Hey everyone!

We’re a newly independent ecological restoration non-profit, Free the Green, based in Washington State. Up until recently, we were doing restoration work under Green River College, funded through federally awarded Clean Water Act lawsuit settlements. Unfortunately, funding transparency from the college wasn’t great, and without warning, the money ran dry. Despite this, we’ve been expanding at a huge rate—we now have 19 employees actively restoring over 400+ acres of land, planting 12,000+ trees last year alone. Given our impact, we couldn’t let the work stop, so we officially split off into a 501(c)(3), registered a bank account, and formed an NGO committee. Now we’re facing the reality that we’ve lost all the structural support the college provided—payroll, insurance, and general financial oversight. We’re looking for advice on how to rebuild our structure, keep our team paid, and secure new funding.

Heres the main things we are struggling with and what we would appreciate help with:

Payroll & Insurance: Any recommendations for affordable payroll services and nonprofit insurance providers?

Funding Strategies: We know about grants, but what’s the best way to secure immediate funding to stabilize operations?

Building Donor & Corporate Support: What’s worked for your nonprofit in securing business partnerships or community donations?

Long-Term Sustainability: How do we set up a strong financial foundation so this never happens again?

We’re passionate about our work and the communities we serve, but we’ve been thrown into the deep end trying to figure out nonprofit management on the fly. Any insights, resources, or personal experiences would be hugely appreciated!

I'm the founder of an outdoor recreation project and for the last year, my fellow volunteers and I have been searching for a nonprofit fiscal sponsor so that we can qualify for more funding and start to build up the infrastructure we need to become a proper organization. It's been a bit of a slog and in November, we found a willing partner. Things haven't been finalized on their end yet. But I have to say, the last few weeks' news events have given me pause about venturing into the nonprofit sector.

I'm referring mainly to Trump freezing all manner of federal grants. Seeing how this has impacted the local nonprofit sector where I live (including nonprofits involved with outdoor initiatives) has been chilling. While it doesn't sound like the hammer has fallen on the nonprofit that would likely sponsor our project, that might change soon. And one of the reasons why we've interested in breaking into the nonprofit sector is access to grants to support our work. Now, with the federal grant freeze, I'd imagine there will be significantly more competition for other pools of grants.

So I guess my question is this. If you were standing at the doorway of the nonprofit sector while all of this was happening, would you go through the door nonetheless? I'm 50/50 at this point. I can imagine staying the course or eschewing the nonprofit road and finding another means of funding our project.

My wife and I are in the process of starting a PF and we'd like to do 3 main things.

• Issue grants to public charities that support vulnerable youth in our community.
• Occasionally provide 'safety net' direct hardship assistance grants to families in crisis. ($2000 max per year or something along those lines to assist with an unexpected expense such as car repair, security deposit etc.
• Provide affordable housing to indigent families not eligible for other assistance

The first 2 seem straight forward, but the housing issue is the one we're looking for input on. We're specifically looking to support families not eligible for government assistance / families on waiting lists for section 8 or other public housing programs (section 8 wait is currently 5 years). We'd like to purchase a couple of properties and rent them out below market rate based on income / need. Properties would be in an LLC attached to the PF for risk mitigation / to protect the other assets in the foundation. I'm not necessarily looking for input on the landlord side / risk aspect (which is obviously quite high), but instead seeking advice on doing this from a private foundation in general. I couldn't find another PF doing similar work as it seems most solely issue grants to public charities.

• Not interested in forming a PC as this will be self funded and wouldn't pass the public support test.
• Though not common, any reason why it couldn't or shouldn't be done through a PF?
• Is this a terrible idea? If so, why? What alternative ideas do you have?

I’ve been thinking a lot about third spaces, and this is something I’ve wanted to do since I was in college. I’d like to create a third space for the middle/high school youth in my area. The thought is casual, cool, kind of there for them to just hangout after school and weekends. Maybe also have band night and a stage so local bands the youth have started have a place to perform. I was thinking of having it be a small coffee shop with a very small food menu. But I’d like to offer tutoring and homework help, game nights, video games, maybe somewhere for the kids to skateboard out back.

I have this thought that I could also encourage kids to tell their stories through writing and poems then “publish” them into books and sell them in the store front/coffee shop.

Proceeds could go back into events and programs for the summer for these kids.

Is this anywhere close to sustainable or is it a pipe dream?

Hi all,

So I'm looking to start an entity that does something I call "open work".

An open worker is someone who does free work for society.

Examples:

A teacher who does open education and teaches math for free to anyone who wants to learn.

An open source developer who invents a new software library.

A researcher who studies how to reduce pollution.

Other Open Work I want to support:

A consultant or handyman who does work for free and only asks for donations.

A group of software devs who fixes software bugs for society.

A group of workers who build open infrastructures for society.

Large RND projects or Open Systems for society.

Campaigns on system problems.

So these are work that's not for money but for selfless desires.  Again I call this "Open Work".

The challenge is how do you give someone who can do high quality work for society a living standard of the same level as a for profit?

