Re: Bylaws for 501(c)3 Designation
 

The costs and requirements vary widely by state. We incorporated in DE (which isn't known as the Corporate Capital of the World for nothing :D ). It was fairly easy, just filing some papers and sending in the money. I believe it was $89 to incorporate and $30 for a copy of the certficate. I got all the information from the state web site.

Re: Bylaws for 501(c)3 Designation
 

We (MOE 365 mentors) are presenting a paper at the Robotics Conference at the Championships in Atlanta on "501c3 Status, What is It, How to Get it, and Why do I Need It?" If you have gone through the process and are willing to give us some input for the talk, please contact me. Obviously in the next day or two as we are finishing up the talk this weekend (I do my best work at the last minute.)

Re: Bylaws for 501(c)3 Designation
 

We've done this. 3 years ago.
If I can be of any help, please pm me.
Jane

Re: Bylaws for 501(c)3 Designation
 

I can provide some additional information on the time line and costs to become a 501(c)3. The steps for the process were provided in my 10-11-2003 post in this thread. You can probably get this done a bit faster but this was our experience: Applied for EIN from IRS on 7/31/03 for $35. Got our original charter of incorporation from Missouri on 9/1/03 for $25. (It sounds like this varies widely from state to state.) Submitted our form 1023 to IRS on 10/28/03 for $500. The IRS asked us to make some modifications to our bylaws and our Missouri articles of incorporation. Submitted for an amended articles of incorporation to Missouri on 12/29/03 for $10. Received our IRS ruling letter in March of 2004.

The IRS was very concerned about the distribution of the organization's assets upon dissolution of the organization. They gave us the paragraph to include in our bylaws and articles of incorporation.

Our bylaws, ruling letter and state charter can be found on our website at www.rivercityrobots.org. Click on ABOUT and you will see some the links to these documents on the right side of the screen.

Insurance is still an open issue with our organization. It would be nice to hear from other 501(c)3's on this subject. We are not affiliated with any school or other agency. We are just a regional team taking students from any school in the county. We could not convince our local schools to have a team or even to recognize our team so we have no insurance shirttails to ride.

If I can provide any additional information you can post here or e-mail me at rivercityrobots@hotmail.com

Re: Bylaws for 501(c)3 Designation
 

Our presentation at the robotics conference titled "501(c)(3) Nonprofit Status - What Is It, Do We Need It, and How Do We Get It?" went very well (in my opinion anyway). Thanks to those of you who helped with suggestions for it. The slides can be found at http://moe365.org/moeu.php

I got a message a month or two ago from someone who wanted help in this area. I told her I would get back to her, but unfortunately I can't find the message now. If you're out there, I apologize - please contact me again!