Setting up an organization

[zachg18]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida.

Hi there! So I already have an actual LLC, but part of our business involves donating a portion of proceeds to a specific cause so we would also like to setup an organization for that.

We do not have money to file a 501(c)(3), but is there another (much cheaper) way to setup an organization?

Basically, we want people to be able to donate to our organization and we would probably use that money to setup events and also donate to other organizations supporting the same cause (but with more resources than us). The same goes for the "portion of proceeds from each sale" that are donated to the cause. Those funds would either go to our organization and then to other organizations from there, or they may just go straight to another organization (not sure if the specifics on that impact this process at all, but we are still working on figuring that out).

Hope this is enough information. If you need anything else please let me know.

Thanks!

-Zach

 

[tranquility]

To get a deduction for a donation, a taxpayer must donate to an approved non-profit. If you are not a 501(c)(3) and put on events or re-donate money, the source will not get a deduction.

 

[zachg18]

To get a deduction for a donation, a taxpayer must donate to an approved non-profit. If you are not a 501(c)(3) and put on events or re-donate money, the source will not get a deduction.

Thanks for the reply!

We are not necessarily concerned about our customers being able to deduct their donation (a lot of the money will be portion of proceeds from the product that they are already buying anyway)

I guess we were more wondering what is the cheapest way for us to legally be considered an organization and have the ability to accept donations...

Thanks!

 

[tranquility]

Thanks for the reply!

We are not necessarily concerned about our customers being able to deduct their donation (a lot of the money will be portion of proceeds from the product that they are already buying anyway)

I guess we were more wondering what is the cheapest way for us to legally be considered an organization and have the ability to accept donations...

Thanks!

Anyone can accept gifts.

 

[TigerD]

Hi there! So I already have an actual LLC, but part of our business involves donating a portion of proceeds to a specific cause so we would also like to setup an organization for that.

We do not have money to file a 501(c)(3), but is there another (much cheaper) way to setup an organization?

So take the first $400 from your donation to pay the $400 filing fee for the IRS 1023. You can't get much cheaper than setting up a nonprofit. All in (state and IRS fees, bank accounts and such) you are looking less than $1,000. If you can't afford that, perhaps you should just donate you money to another organization.

DC

 

[tranquility]

I'm not sure that will get them what they want either. It seems to me they want to run a business and, rather than pay taxes, donate some of the profits to a charitable purpose. To be a non-profit, the donation must be the point and not a side line. I think the OP needs to think through his plan in detail to see what it is he hopes to accomplish. If it is nothing more than said here, he does not need to organize differently, he just needs to do it.

 

[zachg18]

I'm not sure that will get them what they want either. It seems to me they want to run a business and, rather than pay taxes, donate some of the profits to a charitable purpose. To be a non-profit, the donation must be the point and not a side line. I think the OP needs to think through his plan in detail to see what it is he hopes to accomplish. If it is nothing more than said here, he does not need to organize differently, he just needs to do it.

Yes I do not think a non-profit will work.

Here are some more details:

We have developed an organic food product that supports a social cause. For example, a company like Sambazon who uses the Acai berry supports the local community where they get these berries from.

However, instead of just making it look like we are donating to another organization, we want to have our own organization, but we will work with others as well. It has nothing to do with tax purposes. We actually just think it looks more authentic and genuine if we have our own organization instead of just sending money off elsewhere.

We still plan on paying taxes for our LLC though...

Does that help?