Starting a charitable organization

[Das Bus]

I'm Republican/Conservative in a lot of ways, because I believe in less government/social programs.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this one.

First you state out of the gate that you're conservative, Libertarian, etc., etc. then you go on to rail about the lack of available resources for your challenged child.

We can never realy help anyone in other countries, until we help each other here. Look to your own neighborhood. There's plenty of mentally handicapped children AND adults in your own backyard that could use your help.

So, help me here. If your political stripe is aligned with a party (or an idea) that suggests that government has no business attending to special needs or the marginalized segments of our society - such as the mentally challenged then I have to ask just what claim - what legitimate claim - do you have in bitching about the conditions and lack of resources in this unavailable to the mentally afflicted due to callous cut backs in funding, etc? If you ask me the very political mindset that you brag about has contributed significantly to the very thing that you bitch about.

I never said there was a lack of resources for MY child. I was speaking in general terms about problems in our own country. It's impossible to go running off to every other country every time we see attrocities on tv - but there ARE things we all can do, right here, in our own neighborhoods, cities and towns. But hey, if you have the money and resources to go help the orphans in Iraq, or wherever, then hey! Go for it! If everybody, everywhere went out and helped someone in need, whether it's down the street or oversees, well, then, we wouldn't be having this discussion, now would we? ; )

And what's wrong with being Libertarian/Conservative/Republican? Politics is messy and confusing, and not one party is 100% right or wrong. I don't have a problem changing my opinions/parties when I think it's right to do so.

Oh, as far as I'm concerned, I can bitch all day long, because I VOTE. People who DON'T vote and THEN bitch can kiss my ass all day long! : P

[thisisthatwhichis]

So I blame the president as much as the houses who passed it. He had to sign it.

"And Congress/Senate people who passed it".......
We agree more than you know, MikeVDS....


I'm just a little tired of the Bush bashing...... as I was with the Clinton Bashing.......


OK.... Carry ON!............

[MikeVDS]

I'm just a little tired of the Bush bashing...... as I was with the Clinton Bashing.......

I wouldn't mind it so much if people actually made intelligent arguments. The problem is that it's almost always emotional drivel.

Oh, as far as I'm concerned, I can bitch all day long, because I VOTE.

I hear this all the time and couldn't disagree more. The guy who coined that idea needs to be smacked with a large tuna. Just because you vote does not give you a license to bitch; having well formed ideas and arguments against something does, regardless of whether you voted or not.

People not voting is a large problem, but as an individual you mean next to nothing for national elections. If you are 100% pure in everything you do then you can have free license to bitch about others not doing their part in society, i.e. voting. By not doing your part in one aspect of society doesn't make your points and ideas invalid.

One exception is if your vote could have been the tie breaker, but I don't know if that's ever happened nationally. When that happens, then yeah, they lose their right to bitch, and deserve the taunting they'll probably get from their voting friends.

[gyre]

Presidents routinely issue directives and the practice under republicans has expanded far into the clearly illegal area.
The first thing bush did is nullify all things done by Clinton, including raising the toxic level of poison in water.
This was done instantly when he took office.
Did congress vote on the spying bush was involved in?
Presidents routinely engineer and push legislation in congress.
Look at the laws they want to pass.
This is all on the news.
If the president orders all justice department effort to go in a certain direction, it does.
Bush often orders that laws passed by congress not be enforced.
EPA enforcement virtually stops under republican administrations.
The EPA being created under nixon is a big freaking hint.
They were toothless before birth.
Laws to review chemicals were blocked.
The EPA serves to make people feel they are protected, without interfering with business as usual.
But everything stops when they wish.
The estimate is 150 years to clean up toxins from the reagan/bush period.
Check the similar chemical companies donating to th parties and the 'similar' amounts.
It tells the story.


Frontline did a two hour special breaking down the links between the declaration of war against the us by Iran and the capitulation and negotiation by the us and the continuing results.
Yes, there were things that could have been done later, but they would have had to be dramatic.
The damage had been done.
The day we found out reagan negotiated with terrorists, I said that all citizens were at risk abroad in the future.
The death rate bears this out.

With reagan getting into office by fraud (covering up senility, Nancy as president), does that count as a coup?
How much can we expect from these regimes?
The nixon voter fraud and even the purpose of the watergate coverup, was successfully hidden to this day.


