Things seem to be looking up for Mory’s.

Although the historic eating club’s renovations are still on hold, Mory’s Board of Governors President Christopher Getman ’64 announced Friday in an e-mail to Mory’s members that the organization has been granted nonprofit, or 501(c)(3), status by the Internal Revenue Service. Following the announcement of the IRS ruling, which makes any donations to Mory’s tax deductible, the club received an additional $170,000 in donations over two days, Getman said Saturday.

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Getman also announced in the e-mail that donors can now receive physical recognition in Mory’s itself for their contributions: Donors can pay to name areas of the club, including the entrance and the new bar. Don’t plan on purchasing the naming rights to the cup room, library, the president’s room, the middle room and maitre d’ area, the office or Whiffenpoof table, though; those have already been sold.

“It’s only going to get better, I think,” Getman said of the new opportunities to generate donations. “It’s exciting.”

Getman added that the Board has finished revising its business plan and intends to show it to potential donors early this week.

“We’ve got some people who have very deep pockets who are very interested in seeing it,” Getman said of the business plan.

The total cost of renovating Mory’s will be $2.2 million, Getman said. With the donations that came in this weekend, Mory’s has now raised about $800,000 toward that goal. Still, Getman said he remains unsure when renovations on the building will start up again, and he said he continues to predict an early 2010 opening.