The Education Improvement Scholarships Tax Credits Program provides Virginia state tax credits for resident persons or businesses making monetary or marketable securities donations to approved scholarship foundations that provide scholarships to eligible students for qualified educational expenses incurred in attending eligible nonpublic schools.

Individuals or businesses can receive state tax credit for their donation.

Donation may be made in the form of cash, check, credit card, or other monetary gift or marketable securities, but not goods, services, or property.

• Individuals must give a minimum of $500 in order to qualify for the tax credit program but can give up to, but may not exceed, $125,000 per tax year.
• Business entities, including sole proprietors, are not limited in the amount they can give.

The state tax credit value is equal to 65% of the donation. If you pay taxes and itemize, you may reduce your tax liability by 75-105%. (Renewanation is not a certified tax service organization. Reduced tax liability needs to be determined by donor’s tax professional).

• Individuals may not be issued less than $325 or more than $81,250 in tax credits for a taxable year.
• Business entities, including sole proprietorships, are not limited in the amount of tax credit they can receive.
• There is a statewide cap of $25 Million dollars available in tax credits per program year.

The tax credit may be claimed against the individual income tax, corporate income tax, bank franchise tax, insurance premiums license tax, or tax on public service corporations.

• Individuals and businesses seeking to make a donation to the Virginia Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit Program through a certified scholarship foundation must first apply to the Virginia Department of Education for pre-authorization of their intended donation amount. Click here to access a copy of the downloadable fillable PDF Preauthorization Form you will need to complete and submit.
• As there is a stand mandated annual cap of $25 million in credits, tax credits are preauthorized to donors on a first come, first served basis.
• An Approval Letter issued to the donor by VDOE must accompany the donation from the donor to the Renewanation Virginia Scholarship Foundation.
• The Renewanation Virginia Scholarship Foundation will promptly electronically return the notice to VDOE certifying the donor, the amount of the donation, and the date it was received from the donor.
• Once the donation is approved, VDOE will issue a tax credit certificate to the individual or business donor, which must be submitted with the applicable Virginia tax return in order to claim the credit.
• Preauthorization notices not acted upon by the donor within 180 calendar days of issuance will expire and become void.

• At a minimum, 90% of your donation will provide scholarships to eligible students for qualified educational expenses incurred in attending eligible nonpublic schools.
• The Renewanation Virginia Scholarship Foundation specifically scholarships qualified students to help them receive a Christian worldview education.

• Scholarship values are based on the state share of Standards of Quality (SOQ) funding and varies by state school district.
• Scholarship values do not exceed SOQ funding or the published costs of the eligible school.

• Eligible schools, selected by eligible students to which tax credit derived funds may be paid, will be (i) in compliance with the Commonwealth’s and locality’s health and safety laws and codes; (ii) hold a valid occupancy permit as required by the locality; (iii) comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended; and (iv) be nonpublic schools that comply with nonpublic school accreditation requirements as set forth in Section 22.1-19 of the Code of Virginia, and administered by the Virginia Council for Private Education or nonpublic schools that maintain an assessment system that annually measures scholarship students’ progress in reading and math using a national norm-referenced achievement test including, but not limited to, the Stanford Achievement Test, California Achievement Test, and Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Any other achievements tests used for this purpose must have been developed using a norm group that is representative of the United States.
• The Renewanation Virginia Scholarship Foundation only supports scholarships to eligible schools (as stated above) that also provide Christian worldview education.

All donations must be submitted for approval by completing a Preauthorization Form. Renewanation can furnish a copy of the form to you or you can download the form here. Once you have completed your form, there are two options for submitting it to the Virginia Department of Education for approval.

Option 1) (Preferred & Quickest) Email your completed form as a PDF attachment to curtis@renewanation.org or, if you prefer, mail your form to:

Renewanation

P.O. Box 12366
Roanoke, VA 24025
ATTN: Curtis Cornell

Upon receipt Renewanation will promptly submit the form electronically to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) for you.

Option 2)  Mail your completed form directly to:

Virginia Department of Education
25^th Floor
ATTN: Scholarship Tax Credit Program
P.O. Box 2120
Richmond, VA 23216-2120

Once your form has been approved, an Approval Letter will be mailed to you by the Virginia Department of Education to the address you provided on your Preauthorization Form.

Once you have received your Approval Letter, mail it along with your donation to Renewanation within 180 calendar days of the date at the top of your notice. The donation amount can be paid all at once or can be divided into multiple installments as long as the total donation amount is paid within the 180 calendar day period.  (Just a reminder, the 180 days starts as of the date on your Approval Letter.) Should the total amount paid and the amount of the approved donation amount differ at the end of the 180 day period, your Tax Credit Certificate will reflect the actual amount paid.

Options for payment include:

• Send a check payable to:

Renewanation
P.O. Box 12366
Roanoke, VA 24025
ATTN: Finance Department

• For marketable securities, make arrangements for direct fund transfer by calling 540-890-8900 and speaking to Melaine in the Finance Department.

To qualify for assistance through the EISTCP program, a student must meet the following criteria:

• Be a resident of Virginia and (i) eligible to enter kindergarten or first grade or (ii) in the current school year has enrolled and attended a public school in the Commonwealth for at least one-half of the year or (iii) for the school year that immediately preceded his/her receipt of a foundation scholarship was enrolled and attended a public school in the Commonwealth for at least one-half of the year or (iv) is a prior recipient of a foundation scholarship or (v) for the school year that immediately preceded his/her receipt of a scholarship foundation scholarship was domiciled in a state other than the Commonwealth and did not attend a nonpublic school in the Commonwealth for more than one-half of the school year.
  • A resident of Virginia means that the student meets the requirements of Section 22.1-3 of the Code of Virginia, for admission to a Virginia public school.
• Have a family household income that does not exceed 300 percent of the current federal poverty level, or in the case of special needs students, 400 percent of the federal poverty level with a written and filed IEP.
• Enroll in a qualified school.

• First, determine eligibility and qualification. (See FAQ – Is my child eligible for a scholarship?)
• Then, apply for Renewanation Virginia Scholarship Foundation assistance through your qualified and participating school.

Contact us through vascholarshipfoundation.org or call 1-855-TO-RENEW.