# How Do You Start a Non-Profit?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-start-a-non-profit/268828
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 12, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-start-a-non-profit/268828 "2004-10-12T16:02:58Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-start-a-non-profit/268828/1 "2004-10-12T16:02:58Z")
Frequently you hear about folks who had something happen to soimebody they knew, or saw something that they wanted to act on, so they started a Non-profit organization to raise awareness or raise funds or whatever. How har dis it to start one of these? I realize you need to go through some legal hoops with the tax folks, but apart from that is it as easy as printing up flyers or starting a web site at a minimum?
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### Author:  [@rackensack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rackensack)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-start-a-non-profit/268828/2 "2004-10-12T19:25:21Z")
You have to establish a corporation; i.e., a legal entity that allows the organization to behave as a “person” under the law. At a minimum, this entails filing Articles of Incorporation in whatever state you choose to incorporate in. State laws determine what requirements must be met to do this – for example, some states require a minimum of three directors of the corporation to be listed, while others allow for corporations with only one director, etc. More info is available [here](http://www.form-a-corp.com/non-profits_QA.php), from some folks who’ll so some of the work for you (at a price, of course). Then, once you’re incorporated, you apply to the IRS for 503©(3) status, as well as to the state tax authorities.
If your cause is one in which you can readily enlist the assistance of others, and any of them are attorneys, you may be able to get them to donate their time _pro bono_ to help you get established; my sister-in-law was able to do that with an organization she started to promote highway safety (her husband, my wife’s brother, is a state trooper in a county where two other troopers have been hit and killed in the last couple of years by other vehicles while they were stopped on the side of the road). A couple of local attorneys volunteered their time to help her through the process. It still took her over a year from the time she started the organization to get to the point of securing 503©(3) status.
There are definitely downsides to doing this: you have to draft corporate bylaws and run the organization according to them, you have to file tax paperwork even though you’re tax-exempt, etc. It only becomes important when you need the tax-exempt status to secure donations (of money, goods, or services) from others, or when the amount of money being raised through the organization is significant enough that you wouldn’t want to have to pay personal income tax on it. The other thing that incorporation does, even if you don’t need to secure 503©(3) status, is to shield you (in many cases) from personal liability for the actions of the organization.
Of course, I am not a lawyer, and nothing in the foregoing should be construed as legal advice. Consult an attorney who’s familiar with the laws in your jurisdiction.
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### Author:  [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)
#### Post date: [October 12, 2004, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-start-a-non-profit/268828/3 "2004-10-12T19:55:55Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#):
>
> How har dis it to start one of these? I realize you need to go through some legal hoops with the tax folks, but apart from that is it as easy as printing up flyers or starting a web site at a minimum?
Hard enough that it will make you ask (more than once) whether you really want to go through with it. But it’s not so hard that you can’t do it if the answer is “yes.”