I wasn't exactly sure what group I should turn to for advice so I am
posting this exact message on several groups, in the hope of finding
someone that can help me....
A couple friends & I have decided that our area needs some kind of
memorial to honor the memories of those have have served our community.
We haven't been able to find out exactly how to "form" a
group/organization (paperwork) so that we are able to start accepting
donations for the memorial to be built.
I have worked for non-profits off and on for 13 yrs & have been in
administrative positions in several fire departments, I know how these
organizations operate day-to-day but I am a little lost on how to or
where to begin when starting something like this.
There is a VERY large interest in this memorial being built among the
communities that would be included in this project. The individual that
first had this idea, created a Facebook page for our group 10 months ago
& to date, the page has 785 members. I feel that is quite
impressive for our somewhat small area.
I will be holding a meeting with some of our members soon to discuss our
organization structure & paperwork that we need to file with our
State (West Virginia) & the Federal (USA) governments to make us
"official". If anyone can direct me on what paperwork we should begin
with or where I can find such information, that would be greatly helpful
& much appreciated. Thank you in advance for your time on this
topic! Be careful & Stay safe out there!
My advice would be to consult an attorney who specializes in this kind of thing. Best of luck, please keep us posted here at FFN on how it's going. Stay safe!
An accountant would also be a good place to start. Because you will need a 501C non profit status from the IRS. To get that you will need a mission statement and by laws. And from there you can file for tax exempt status from the state and federal govt. If you have a civic and commerce you might be able to run a branch off of them. Just using their by laws and such that would probbly be a lot easier.
Permalink Reply by Tammy on November 16, 2010 at 12:07am
Thanks for the info guys! I really appreciate the advice, I will be making the appointments with an accountant & an attorney first thing in the morning. Once we get the wheels in motion on this project, I will create a page in the groups section here to show pictures of the memorial & our events. Thanks again!!!