501(c)13 non-profit Cemetery

Hello everyone,

Apologies for long post below, I appreciate anyone who will read and any advice they may be willing to give.

I previously worked at a 501c3 museum and achieved 7 years of qualifying payments there. I have 3 more years of payments to go but have been sitting in SAVE forebearance purgatory for a while since maybe August 2024. In June 2024 I left the museum and started working at another non-profit institution Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, MA. It is not just a municipal city cemetery, it is the first landscaped garden Cemetery in the United States, a National Historic Landmark and Level 3 arboretum.

When I submitted my final recertification for my work at the Museum I searched the Cemetery in the PSLF database and was hit with panic when it's EIN didn't come up in the database. I asked my new HR person about it and she wasn't even aware of PSLF. I settled with the hope that no one at the Cemetery applied for PSLF before so that's why it wasn't in the database.

Recently someone in an all staff meeting asked management why 501-c13 (non-profit Cemetery) does not qualify for PSLF and they followed up with an email to staff with a copy paste of the criteria for 501c3 which quality and stated simply that the Cemetery just doesn't qualify.

I realize I should have been paying this whole time I've been on the forebearance but money is tight paycheck to paycheck, so if I wasn't required to pay without penalty then I haven't been. I also realize the 0% interest accrual has recently ended and I was planning to apply for a new payment plan soon so I could get back on track to forgiveness.

I feel foolish having left my job at the museum and feel like I am now screwed out of forgiveness by making this change. I was unhappy at my previous job and the pay is a bit better where I am now, I also enjoy my work and am happy to be there. I'm not sure I would have lasted another 3 years at my previous job.

Is it possible to have an institution added as a qualifying employer? The Cemetery has a citizen science program that provides research and education and our main purpose is to the public service of burying the dead. I find it absurd this isn't considered a qualifying institution and I do not want to start looking for another museum job, but I feel very uncertain right now.

Thank you again anyone with helpful advice.