Journey of a non-profit - Oh, the paperwork!

I am given $400 in cash. By my estimation, that should be enough for me to file the non-profit papers with the ACC and then publish our new corporation. Our goal is to have this done in time for our kick-off dinner at the end of August. If we are legal with the State, then we figure we can collect donations and have a bit of credibility under us. We are not just going to be some schmoes passing around a coffee can asking for money. Our journey will be underway.

Except for one thing. When you do anything with any regularity, it becomes old hat. I file LLCs and PLLCs with the ACC frequently. I do not fill out non-profit paperwork frequently. Honestly I'm not sure how to proceed.

I call an attorney thinking I will throw myself on his mercy. He doesn't bite. Why would he? He doesn't know me from Adam. Of course, we're hoping to get this project off the ground and raise money at the kick-off dinner to use his services but there's the whole cart before the horse thing. We need to be legal in order to raise money to pay for legal services. Sigh!

So I come up with Plan B. I'm a GREAT copycat. I google non-profits and come up with samples of paperwork that others have filed. This gives me an acceptable template to work from. I have a safety net in that Matt (my LLC Partner Extraordinaire) has Pre-Paid Legal. I throw myself on his mercy and he agrees that if I fill out the paperwork he will have the pre-paid legal folks weigh in before I spend $300 or so getting the non-profit set up.

In an abundance of caution I head to the library and take out NOLO's book on starting a non-profit.

I have a plan and I'm feeling good!