So, apparently my D26 is one of the founders of a nonprofit, along with a couple of friends. At first it was just a volunteer group, and then this year they officially turned it into a nonprofit. I haven’t been paying much attention to the whole thing, so I don’t even know how it works, but I was just reminded of it this morning because my husband mentioned he had some kind of meeting on his calendar related to the nonprofit.
I’m a cranky old mom and I think “founding a nonprofit” sounds like a stereotypical dumb thing kids do to artificially enhance their college applications, but here we are…
My question is, when my D is putting together her applications in the early fall, would it seem positive or neutral on her application to mention that she was one of the founders of a nonprofit, or would it sound as dumb to AOs as it does to me? My instinct is to recommend to her to not even mention it… However, to be fair, she’s proud of it and she has put a bunch of work into it.
An under 18 year old (in most places) cannot establish a non-profit. They would need the help of their parents (maybe that’s why your husband is involved).
If she mentions this at all, I would mention what contributions she has made…that likely is more important.
There are so many already established non-profits, I always wonder why students don’t just establish relationships with those.
Yes, there are parents involved somehow, and that’s why H is involved. I think D included H instead of me because I rolled my eyes every time the word “nonprofit” came up. I’m not even on the emails.
I agree 100% about the uselessness of students starting nonprofits instead of just working with an established group. And I wonder what’s going to happen to it after the students head off to college?
Maybe she should just talk about her contributions and leadership in this volunteer group and not mention the “starting a nonprofit” aspect?
I do think talking about her contributions to the group could be a good thing.
A non-profit that is sustainable after HS graduation, in my opinion, has more oomph than one that fizzles out after these kids graduate (and their parents are no longer interested in helping out).
Establishing a 501 (c)3 allows an organization to accept donations, and it makes those donations tax-deductible.
Without getting into the merits of starting a nonprofit as a high schooler, if your D has any business or economics aspirations, then the process of establishing a nonprofit is nothing to sneeze at and provides exposure to financial literacy, tax codes etc…
I wouldn’t minimize the accomplishment, but you’re correct that “starting a nonprofit” is kind of the new “I built houses in Africa”.
Thanks, that’s a good point about the experience of establishing it. I think my D’s friends are the ones with business aspirations… D’s interests are on the science-engineering-healthcare spectrum. However, every path in adult life involves some amount of tax codes and paperwork and fund raising.
A “real” non-profit to me involves having real articles of incorporation and bylaws, a serious Board made up largely of professionals and such with relevant experience, some paid staff, a serious long-term funding plan, a serious communications and marketing plan, and so on. They are usually started by adults with a lot of previous non-profit experience who see a real need for a new organization.
I am very skeptical about HS kids claiming to have done all that. Even if parents and such help file the basic paperwork, that is still far from having established what I would consider to be a “real” nonprofit.
Of course maybe a few kids actually do participate in something like that, in which case I would try to validate it somehow–say in an essay that provided all these details, a supplemental recommendation letter from a Board member, something like that.
But my feeling is that otherwise, it may be safer just to describe it as a student group or such. Even that is tricky because I have seen AOs talk skeptically about starting new student groups, so I would not personally advise playing up the founding aspects. I would focus on the activity itself.
And as a final thought, again based on some things I have seen AOs say, I do think all this can come across as more about self-promotion than actual, mature, caring for others. Again there may be exceptions, I just think a lot of smart and ambitious kids–and it is not wrong to be ambitious per se–convince each other that “founding” a group will “impress” colleges more than just volunteering for an existing group, when I think in many cases it could be more the opposite.
I think being able to talk about why the group was founded originally and why they made the decision to develop it into a non-profit can lead to interesting conversations.
"We originally started X club with the intention of x,y,z. After x amount of time, we realized we could (do x better, maximize y, increase outreach of z) if we became a non-profit. Since becoming a non-profit, we …
If, however, the original intent was to bolster applications, I agree that it may be seen as self-promotion.
I think that founding a non-profit organization is itself relative neutral.
What matters is what she did in working on this effort, and the impact that it had. Working with other students is good. Having a positive impact on the community is good. Showing a commitment is good. Helping to figure out how the nonprofit will continue to exist after your daughter and her co-founders go off to university is good.
I think that it is the work that she put into it that matters, and her contributions to the group, as well as the impact that the non-profit has had. It sounds like these are all positive and are worth mentioning.
This is real reason someone would establish a 501c3 - to be able to fundraise large-ish sums of money from wealthy people who are interested in getting a tax deduction for their donation. If they are not working at sustained fundraising, there is zero reason to establish a 501c3…which is why it often seems like college app padding because most high schoolers aren’t doing this and therefore there is no reason to incorporate other than they think it makes it more “impressive.”
Yes, I think I would downplay the 501c3 thing and talk about her contributions and impact.
