The F4 Store is open!

[JesseK]

Originally Posted by Sperkowsky

We are not a registered 501c3 but we have never drawn a profit and don't plan on it. Money raised will first go to reimbursing students for things like domains, and hosting costs. If we can sustain those costs we will start to fund things like our CADathon project allowing for better prizes ect. All in all no we are not doing this to make a profit.

Eesh - that 'but' in the first sentence is loaded with an undertone. When I was in high school raising funds for my football team, I had the same naive attitude.

Consult someone experienced about this before getting in too deep. In the IRS's eyes, this is income whether it's profitable or not, whether it's ($10) income or $10000. The tricky thing about publicizing this nation-wide is that improper filing of these things can have ramifications on your eligibility for federal student aid and/or loans until things are fixed properly. By "your" I mean potentially the entire group of individuals running the business, but most likely the IRS implicates "willful negligence" on the 1-2 people running it.

If the vendor who makes the shirts ever gets audited, the person who's name was used in filling out the forms is the first one implicated. That 'if' is a gamble, since you probably don't know if the accounting practices of the t-shirt firm flags them for a likely audit in the future.

Most teams go through their school for fundraising, so there is an IRS-recognized organization behind it. Your best bet may be to find a booster club, church or other NPO who you can partner with. Running the logistics of a business is somewhat easy if you have guiding help, so this would be a great learning experience along the way. Or you could incorporate an LLC for (usually) pretty cheap.

If you get it setup before build season starts, you'll probably get a lot of traction in January with your shirts.