Is The Fair Park Texas Foundation a Non-Profit? Not According to The IRS

Hall of State, Fair Park (Photo: Michael Cagle)

All along we’ve been operating under the assumption that the organization founded by Walt Humann — the Fair Park Texas Foundation — was a certifiable non-profit. In fact, one of the things that made Humann’s organization attractive to the City of Dallas is that it could circumvent bidding as a non-profit providing monetary or in-kind resources to be set forward for the park’s management.  Everyone just assumed it was a nonprofit, even Dallas Morning News columnist Robert Wilonsky.

As it turns out, not so much. Could this be a case of misplaced paperwork, or something far more nefarious?

Someone, whose name is redacted from this letter posted today by Wylie H. Dallas on Twitter, went to the source to find out if Walt Humann’s Fair Park Texas Foundation is an actual non-profit registered with the Internal Revenue Service:

“We have no record of this organization having tax-exempt status under Internal Revenue Code Section 501 (a),” the letter from Jeffrey I. Cooper. If you’re unfamiliar with 501 (a), the code that deals with tax-exempt statuses, here’s a bit about it from tax guru Don Kramer’s Nonprofit Issues:

Section 501(a) provides that organizations described under sections 501(c), 501(d), and 401(a) are exempt from federal income tax.  Section 501(c) now has 29 separate sections (See Ready Reference Page: “What Do We Mean When We Say ‘Nonprofit’?”), including 501(c)(3) which describes charities.  Section 501(d) describes certain religious and apostolic organizations, and section 401(a) describes qualified pension, profit-sharing and stock bonus plans.  None of the organizations that meet the definitions set out in these sections has to pay federal income taxes.

Now, I know from anecdotes from the brave people who have applied for 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status that it is a long slog, so perhaps we could give the benefit of the doubt to Humann. We’ll let you know as things develop.