Help and Advice with a non profit org

[Jayvn]

Ok.. I had a moment of clarity and decided that I need to start doing something greater with my life. I want to form a non profit org... I'm thinking collecting clothing and possibly food items and flying them down to places in greater need.

I've been thinking I could get churches to donate and then use funds to purchase bulk clothing from local thrift stores (putting money back into their charity or cause and supplying the clothing to deliver). I understand the major problems would be the plane and fuel. I think I have pilots covered already.

So my questions begin at, can you collect salary running a non profit? I'm the opposite of a greedy person, I'd need enough to be able to eat each month, or do I need my own outside income to survive on. What is the legal process or where do you even start with something like this? I'm sure I need to write up a prospectus for it.

So anyone who's got info I could use could you please pm me with it.. anyone who's got advice or experience that could help I'd like to hear it. Anyone who'd like to donate time or energy to it would be appreciated... anyone with any pessimistic bullshit because they're miserable people.. move on to the next thread. =)

Thanks
Daniel

[Sam]

You can get a salary, but I don't know the specifics. Pretty sure your financials have to be publicly disclosed.

[Gompers]

You can absolutely provide salary for yourself and any and all employees. The thing about a non profit is that if there ARE profits, all of the profits must be fed directly back into the company/organization or used to "achieve whatever goal your organization has."

[AnticorRifling]

I think that's pretty cool but I have to ask why not fix the same issues here first?

[Bhaalizmo]

Let me know once you're ready to start, I'll quote you any Hp gear you need at a non-profit discounted price.

[Jayvn]

I think that's pretty cool but I have to ask why not fix the same issues here first?

We have programs and assistance here pretty readily available.. All someone has to do is really seek it out. I could go within walking distance from where I am and find food banks, some with clothing assistance. I don't know about your specific location. Poverty in the US isn't comparable to poverty elsewhere.
We have homeless yes, but we also have the people with more than enough living near them. I'd want to focus on the parts of the world where there is no option to go to for help. You can't ask the people walking by for change because they're as broke and naked as you are.

Part of what I want to do is take donations to purchase clothing from thrift stores that directly help their communities. I know we have some here and the town I used to live in up in the panhandle. We had a thrift store in Graceville that used 100% of it's profits to help the community with things like food and paying bills. The preacher than ran it did it completely voluntarily with his wife.

I'm trying to figure up the order in which to tackle things first right now.. I'm guessing a name before a prospectus..or I could write it up and fill it in after.. I'm going to talk to churches once I get all of the information together for it. Maybe local businesses? Then spread from there. I'm only about 45 minutes from Orlando so I know there's potential to reach a lot of ears close by.

I'm also not closed to ideas.. I see a retarded amount of snow jackets down here in thrift stores.. and I'm sure there are people up north who are in need of simple things like that..

If I am so lucky to become an old man, I want to be able to look back on my life with fulfillment.. anyone can do little things around them to make a difference but I don't think that will be good enough in my mind to justify why I was put here. It's not a hippie mindset..it's not a holier than thou mindset.. it's a I feel overwhelmingly burdened by the problems of the World.. problems I know I could actually do something about if I got off my ass and just used my potential.

[Asha]

Just open a few doors for some elderly ladies, walk one across a road and give me 80% of your silvers. No need to go nuts.

[Kembal]

In terms of IRS filing, you'll need to file as a 501(c)(3), a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that can accept tax-deductible donations. Pretty much in every state there's a way to file as a non-profit corporation...you'll want to do that first. You'll need the name first. I don't know what Florida requires for establishment of a non-profit these days. Texas is ridiculously easy. You just have to fill out a form, don't even have to submit by-laws.

You definitely can earn a salary, and your tax return does have to be publicly disclosed. (I believe the IRS tax return form for non-profits is Form 990)

My recommendation is that before you try to get any money from anyone, get all the filings out of the way. Tax deductible donations are a powerful incentive for people to donate.

[septus]

In terms of IRS filing, you'll need to file as a 501(c)(3), a non-profit, tax-exempt organization that can accept tax-deductible donations. Pretty much in every state there's a way to file as a non-profit corporation...you'll want to do that first. You'll need the name first. I don't know what Florida requires for establishment of a non-profit these days. Texas is ridiculously easy. You just have to fill out a form, don't even have to submit by-laws.

You definitely can earn a salary, and your tax return does have to be publicly disclosed. (I believe the IRS tax return form for non-profits is Form 990)

My recommendation is that before you try to get any money from anyone, get all the filings out of the way. Tax deductible donations are a powerful incentive for people to donate.

And without this, not only are the donations not tax deductible for those who donate, but you are also required to state how much those donations are worth and pay taxes on that value.

Colorado is a bit of a pita to do. The hackerspace I'm a member of had the run around of the IRS for about 6 months before we teamed up with a third party 501(c)3 to help us with donations. Seems you always get the same case worker, and they'll look at it once and won't budge on what they determine..no matter how much information you send them..

They also wanted a print out of each of our web pages.. including web forums (unused by humans, but filled with spam) and our wiki.