501c3 offers one narrow form of tax exempt status for a very specific type of non-profit organization with specific privileges and duties. Every organization is unique and many non-profit, tax-exempt, and even charitable organizations exist outside of that specific framework.

If they're not soliciting donations from you I'm not sure why you'd care about their federal tax status.

> If they're not soliciting donations from you I'm not sure why you'd care about their federal tax status.

Because if they appear to be a normal company but call themselves a non-profit, I want to know what that actually means to them.

Being a non-profit is generally a reason for community goodwill towards a company. Therefore being a nonprofit is attractive both to companies doing good, and charlatans seeking to capitalize on that goodwill.

If you call yourself a nonprofit but don't talk anywhere about what that means to you and why, then you look like that second option.

> If they're not soliciting donations from you I'm not sure why you'd care about their federal tax status.

Well, if they portray themselves as a "nonprofit" then most people who read that will think they are a 501c3, which is almost always the case. I don't know why they don't qualify for that status (if they don't), but it's possible that it's a reason I would care about when deciding whom to side with on issues like this one.

The battle of for-profit versus non-profit comes across differently than for-profit versus Michigan Domestic Non-Profit Corporation (which for some reason does not qualify for IRS nonprofit designation).