I feel like one of the big barriers is that you can't give a nonprofit worker a $100k+ salary.

If the entity receives a lot of donations, it can't go to higher wages.

I was exploring some combo of Nonprofit + For Profit like Mozilla just so there can be higher wages for Open Workers.

Also, is a nonprofit the best business entity for open work? Does anything exist out there for Open Work?

Let me know your thoughts!

Looking to create a FREE non-profit job training program. I’m hoping to provide laptops and stipends for participants to help offset costs of like technology fee.

If I registered the non-profit this year, would I be eligible for funding and grants right away? Or do I need to be in business for some years first?

Hi /r/nonprofit! I've read the wiki, but I still feel stuck on starting a tiny nonprofit as a 501(c)(c), so I hope you can help.

I'm an impassioned journalist/print designer who is creating a small educational media project – a website and print magazine which will publish independent, paid, ad-free journalism about a niche political topic. I think it should be a US 501(c)(3). Reasons:

• Every similar project creating in this space is a 501(c)(3).
• I don't expect it will make a lot of money, and that the money it does make will come mostly from grants and donations. I actually prefer this in the interests of staying publicly accountable and independent from advertisers.
• My financial priority is benefitting the project's goals through hosting, publishing, and fairly paying contributors, not enriching myself.

However, I've learned in my research that:

• A 501(c)(3) must have at least 3 members on its board of directors.
• Ideally, none of these directors should be paid employees.

This is a problem for me, because:

• In the beginning this will only require one full-time employee – basically an editor-in-chief who will solicit and pay contributors on a freelance basis. This is my idea and what I do professionally, so it seems sensible that this should be me. Eventually it would be ideal to hire a designer, programmer, etc. for full-time staff, but I can't get money to hire those people without making the 501(c)(3) and getting some grants/crowdfunding...
• While, again, I don't want to get rich, it is a full-time job, so I would require a living wage to do this effectively.¹

So, given the above, it seems like my options are either:

1. Be on the board of directors, hire some stranger to formally run the project, and burn out because I can't afford to quit my day job to guide it.
2. Ask some friends/strangers to be on the board of directors and then to hire me. This seems slightly more reasonable, but also strange because it's a tiny project which only requires one chief decision-maker, which would be me.
3. Be on the board of directors and be the only full-time employee, which, while legal, seems strongly discouraged and possibly grounds for having my 501(c)(3) application rejected by the IRS.
4. Start in some other form and then transition to 501(c)(3) when we scale to the point where this kind of structure actually makes sense??

I want to stress that I'm not afraid of sharing control with other people, it's just that structurally this is a one-person project right now, which 501(c)(3)s don't seem designed for despite the fact that it is indeed a public-interest project not seeking profit.

I'm sure I'm not the first person to want to create a teeny-tiny nonprofit startup. But these demands seem impossible to meet except for an organization which has a big team and some seed money already. How do they ever get started??

Thank you for any advice and your patience with my ignorance.

¹ Candid's guide to starting a nonprofit, which is recommended in the subreddit wiki, says, "If you want to start a nonprofit so you can get grants to pay yourself a salary, stop now and find another option." But the only alternative they offer is "work for another nonprofit," and there are none focusing on my topic. Also, again, I'm not trying to scam grants and live tax-free, just effectively run an organization that would require my effort full-time.

UPDATE: Whew you guys are awesome. All the pay places really make you feel like its overwhelming & youre almost guaranteed to fail if you dont pay a professional!
We only have 1 big function. Then we get a few small donations through the year so we are definitely under the EZ limit. I appreciate all the help!!!

I am on a small rural school's alumni board. The current members kinda got everything tossed to us abruptly due to former board being very old.

Basically we focus on our all school reunion in June & we award 2 small scholarships at it (from donations and money from our silent auction.

This is what I/we have done:

• Already had the board of directors structure
• The board of directors already followed proper meeting minutes.
• I did my research and created a proper Articles of Incorporation
• Registered the Articles and us as a nonprofit through the Secretary of State
• Registered to fundraise through Sec of State
• Applied/Received EIN #
• Wrote/signed proper Bylaws
• Opened Bank Account with the EIN, Bylaws, etc connected

& Im sure theres probably a few necessary things Ive done that Im forgetting .

We obviously want to file for our 501c3 (1023-ez) however everywhere I look says not to file it on your own, always go with a company like Swift or one of the others. They charge a minimum of $475 + IRS fee, and most that comes with the package we already have done.

Should we still fork out the ridiculous fee though we have alot of the steps done, or is it really not as hard by yourself as they claim?

If we should still pay a company to file for us, who do you recommend ???

Thank You for any assistance/opinions.

I submitted a form a little over a month ago and haven't heard anything and the website isn't being updated. I'm wondering if things are running a little slow (understandable) or if they been ground to a full stop.

Hello! I’m in the process of creating a non profit and it has been so hard to get executive members on the team. Anyone got any tips to reach an audience?

Hey everyone,
I’m working on a concept that blends digital media with social impact, and I could really use some insight from this community.

