Excerpts Series: Forming a 501c3 Nonprofit
Please enjoy this excerpt from our CDP Training, Forming a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit. Find out more about this important 3-hour training by clicking on the image below or the button at the bottom of your screen.
…We’re going to start with this component actually called, Getting Started. It’s a worksheet within the training that will help you work through some key questions about why you want to start this new organization.
Some of you may have thought through some of these things, some of this may be brand new to you. While these are important questions to ask now, they’re also questions that are going to be asked as you evolve and as you grow this nonprofit. So I want to talk through those questions with you at the onset, so that you can keep those things in mind as we really get into the nitty gritty details of how to do the steps to Form a Nonprofit.
At the end of the session, you’re gonna have a very clear path for what you need to do to get your 501(c)(3) in place. We want to know: what is the next step for you? Pieces of this might be in place for you or you may have to start from scratch, but be thinking through:
What can I do out of this session? What’s next for me after I have invested this time today? How do I move this forward?
These questions are where we’re headed in terms of our time together today.
Let’s look at this particular PDF included with your work book - the Getting Started Worksheet.
We’re going to walk through these questions during this session, but one of the key things that might be really helpful for you to think about doing after the session, is looking at the team that you have gathered. The people that are in this with you, that are going to help you get this launched or are already in the process of helping you with that and talking through these questions collectively. There are some key things that we want to have a really, well thought-out, response to as we start this new organization that’s going to serve our communities
I can tell you we’ve done this particular session hundreds of times. We’ve had lots of different nonprofits of all different varieties that have come and participated in this particular session. Sometimes, after people attend, they figure out that a 501(c)(3) is not the best path for them to accomplish what it is they want to do. So, be open to that. Maybe you’ve already explored some of your options and maybe you know exactly what you want to do and this is the path for you.
But sometimes we can get from point A to point B in a more efficient way, in a different way, than just forming a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit. Sometimes a 501(c)(3) is the best path and you just need to be able to support and be able to answer these questions that would suggest, this is the best way for us to do this work in our community.
So as we walk through this worksheet, I want you to think about the responses to these questions.
What need do I want to see met?
Nonprofits form out of needing to meet a need in the community.
We see something that we feel like is not met adequately. We see a social problem that we want to provide a solution for - there a lot of different reasons why people say, “I want to start a new nonprofit.”
But we need to be very clear about understanding, what is the need in our community that we want to see met? This nonprofit will be successful if “what” is true? This need will be met in our community - if what? Again - what is that need that we are wanting to see met?
You cannot start a nonprofit just because you feel called to… you have to be able to say, to funders, to potential donors, to people that will come alongside and support your work through volunteerism: “We’re here to meet this need in our community.”
When we talk about 501(c)(3), which we’ll touch on more in a little bit, that designation comes from the Internal Revenue Service. They give you a designation as a 501(c)(3) charity because you’re going to provide “good” to the public. They’re not just supporting you and the “good” you want to do.
They’re providing tax exempt status, meaning you don’t have to pay corporate taxes because they think the work that you’re doing benefits the public. It benefits the community at large. The public is better for you having done this work. That’s why you even get this 501(c)(3) status.
So when we talk about putting this in paper format that you’re going to submit to the IRS, you’re going to need to be able to answer the question: What need do I want to see met?
What is the need in the community that we are saying we have a solution for? Be very clear about what need it is that you’re meeting.
Sometimes, even when we have a team, we tend to think, We’re in this trying to do some good work, but we may not have articulated as a team, the need that we’re trying to meet. We need to know that ahead of time. We need to be able to say that and articulate that.
So, even just as simple as this question seems to be, it’s a good thing to discuss with your team. If you have your whole team together, ask them: “Independently, right now, what need do you think we’re trying to meet here?” It can be good discussion material for you and your team to get very honed in on the need that your nonprofit is intending to meet.
What need do I want to see met in the community? Being very clear about that is going to be very important.
