I helped start a church about a year ago, and we are trying to setup our 501C3. Do any of you have any experience with setting one of these up? We have our corp and tax id # setup already. We are a small church, but we do a great deal in the community through service projects, handicapped hunts, Christian sports camps,and food pantry, etc. Need the 501C3 to be able to apply for grants. Any help would be much appreciated.
OT: Help on setting up 501C3 non profit status
- Thread starter Pointcitydawg
- Start date
It required a lot of paperwork, some accounting information, and general information such as names and addresses of the governing board, statement of purpose, past activities, current activities, and future activities. It was tedious, as is most things when dealing with the IRS, but doable.
Here is some information you might find useful from the IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/charit...cle/0,,id=96099,00.html/
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html
The form you will have to complete to request official 501c3 status is IRS Form 1023.
In addition to being established as a corporation, you will need by-laws that have certain language in them. We had a booster member get his attorneys to do this for us pro bono. If you have any attorneys in your church they might be able to do it or you might ask folks in your church if they know a lawyer that will do this for y'all.
In doing my research, I found a website that has experts to answer questions about different topics. They have a 501 c3 area. Here's the link
http://www.allexperts.com/central/service.htm
Put in 501 c3 churches in the find function at the top right of the webpage and start reading. I posted a couple of questions during my research and an attorney answered. I also learned a lot from reading other people's questions.
Just start reading IRS publications and researching on the web about other churches becoming 501 c3's. If you are persistent, you can find some good information that will help you.
Good luck.
Here is some information you might find useful from the IRS website:
http://www.irs.gov/charit...cle/0,,id=96099,00.html/
http://www.irs.gov/publications/p557/ch03.html
The form you will have to complete to request official 501c3 status is IRS Form 1023.
In addition to being established as a corporation, you will need by-laws that have certain language in them. We had a booster member get his attorneys to do this for us pro bono. If you have any attorneys in your church they might be able to do it or you might ask folks in your church if they know a lawyer that will do this for y'all.
In doing my research, I found a website that has experts to answer questions about different topics. They have a 501 c3 area. Here's the link
http://www.allexperts.com/central/service.htm
Put in 501 c3 churches in the find function at the top right of the webpage and start reading. I posted a couple of questions during my research and an attorney answered. I also learned a lot from reading other people's questions.
Just start reading IRS publications and researching on the web about other churches becoming 501 c3's. If you are persistent, you can find some good information that will help you.
Good luck.
1. Pretty sure churches don't have to be a 5013c. You are tax exempt already.
2. If you think you need to, it's really not that hard. I did it with no help at all, other than calling the IRS about 5 times to make sure I was doing everything right. Believe it or not, they were actually really helpful. I would imagine one call right now might tell you if this is even needed or not.
2. If you think you need to, it's really not that hard. I did it with no help at all, other than calling the IRS about 5 times to make sure I was doing everything right. Believe it or not, they were actually really helpful. I would imagine one call right now might tell you if this is even needed or not.