While discussing the Drupal Camp this October I brought up the possibility that we may need to file for Non-Profit status with the State of NH. Since we are soliciting corporate sponsors for the Drupal Camp it maybe the right thing to do. I know that Jake has submitted for a grant with the Drupal Association but we will not hear back on that till the end of August. If we do get the grant then we could work under the Drupal Association umbrella but what if we don’t? Even if we did get the grant having the Non-Profit status would still be a benefit for us. By filing for Non-Profit we in turn could open a checking account and then allow us to have all money coming in and going out for the Drupal Camp to be separate and not have to make one individual responsible for it.
Filing for Non-Profit is not hard this link gives you the States site and the form that needs to be filled out.
http://www.sos.nh.gov/corporate/nonprofitleader.htm
What is everyone’s thought on this?
Do we need to do it?
Does anyone know what other Drupal groups do?
I’ve filed for Non-Profit status in the past it’s not hard to do the only big thing is by-law’s which would be a little bit of work but not too bad.
The hardest thing is finding a Treasurer which Michelle has already volunteered for! :)
Comments
Umbrella group?
Something the Florida group did was they joined into another larger group that's already a 501(c)3 group, which made things decidedly easier for the few Drupalers. This isn't to say that we couldn't do it ourselves, just trying to see if there's an easier way.
I don't think we need to go
I don't think we need to go 501(c)3 at this time that is at the Federal level. What I'm suggesting is going at the state level for Non-profit.
Mary M.
I volunteered?! :)
I volunteered?! :)
Michelle Lauer
michellelauer.com
here's my immediate thoughts.
It took me awhile to get to this post, and I apologize.
As we discussed at our last Manchester meetup, this IS on the table, but I have the strong opinion that this is not worth the time until the following things have transpired:
If we DO get the grant from the Drupal Association, we will then have access to their fund handling capabilities, which will mean that we have no need for a non-profit (local to NH, or federal, whatever) because funds will be handled directly by DrupalCon Inc.
If we DO NOT get the grant, I still feel it is a waste of time and energy for (anyone) to go to the bother of setting up the docs, then us spending forever deciding who are officers, then setting up a bank account and spending forever deciding who has access to it, etc. when at the end of the camp there might only be a few bucks left over.
I feel that until we have a surplus of cash at the end of the camp, this is a moot point. As I demonstrated at the Manchester meetup, there is a content type/views on the camp site that will be made public at the closing ceremony of the camp where we will show the full disclosure of all transactions (income/expense) and everyone will be able to find this on the web easily, and we will have a report written up post-camp.
Jake Strawn (@himerus)
ThemeGeeks | Development Geeks
Omega - 960.gs
I agree it's a total pain to
I agree it's a total pain to do it for just this one, but maybe it would be helpful next year? I think the real issue here is money. What happens if a sponsor is unhappy for whatever reason and decides they want their money back or sues us? Perhaps the absence of a formal entity and contract waives any liability on our behalf, which might be fine if sponsors are okay with that (seem to be so far).
As I write this, I really want to try and keep camps protected from the sometimes draining effect of all this "business-y" BS and let us focus on the camp itself. At the same time, we're putting on an event that costs money to operate and I wonder if establishing and org is just the right thing to do. If we do something like this for the DUG + Camp, it covers everything and we can use the remaining(?) monies toward DUG events.
Either way, I'm in favor of holding off until post-event and having a meeting to discuss.
+1
+1
Jake Strawn (@himerus)
ThemeGeeks | Development Geeks
Omega - 960.gs
I agree that the 'business-y
I agree that the 'business-y BS" is a challenge. We are all good at development and community initiatives, but few of us are also skilled in legalease. I feel for 'safety reasons', becoming an official entity is a good idea, but, to be honest, I don't have the bandwidth to tackle that challenge now. If all goes as planned and we receive the grant from the association, we should be all set going forward. So, let's cross our fingers and wait until after DrupalCon (when they will make the announcement). At the post-London meetup, we should look at what exactly the grant includes or look at alternatives. BTW, thank you to Jake (himerus) for applying!
Michelle Lauer
michellelauer.com