[Qbot2640]

Originally Posted by TheOtherGuy

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Really? Ours took a couple months, as did the non-profit for my last team. Was this a temporary approval to set up a bank account?

From what I learned, this is a relatively new option for 501(c)3 organizations who expect their annual revenue to be less than $50,000. This was in response to the huge backlog of approvals by the IRS, and was implemented to make the simple ones quicker and easier to approve allowing more resources for the complicated ones. The EIN number, like I said, was free and immediate...and we could have created a bank account with just that - but we included the application for our 501(c)3 and the receipt for the $400 payment so we could get a better, non-profit focused account.

http://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Form-1023EZ

Our application was approved exactly one week from the day I applied. It is nothing "temporary"...it's the real deal. We have to file a 990 form within 15 days of the end of our business cycle (we chose July - June). I am amazed to be saying this, but it was literally one of the easiest processes I've done.

Addressing the above comments about negatives - for us, the only issue I am even concerned about is excusing absences...and I expect the individual schools involved with our team to continue to excuse them anyway. Our state has several teams that are organized this way, and almost as many that are organized under a 4-H or Scout organization...I'm not aware of any issues with absences not being excused for those teams. Our school never provided us a workspace that would be secure enough to trust relocating all the privately owned tools and equipment we have (our milling machine is my own, for example) so that's no concern for us...we work out of an awesome 3 car garage owned by the greatest mentor in the world and his equally gracious wife.

The positives are almost infinite - most notably our ability to finally purchase insurance to cover the adults who help our team, and the access to grant money we didn't qualify for without a nonprofit group. And I will certainly not complain about being able to make common-sense decisions regarding evening build sessions when the county cancels school for 3 flakes of snow that someone saw in the remote far north corner of the county.