AP Style Organizations and Institutions

AP Style rules hold that you should capitalize the full names of organizations and institutions. For example,

• the American Red Cross
• First Presbyterian Church
• Ford Motor Co.
• Yale University Theological School
• the Procrastinators Club
• the Society of Professional Journalists

Retain capitalization if “Co.,” “Corp.,” or a similar word is deleted from the full proper name. For example,

• General Motors Corp.
• General Motors

See also AP Style Company, Companies, AP Style Corporation, and AP Style Incorporated.

Subsidiaries

Capitalize the names of major subdivisions. For example,

• The Chevy Motor Division of General Motors.

Internal Elements

Use lowercase for internal elements of an organization when they have names that are widely used generic terms. For example,

• the board of directors of General Motors
• the board of trustees of the University of Michigan
• the history department of Yale University
• the sport department of the Daily Citizen-Leader

Capitalize internal elements of an organization when they have names that are not widely used generic terms. For example,

• the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches
• the House of Delegates of the American Medical Association
• the House of Bishops and House of Deputies of the Episcopal Church

Flip-Flopped Names

Retain capital letters when commonly accepted practice flops a name to delete the word “of.” For example,

• Harvard School of Dental Medicine

-but-

• Harvard Dental School

Do not, however, flop formal names that are known to the public with the word “of.” For example,

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

-not-

• Massachusetts Technology Institute.

Abbreviation and Acronyms

Some organizations and institutions hare widely recognized by their abbreviations. For example,

• Alcoa, GOP, NAACP, NATO.

For guidelines on when such abbreviations may be used, see the individual listings and the AP Style Abbreviations page for further guidance.