I'm not thrilled by the democrats, but they could do a better job if they weren't busy fighting the Big Lie every election.
And they are finally dropping their asinine gun control position, which has cost them the few legitimate presidential elections they have lost.

If you enjoy breathing, they are hardly the same party.
But they have to respond to the myths out there.


Perhaps what needs to be done is the destruction of Iran?
Can anyone do this after Iraq, even if they make the political decision?
Iran seems to be the problem all along.

Much of this is basic politics.
If people are dumb enough to vote for bush, or even run him as a candidate, it affects who will run against him.
When we have buddha and jesus running against each other, we will see a different kind of campaign.
Until then...

And locally the FBI has busted a politician for exactly the same kind of influence peddling they arrested him for many years ago.
The law allowed him to run again!!!! and people were stupid enough to vote for him.
The system can't get better if people don't get smarter.

[Dork]

Back to the origional topic - Nolo Press has a bunch of good information on starting various kinds of organizations:
http://www.nolo.com/

Having a non-profit organization has a few benefits, but also involves more hassle and cost. Be sure to look into a plain old LLC and other forms of organization before you commit to a path.

[gyre]

Oh, as far as I'm concerned, I can bitch all day long, because I VOTE.

I hear this all the time and couldn't disagree more. The guy who coined that idea needs to be smacked with a large tuna. Just because you vote does not give you a license to bitch; having well formed ideas and arguments against something does, regardless of whether you voted or not.

People not voting is a large problem, but as an individual you mean next to nothing for national elections. If you are 100% pure in everything you do then you can have free license to bitch about others not doing their part in society, i.e. voting. By not doing your part in one aspect of society doesn't make your points and ideas invalid.

One exception is if your vote could have been the tie breaker, but I don't know if that's ever happened nationally. When that happens, then yeah, they lose their right to bitch, and deserve the taunting they'll probably get from their voting friends. :twisted:

In fact, it does matter if you vote and I will try to explain why.
I think we need a no vote to all candidates, as they have in some countries.
But I have gone in and not voted for anyone in the main election even though I am counted as voting.
This is ignored with smaller posts, but it is listed as a no vote for main elections by the politicians, who do look very closely at these results.
The breakdown on who voted and what they think determines who runs next, whether they have money to campaign and what positions they take and what they do if they win.
If you don't vote, even if it is for Prince Mongo here from the planet Zambodia, who got 20% of the vote one year and scared hell out of everyone, they don't count you.
And they don't care what you think if you don't vote (unless you have a lot of money and want to buy an election, another current reality).

Your vote does matter, though it may not be this election.

[mojo]

Keep in mind that a 501(c)3 is a designation for tax purposes that enables people who donate to an organization with such designation to write their donations off of their taxes as charitable gifts. Not all organizations need it. The application and administration for it is not difficult, just typical IRS forms.

There are many ways to structure the underlying charitable organization as well, from the suggested LLC to charitable trusts. Your specific circumstance may require you to seek a structure geared toward asset protection, or management, or whatever your issues are.

Every circumstance is different, and there are many ways to go. The trick is to get sound advice from other organizations and professionals who have experience in the area (figuratively and literally). If looking for an attorney for advice, I would suggest you try to find one with some background in international law as well as charitable entities.

Better still, as suggested previously, bypass this and piggyback with an org that is already in place. It will save you huge amounts of time and money in administration.

[gyre]

I have been to Iraq doing contract work off and on since 2003 and Darfur Sudan since 2004.

- DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE the need for security. You will need guns to protect what you are building, materials will walk off, and if you appear too secular you will be shot at.

Not trying to dissolution you or shoot down the charity you are doing, just pointig out the realities of it.

I would also urge you to be careful.
Schoolteachers are still being killed in afghanistan.
It is likely no one will ask your politics before shooting at you.

Be very, very polite and very careful.

[thisisthatwhichis]

And godspeed for those of you willing to put this together.......

Get WELL connected in advance, and keep out of harm's way......

[Das Bus]

VDS: While my vote in National elections may not mean anything, it DOES on a local and(sometimes) state level.

While I understand why so many people are disillusioned by our voting system, it's extremely important to get out there and vote anyways.

