The Omni is using Food Not Bombs as their 501(c)3 "fiscal sponsor". All the funds from their current IndieGogo campaign are being channeled through FNB, for example. FNB is providing this service for free. Most organizations do charge something, because they take on additional paperwork effort, and some legal liability on your behalf.
Another option we've discussed in the past for Sudo is School Factory, a non-profit whose sole purpose is to help other hackerspaces off the ground. They are more expensive - if I remember correctly, they charge 10% of all donations (*not* including membership fees!) - but in exchange you get a lot of handholding in terms of learning how to do all the paperwork etc, and even classes on leadership, community building etc.
When we talked to School Factory for Counter Culture Labs, they strongly advised against doing a voting-membership style organization though, because of the additional legal complications compared to having a simple board-run organization.
For CCL, we decided to do the 1023 (501(c)3 application form) ourselves. It takes a bit of effort, but it's not too bad once you know what is expected. Kinda like writing Bylaws, really. We managed to dig up 1023 forms from a number of different organization, including response letters from the IRS pointing out mistakes in their applications and asking for more info.
Patrik
On Thu, Dec 18, 2014 at 3:29 PM, Phil Wolff <pwolff@gmail.com> wrote:Is there a friendly 501c3 org that would let us operate under their tax exempt status until we're incorporated and IRS-blessed? Six months to a year?
I've seen this done properly elsewhere when new projects were starting and were part of an ecosystem of more established orgs. The umbrella org has the CPA and bank account for collecting grant money and other donations. The "client" organization paid a tiny fee to the parent for processing. The new org would describe themselves as "New Org, a project of Old Org, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit."
On Wed, Dec 17, 2014 at 6:00 PM, Maximilian Klein <isalix@gmail.com> wrote:_______________________________________________5) if we ever became so attached to the omni that it would break sudo spiritually or financially to move out then we need to get a formal contract with omni.4) we need to make records whenever the board of directors issues dirctives, however small.3) changing the articles of incorporation has to happen in sacramento and is expensive and slow. it's easier to edit the by laws if possible.1) Do we even really need 501c3? 501c3 is a means to an end. The benefit is that large institutions wont donate or grant to us without it. The downside is that it will cost several hundred dollars and is a PITA from a effort point of view. Smaller institutions can donate to us and get their donations tax exempted as long as they do, (and they can) argue that we are in spirit a non-profit. So we should only get 501c3, if we think other umbrellas aren't easier, and we see big donations coming in later.
1a) we need to determine the probability of getting such a donation from a large instituion in the next year
2) Incorporating. It's not enough to just file papers because in a pinch if we do not act and do all our board meeting officiating properly we could be dismissed as a farce of a incorporation.
6) the IRS is allergic to nonprofits that use certain words like "tea party" and surprisingly "open source" because they've been burned by those types before.
7) treasurer does not have heightened financially responsibility than anyone else on the board.
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