Re: Basic housing

[Ernie Aiken <wgd at gtwn dot net>]

I aksed Jeeves {Jeeves is pretty cool} and he told me to go see:
http://www.lib.msu.edu/harris23/grants/znpbib.htm
also
                    Ronald J. Cappuccio, J.D.,
                    LL.M.(Tax) Counsellor at Law

1800 Chapel Avenue West

Suite 128
Cherry
Hill, New Jersey 08002 USA

(856) 665-2121

Fax (856) 665-9005

E-mail: Ron at TaxEsq dot com

Checklist for Non-Profit Organizations

. The following is a preliminary checklist for Non-Profit Corporations:

   1.Determine whether the advantages of being a non-profit exceed the
substantial cost and time expenditures for your
     particular organization.
   2.Develop appropriate ByLaws and Organizational resolutions, with the
assistance of tax counsel, that will permit your
     organization to qualify as a not-for-profit corporation for state
and federal tax purposes. Have these ByLaws legally
     adopted by the Organization.
   3.Authorize the incorporation in the appropriate state under the
Non-Profit Corporation Statute. The process is the public
     filing of Articles of Incorporation for a Non-Profit Corporation.
This requires a state filing fee. Some states, such as
     Pennsylvania, require a paid legal advertisement.
   4.Obtain a federal EIN # for the corporation from the IRS by filing a
FORM SS-4.
   5.Prepare IRS Form 1023 "Application for Tax-Exempt Status." This
will require substantial work by your tax/business
     lawyer, accountant or treasurer and key officers. When this
detailed form is fuly prepared, it must be filed with the IRS.
     The IRS demands a "user fee" for the determination of non-profit
status based upon the proposed revenue of the
     orginization.
   6.After the application is filed, frequently the IRS examiner asks
for additional information. After several months the IRS
     then render its decision to grant or deny the request for
tax-exempt status.
   7.Appropriate books and records must be kept for the organization.
This includes tracking of donations, expenditures and
     classifications of income. A periodic Treasurer's Report should be
provided to the Board of Trustees and Membership.
   8.Each year the corporation must file an annual Federal tax return
with the IRS.


Patrick Salsbury wrote:

> Ernie said:
> > > I've contacted several releif organizations, thus far no serious
> > > interest
> > > yet. That's why I'd like to see a non-profit Domes for Humanity
> > > corporation.
> > > You can be the president :-)
> >
> Chuck said:
> > Sounds like fun...Habitat has so many shortcomings, that this may not
> > be a bad idea at all.
> >
> > How do we go about forming this NP group?  I've never done that before...
> >
> >      -- Chuck Knight
>
>         Actually, if it comes to forming a group like that, I might suggest
> that we do it as a *for* profit organization, rather than non-profit. It could
> easily be a division of Reality Sculptors, since that's the sort of thing
> Reality Sculptors is designed to serve as an umbrella organization for.
>         I've seen lots of non-profit groups that can and do wonderful things,
> but they are put under certain rules in how they make their money (mostly
> donations, if not completely). As a result, there's a *serious* amount of
> overhead and time devoted to fund-raising, including printing up and mailing
> out requests for donations, etc.
>         I'd be curious to see any numbers on a study comparing non-profit and
> for-profit organizations and their balance-sheets for general office expenses,
> etc. For-profit organizations have a general cost-metric automatically applied
> to their work, so they need to be efficient. Non-profits, while sometimes
> running on a shoestring budget, needn't be as mindful of how they spend the
> money, so long as they don't show a profit. (Shoestring budgets can make them
> very frugal, but there's a difference between 'frugal' and 'efficient'.)
>
>         I haven't taken the steps to incorporate Reality Sculptors, yet,
> mainly because the laws of California (at least) want you to turn a profit
> within your first three years of business (or else they get a bit touchy about
> your tax deduction claims. :-)  ) I have lots of ideas, but none of them are
> quite at the level where I figured I could be turning a profit, so I haven't
> set that part in motion, yet.
>         However, if folks are interested in taking on a for-profit type of
> venture, then it certainly might be time to take the necessary steps, so we
> could set up a business. (And then we could build domed work-spaces, have cool
> design studios, think-tanks full of bright people hatching all sorts of neat
> ideas, and so on, and so on... :-)  )
>
>         And of course, the other benefit of for-profit ventures is that you
> can turn the profit (provided you make one, that is) toward further research,
> growth, etc. And you don't need to be holding telethons and pledge-drives
> every 6 months for fear of the lights going out should people not be generous
> that month.
>
> --
> Pat

I certainly don't have serious time for fund raising and grant proposals. But here
in Tx they have mis- managed millions of $ that was supposed to go to low income
housing contractors [thanks George W.]

-maybe time for telethons and pledge-drives for California to keep the lights on!?
Or move to TX. we have plenty of nuclear power.:-( I though all those windmills in
CA would make plenty of power.