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Starting A Nonprofit

Written by: Barbara Spagnola

Article Overview: A nonprofit is essentially like creating a business. It requires the same need to engage in serious planning much, as a business does, before filing the incorporation papers, and applying for your tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Services. Everyday there are literally thousands of nonprofits being formed. The competition for money, volunteers, and other resources is huge. Your nonprofit will need to work hard to separate yourself from the masses.

Starting A Nonprofit

A nonprofit is essentially like creating a business. It requires the same need to engage in serious planning much, as a business does, before filing the incorporation papers, and applying for your tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Services. Everyday there are literally thousands of nonprofits being formed. The competition for money, volunteers, and other resources is huge. Your nonprofit will need to work hard to separate yourself from the masses. Carefully consider the services or products the organization will provide. They will need to be a step above the competitors and have a defined edge over the market. It is important that your nonprofit also be practical and fit an unmet need in the community. Research is by far the most important start to any organization so research your competition rigorously and all the kinds of services they provide. Begin your efforts with a broad charitable purpose that motivates yourself and a group of concerned citizens. Recruit the members of the community who support this purpose so you can develop a group with diverse enough qualities and resources that can aide in satisfying this purpose. Draft a mission statement that further defines your purpose while providing the individuals with concrete objectives that they can direct all their energies.

After you have your objectives clearly defined in your mission statement, you will need to find the money. You’ll have to develop the funding methods for your organization. A good start is to look for local, state and federal government sources that can provide these funds through grants. It would be helpful to conduct an analysis of other existing organizations that can provide similar services. Good sources of information are the yellow pages, public library, or you can contact your local state association for listings of these agencies.

Now of your body of individuals you will need to search for those interested in becoming the initial Board of Directors. After you find those willing to put forth the required time and effort to the organization, you may want to get incorporated. Legal assistance is needed here in drafting a Certificate of Incorporation for the founding body into a nonprofit organization. Bylaws will also need to be drafted, to serve as the procedure the Board of Directors, and even the members, will use to make decisions on behalf of the corporation.

Your first board meeting will be to organize your nonprofit officially electing the board members and drafting the bylaws. The Tax-exempt status, and the corporate bank account are just a few of the items that you will need to authorize at this meeting. An application to the postal service for third class bulk mailing rates will need to be filed here. Once you have your status defined you’ll discover that you can save a considerable amount of money with these bulk-mailing rates. The payment of organizing expense and filing fees will also need to be approved at this meeting. The meetings after the initial organization will be less demanding, but building the foundation now is critical to its success as a non-profit.

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Article Tags: board of directors, charitable purpose, concerned citizens, concrete objectives, federal government sources, grants, incorporation papers, initial board, internal revenue services, mission statement, money, nonprofits, public library, similar services, sources of information, tax exemption, unmet need, volunteers, yellow pages



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