I live in a town of about 30,000 or so people, but only a few thousand vote. So every single vote IS important and CAN make a difference, and HAS. We can't make a difference nationally if we don't take an interest on what's going on locally.

I'm a smoker, and Arizona has new anti-smoking laws. Everytime I go outside to smoke, I'll hear others complaining about the new law. I has asked many of these people if they voted, and I have yet to run into someone who did. And it just makes me want to bitch-slap them upside the head! If every smoker in Arizona had voted against these laws, we could happily puff away at the bar. (Of course if every NON smoker voted, we'd be screwed anyways, but you get my point).

It's just immensely frustrating to me that so many people complain, but they don't even TRY to do anything about it.

So I will continue to tell non-voters to kiss my ass! ; )

[Teo del Fuego]

to the playa?

gotta give credit where credit's due...nice one, that

[Shyshdy]

After much discussion and consideration, our plans have changed significantly. Because we can't set up a successful charity in a country we aren't in, and because so many people seem horribly opposed to the fact of us helping foreign children, we've found what we hope is a better approach.

We are going to start a charity database, kinda like craigslist, but for charities. We feel that more people would help if they were more informed, and if the methods of helping were easier. Some people don't have much money, or don't want to part with the money they do have, so we're going to focus on ways to help that don't cost money.

We've decided to start with Sudan, and once we get that together, we're going to move on to charities in the middle east. We'll check them out to make sure they're legit & list information on what they do, and how people can help. Once we get up and running we'll also feature local charities so that people can just put in there zip code & see what they can do in their own area.

We won't need to do any filing of forms as no money or other donations will be passing through our hands. All we'll need is a domain name and permission to link to all these places.

I'm sure some of you will find a political reason to argue about this. Have fun with all that Just wanted to ease y'alls fears of us going to Iraq and single handedly making things worse or contributing to some made up government propoganda conspiracy.

[joel the ornery]

charity begins at home.

[gyre]

I think everyone is just trying to look out for you.
A little bit of money can go a long way overseas, if you can get it where it needs to go.

In the us, I'd like to suggest that you could also include the children on indian reservations.
Many still need help.

On the playa, Hot Wheelz camp does a fantastic job providing transport for some that can't get around, but they can't come close to covering everything.
Even a temporary injury can put you off your feet out there.
Anyone that can help find older scooters and chairs or help fix them up and get them out there, with their own labor or with money, can help make a big difference for someone out on the playa.
You can make a difference, with just a little help.

Good luck with your project.

[mdmf007]

It is starting to appear that you guys want to do good, and I commend you for that - but You should have said in your first post that you were shopping around for somewhere to provide aid.

When a group approaches people and says "We are going to Iraq to help children" and then after only 20-40 posts form the public decide against it

and now say "we are going to concentrate on the Sudanese"

You lose credibility. You just happen to pick the two spots in the world I am sent twice a year too. Your idea of a clearinghouse to vette charities is an excellent idea, but is already done by the United Way, UNICEF, and the Red Cross amongst other groups.

Dont bother trying to go to the Sudan - They wont let you in. They are doing their best to cover up a genocide approaching WWII proportions. Check Google Earth for the damage being done.

If your looking for input from the community I am all for it. My suggestion:

1. Formulate a mission plan - a cause - Rapid Response to Disaster? Famine In Chad, Ethiopia? Just narrow the scope to something doable.

2. Form a board - you will need professionals in finance, response, logistics, management, etc. No company or charity is taken seriously without a board

3. Develop a response plan, what can you do? how are you going to do it?

4. Keep up on all of your paperwork, and reports.

I would seriously look at another groups administration. there are charities delivering hundreds of millions a year, some are into the billions. With professional Boards and admin rates as low as 5-6%.

drop me a PM if your interested and I can drop you names and numbers of a couple of the groups CEO's that send us to these hot spots to do the work for them.

Other groups do exaclty what I am yakking about. and this is how they do it.

1. they approach the existing NGO - pitch their idea and state what they want to do.

2. You tell the NGO what you would need from them, Logistics, Sponsorship, etc. In your case it sounds like all you need is sponsorship. This cuts through million in paperwork required to go to Sudan, or iraq.

