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Forming a non-profit corporation is very much like forming a regular company, except the fact that non-profits need to take step to apply for tax exemption with IRS and the state tax division via 501c3 articles of incorporation. All you need to do include:
• Choosing an available name for the business which will meet the requirements of the state law. The name selected should end with corporate designators such as Incorporated, Corporation, Limited, Ltd., llc, Inc. or Corp., cannot contain terms such as Cooperative, Bank, Federal, United States, Reserve and National and should not be the same name as of any other corporation on the file of corporations division.
• Applying for state and federal tax exemptions. After receiving the returned copy of your articles, you can file them to the IRS which will give it a tax-exempted status. After reviewing your application, the IRS may send you an approval letter indicating that non-profit status for your organization has been approved, it may ask more information regarding the organization or may just reject your application. In that case, you can seek assistance from a professional lawyer. In some states, you have to complete an application for getting state exemption from state while in others, if you have received tax-exempted status from the federal, you will get tax exemption from state automatically.
• Creating corporate bylaws that set out the rules of operation for the non-profit corporation. Bylaws contain the procedures and rules for voting on the issues, holding meetings and electing officers and directors. For creating bylaws, you can follow instructions from self-help resources or hire lawyers for writing them.
• Appointing initial directors even before filing the 501c3 articles of incorporation as you need to list the names of the directors in this document. These directors have an authority to run and manage the non-profit corporation. Several states allow these organizations to elect only one director while others may require three as a minimum.
• Holding meeting with the board of directors. The first meeting is held for conducting initial business and taking care of the formalities. After the completion of the meeting, the minutes of meeting must be written and filed in the records book of the corporation.
• Obtaining permits and licenses which may be needed for the corporation. Almost every business including profit or non-profit corporation, sole proprietorships or partnerships are needed to obtain permits and licenses from the state.
If you do not want to spend money on hiring professional lawyers, you can refer to various self-help books, manuals, journals and Internet sources that contain examples of similar cases and explain how to tackle with them efficiently.
Filing articles of incorporation and paying small requisite fee. The articles of incorporation may be identified by different names in different states like certificate of formation, certificate of incorporation, charter or articles of organization. The corporate filing office of the state will provide you 501c3 articles of incorporation either in the form of fill in the blank or samples on which the articles can be based while writing.
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