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I am often asked (much too often!) whether the IRS still disallows gifts to predominantly "social organizations" such as fraternities. The argument is that since they cannot find any statements older than the 1960s and 1970s, the IRS must now allow gifts to social organizations.

Nope.

The IRS recently published its 2025 "Audit Technique Guides," reiterating this prohibition on gifts to social organizations. I've included the passage below. As in the past, scholarships (obviously serving an educational purpose) are okay. However, this section reinforces the decades-old rulings that gifts to fraternities for other purposes, such as building and renovation, do not fulfill the educational requirement rule.

The entire Guide can be found here:

John