Non-profit status and raffle licences
 

If anyone has been through either of these before in New York State, could you please provide me whatever information you have on the subjects?

1) Becoming a non-profit organization (I understand this allows companys that sponsor you to receive tax deductions).

2) Obtaining a raffle licence

Thanks much,
Patrick

I know nothing about obtaining a raffle license but as far as being non-profit, in your situation, I would suggest not bothering. Instead, have Cornell handle the financial end of things. So a sponsor would donate money to Cornell, which should already be a 501(c)3 organization meaning that the company could get a tax deduction for the donation. This also reduces the amount of hassle you have to go through as the actual holding of accounts is done by someone else. This is what we're doing at RIT and so far it's seemed to work pretty well. Plus, it's easier to get people to donate money to RIT than it is to get them to donate to some random organization that may or may not be fly by night.

Matt

Matt is right. That's what we did at Georgia Tech also. We have an account with the Mechanical Engineering school and that works very well for us. They even add us to some of their grant request to help us get more money. You should probably get in touch with the financial director at Cornell for their help. It helps alot since they can get your program out there through their already existing contacts and the alumni. Hope that helps.

Be careful if you try and go to your college level development office. We're actually starting down that path right now but I wouldn't even consider it without the large amount of support the Dean of Engineering has given us. There are a lot of politics involved with development and it can definately get nasty if you aren't very careful. I do think it's a good idea however as they have a lot more contacts and are able to realistically ask for much larger sums than a mere FIRST team can do. But it also starts to restrict who you can ask for money and whether you can at all or if the development office will be doing it all. So, yeah, there are a lot of issues involved and make sure you think them all through.

Matt who is starting to hate college politics....

And if you really want your own status, start pitching FIRST to lawyers...they can donate their services.

License
 

In Michigan you apply to the State Lottery and Gaming commission.

For $50.00 you get a license to have a rafell with prizes over $500.00.

Under $500.00 has different rules and is free if your school district holds a blanket registration because of 50-50 drawings at ball games.

Our team fundraiser is registered with the lottery commision. our printer will not print tickets without the numbers.