My community does have a STEM conference in which students of all groups can come together and meet and listen to to inspirational scientists as well as present any research that they have done to a group of professionals. To make this happen, I already have a group of almost twenty people on my team, a Chief Technology Officer, and a prominent science educator, a prominent engineer, and a financial expert have agreed to join my Board of Directors. My question is… do I need to file 501c3, or can it just be a nonprofit corporation? I need funding, and many of the potential donors said they would sponsor if I’m 501c3, but I’ve heard bad things about filing for 501c3. Any tips?
Ask people on your board
I agree that your board has to want to have a 501c3 and be willing to serve (unless you’re going to get a new board). Filing for a 501c3 isn’t THAT complicated, but it is useful to have someone who has done one before look over your paperwork or help you through the process. One thing to keep in mind is that many grants and foundations only work with 501c3s, so if funding is an issue (as it appears to be), getting nonprofit status is important.
One other thing about having a nonprofit is being sure it is adequately insured, including protecting the Board of Directors and the nonprofit in case anyone files a lawsuit. Insurance can be expensive and needs to be included in the budget. We pay about $4000/year and it’s one of our biggest budget items.
Another option is finding a nonprofit in your area that will serve as the “fiscal sponsor” of your event, such as a friendly school or U. They generally already have nonprofit status and can hold your funds and help you with this event. That was what I did while I was waiting for the IRS to rule on my nonprofit application, found a national organization that was willing to be my fiscal sponsor and hold grant funds we received for our event. We did pay them 10% or so for overhead, but were able to use the rest of the funds for our event. Funds were written out to them and when we get approval for our nonprofit status from both the federal government and state, we got a check from the fiscal sponsor for the unused balance of the funds we generated for our event.