Your Nonprofit Start-up Companion

Starting and Building a Nonprofit: A practical Guide

Blog summaries chapter by chapter

Your Nonprofit Start-up Companion

A nonprofit is defined in Starting and Building A NonProfit, A Practical Guide by Peri H. Pakroo J.D. as being mission driven by the groups’ major aspiration or goal. A group of people keeping a park litter free, can call itself a nonprofit. Also, a group selling candy bars to fund children’s soccer trips in the state can also be called a nonprofit. My vision for my nonprofit is a group dedicated to providing support services for survivors of Munchausen by Proxy. We’d help children escape abusive families. We’d also help dependent adults get jobs to fund their lives away from their families. I need to escape my family financially, right? It has to happen this year. You have to realize that I have no idea what I’m doing here, and I want to file articles of incorporation with no money. This paperwork has to be filed with the secretary of state office given I find a minute to do this when I either have money or a partner who has been a Munchausen by Proxy survivor. The business structure needs to be put together in a way that limits owner’s personal liability. Taxation will be required as nonprofits are separate tax entities having more favorable tax rules than for profit corporations. Nonprofits serve the public interest, which includes the stipulation that they have to govern themselves according to specific rules. I need to set up a board of trustees or board of directors made entirely of Munchausen by Proxy professionals as well as survivors. We’d use Zoom for conferences and be a work from home scenario but eventually we need to plan for in person meetings.

On pg. 4 this book gets into alternatives to nonprofits. This business would not work as a for-profit, only because we use my dry club, the Trocadero Transfer to set up a fundraising branch of my organization. A low profit limited liability company or L3C is similar to a nonprofit. Its goal is to benefit the public in some way, making profit a secondary goal. This structure may serve my nonprofit social media website idea. Benefit corporations known as Certified B Corps is a state sponsored legal structure that is assessed to meet specific qualifications about a corporation needing to have a necessary impact on society. It is held accountable through what is called a fiduciary duty to both corporate shareholders and workers. Corporations like these have to file annual progress reports held to a third-party standard. A social purpose corporation is available in the State of California as a means of filing the status.  An SPC organization is not necessarily bound by the same rules as a Certified B Corps only because it is granted more flexibility with funding requirements.

As it stands right now, I need a rotating executive director who has survived Munchausen by Proxy, and three trustees. I’m clueless as to how to arrange either situation. I have to file papers one day but with what income? So I need to find a loaded business partner. Nonprofits are tax exempt organizations, most of them, but I’m fuzzy as to the rules still because I’ve only read one book. Is there a class? I can’t afford those either. Okay, so the federal tax code classes nonprofits a certain way. The 501c (4)  or 501c (6). I have no idea how properties people live in for free as a safe house to get away from their families will be taxed or classed or even if my nonprofit can stay a nonprofit. My nonprofit benefits people who want to escape their abusive families. I need to read How to Form A Nonprofit Corporation by Anthony Mancuso. This book covers the need to file a 501c (3) status. On this computer, 501 © is what comes out when I try to copy the book as a citation of sorts. So I am writing it 501c(3).

Businesses succeed at making money, which is what determines if society says they are successful. A nonprofit is judged on how it is fulfilling its mission. Nonprofits need donations to survive. I envision needing more than one director on a rotating basis who are mental health professionals that have survived Munchausen by Proxy or who are involved with people who have. I clearly need to visit a lawyer to ask questions about how to run a nonprofit as there are things I have no idea how to do. Volunteers do simple work for nonprofits, but I have an interesting plan to make sure all volunteers get paid a stipend. While fundraising is considered a difficult and time consuming situation by the author Peri H. Pakroo, J.D., I have some ideas. My martial arts fundraiser as I can push people twice my size with my Chi for one. I need to prove things to myself, do experiments and provide evidence for my assumptions. As it is right now, I feel too run down to go to a martial arts class, as I have to have Gatorade or juice with me for lows. Right now I can’t have citric acid. I check labels carefully. Bread has vinegar. Yes, hiatal hernias are so much fun, excuse my sarcasm. I’m having loads of fun with acid reflux. Yes, there are other Nolo press books I can find on Amazon. I bought the book I’m citing for $4. Yes, I know how to get good deals.