generation of IRS Section 25F-compliant receipts.
- Self-service donor tax portal where donors download historical receipts on demand.
- Integrated Double the Match employer donation database.
- Automated failed-payment retries and donor reactivation email sequences.
- Built-in IRS acknowledgment tracking for full audit trails.
ClearPath bridges the gap between software & actual SGO administration.
Request a walkthrough of this moduleInside the platform
Whichever path you take, the same software runs the SGO — whether your staff drives it or ours does. These are not separate purchases to weigh up. They are what running a compliant SGO actually requires, already built.
Talk it through before you decide.
Tell us about your organization and we’ll set up a consultation on your formation path, your state, and the timeline. It costs nothing and there is nothing to sign — and if it’s useful, we’ll walk through the platform on the same call.
What happens next
We read your submission and respond within one business day
A working session, typically 45–60 minutes — your situation, not a sales pitch
Which of the three paths fits, what your state requires, and what the timeline is
You leave with a clear recommendation — including when the answer is to join an SGO rather than form one, or to wait