3. NGO states their mission, and if you agree to their charter rules, then you signa mutual aid agreeement, or Memorandum of Understanding so you are both on the same page.

4. You put a response plan together, the NGO tweaks it to be compliant with US, and local law.

5. You deploy and do your work with NGO as a partner.

I may be getting long winded here, i just hate to see the wheel reinvented when its already rolling down the road. Jump on do your charity work, and get off and back on as you desire.

This way you know exactly where your resources are going, and who it is impacting.

later.

[cowboyangel]

I am a charitable organization
http://www.brightpathvideo.com/

left top column. thanks

[Shyshdy]

*sigh*
Let me say it again for those who missed it:

I'M NOT GOING ANYWHERE.

And we still intend to help children in Iraq, and eventually everywhere. This all came about because I wanted to help, and had a goal I wanted to acheive, but without going there, the goal wasn't a feesible one. This made my friends and I think that more people would help if it was made easier for them to help, which is what we hope to accomplish. We're starting now with sudan, but by that I only meant that that's the first list of charities we're compiling & researching, and so it'll be the first section listed on our site. We want to help more people our age find ways they can help when so many of us feel helpless about what's going on half a world away. Alot of people our age don't have much money to give, or simply aren't willing to part with it. By informing them of ways they can give time instead, or by telling them about things they do in their everyday life that can help someone, we could potentially revolutionize the way people help other people.

In this day and age, it's become obvious to me that these governments either can't or won't put a stop to these horrors all over the world. If I can get the people to take the help into their own hands, and show them that they are making a difference, if I can make the 'power of one' tangible for people, we just might change this world for the better.

I know, I know, I sound like a cook, but if I change the world and turn one crying baby into a smiling one, if I help get a village to grow produce & breed livestock again, I will TOTALLY be that cook. And I bet other people will too.

[Teo del Fuego]

Sounds like you have your head on straight and you're trying to do something noble with your life. Best of luck to ya! You will encounter some jealousy from your peers, just be aware of it.

I bet Mother Theresa's initial plan would have been slaughtered on this message board by all the superior intellects who have vast amounts of free time devoted to criticism. That's not to say, however, some other prior messages didn't raise darn good points.

[Das Bus]

I have forgotten the name, but there is a website that rates charitable organizations. However, it seemed to deal with only the major ones. (I used it when I was looking for an organization to donate to after the tsunnami).

It WOULD be nice to be able to donate money directly to a village, family, mission, etc..,, without going through a giant corporate organization.

[Shyshdy]

I have forgotten the name, but there is a website that rates charitable organizations. However, it seemed to deal with only the major ones. (I used it when I was looking for an organization to donate to after the tsunnami).

It WOULD be nice to be able to donate money directly to a village, family, mission, etc..,, without going through a giant corporate organization.

I think you're thinking of www.charitywatch.org/
They're an excellent resource when you want to make sure you're donating to a real charity. As far as donating without going through a giant corporation, intially we won't be able to help with that. I'm sure you see how scatter brained my plan is in it's infancy, so I don't think I should be allowed to handle other people's money just yet, but I have no problem helping them decide where to send it. That, and it avoids SO much red tape. I want to make sure we can run this properly before I allow anyone to pass money through us.

[gyre]

I have forgotten the name, but there is a website that rates charitable organizations. However, it seemed to deal with only the major ones. (I used it when I was looking for an organization to donate to after the tsunnami).

It WOULD be nice to be able to donate money directly to a village, family, mission, etc..,, without going through a giant corporate organization.

There is a new group linking people directly to the people they help patterned after the micrconomic programs.
I don't have any other info, but I saw it on one of the news shows.
I wonder if they will be able to maintain screening of legitimate needs in that format.

[Isotopia]

I think you're thinking of www.charitywatch.org/
They're an excellent resource when you want to make sure you're donating to a real charity.

Speaking of piggybacking...

The suggestion has been made to perhaps align your need to volunteer with a pre-existing group. Charitywatch is a good reseource to see who's legit. Wise Earth http://www.wiseearth.org is a database of over 105,000 volunteer orgs and NGOs (non-governmental organizations) who do work in every area one can possibly think of. If you can't find what you're looking for here it probably isn't worth looking for.

Have a look.