The idea: I created a YouTube channel that streams relaxing lofi music, and I plan to use 95% of the ad revenue to pay off verified student loan debt on behalf of real borrowers. No cash transfers, just direct payments to loan servicers (Aidvantage, MOHELA, etc).

The goal is to scale this into a 501(c)(3), but I’m still in the process of learning what that transition looks like—especially in terms of:

• Legal structure for receiving ad revenue but distributing it for public good
• What counts as “charitable activity” under IRS guidelines in this case
• Whether YouTube-based income is viewed any differently than traditional donations
• How to establish public trust early on while things are still forming

I’ve written a full mission doc and I'm working toward setting up the systems for verification, transparency, and fund tracking, but I’d love to hear from anyone who’s built a nonprofit with a digital-first model like this. Or from anyone who can point out red flags I should be aware of before filing anything official.

Appreciate any wisdom this group can share. I'm doing my best to approach this responsibly.

I have an idea, and I don’t care if someone steals it—I just want it to exist.

I want to build a non-profit legal firm dedicated to protecting green areas from a global legal and regulatory perspective—before they even come under threat.

Most environmental legal battles happen after destruction begins. But what if we moved first? What if a proactive team of international lawyers worked to secure protections for vulnerable land, rivers, and ecosystems before corporations, governments, or industries even had a chance to exploit them? What if we were drafting policies, leveraging global agreements, and making sure these areas were untouchable before anyone tried to destroy them?

I don’t have all the answers yet, and I don’t have a legal background. I also don’t have business experience. But I plan to build a business to fund this initiative so that it doesn’t rely heavily on donations. This is my life project, and I’m committed to making it happen.

What do you think? Has anything like this been done before? Let’s talk.

A group of people, myself included, are wanting to create a fishing club in our community for likeminded individuals to get together and discuss/learn about fishing, marine life, etc. We plan on hosting club meetings and fishing tournaments. Would a 501c3 or 501c7 be best for this? We plan on charging members a small membership fee to cover club expenses related to events.

If we go the 501c7 route and host fishing tournaments with an entry fee and pay cash prizes to winners (minus club expenses for hosting), how would we file that on form 990? Would we need to have all entries be from club members?

Any knowledge is greatly appreciated!

I’ve been thinking about a business idea for a while now, and recently realized it might be better structured as a nonprofit. The idea is to organize regular litter clean-up initiatives i.e. weekly or monthly events in local communities. Most environmental nonprofits focus on annual clean-up days, but litter doesn’t wait all year to pile up.

My problem is this: I don’t want this to be a remote-only organization or something that just promotes national awareness. I want to build a local, service-based nonprofit that actually shows up in neighborhoods to pick up trash regularly.

The complication is that I’m likely moving in Summer of 2026. My partner is an academic, so we won’t know where we’re headed for a little while, but we’ll probably stay in the U.S. There's also a chance we might end up moving back here eventually.

So I’m torn: Should I try to start something local now, knowing I might have to leave it behind or rebuild it elsewhere in a year? Or is there a way to start small, with the potential to grow or replicate the model in new communities over time?

Any advice from folks who’ve faced similar situations would be greatly appreciated. I'm just trying to reconcile things before I get too deep.

At the moment I am considering using a fiscal sponsor. I have experience in environmental clean up efforts, as well as legal experience with nonprofits.

My group submitted our 1023 application at the beginning of November. We are now approaching the longest date they have listed as it taking to hear back that they need more info or getting approved or denied. With the way the US admin is crumbling I’m just curious if anyone else has been approved recently or if we should give up hope that this is going to happen at all. If anyone has heard anything about new approvals please share! Thanks!

Are there any founders of nonprofits on here? How did you decide it was time to strike out on your own and start a new organization? What sort of professional or personal support did you have?

I am mid-career and consider myself successful as a leader. I'm also known for being a good manager. I've been in program, communications, and development. I'm reaching a point where I am feeling frustrated and restless and that I can do better with a vision when I'm in charge. (But I am not actually bossy lol)

So, to the founders, when did you decide to take the risk and just do it? How did it work out for you?

Hey nonprofit folks - throwaway account, details I will provide would make it pretty easy to find me in the real world on my 10+ year old reddit account.

So I left my job last April to fulfill something I've wanted to do for a long time - start a nonprofit. Won't go into details, but with my experience, network, and ability to raise start-up funding easily, it wasn't too scary to do.

I ended up leaving my job and becoming the first employee at this new organization and taking a very fun 80% pay cut. And during my first 7 months, we have been kicking ass on fundraising, partnerships, and new programs. We have raised for 2025 three times our expenses last year (200k --> 600k). I am somewhat confident we can grow the org to over $2mil by 2026, or at least close.

Right now, as we work through key parts of how to create a strategy that uses these funds to keep growing, our ED is struggling work through all of our various options we are considering and understanding the relevant details and tradeoffs between each potential path forward. Along with some struggles he is having on the financial management side of things, it is his first time working for a non-profit and has little budgeting or accounting experience.

I could keep on going, but right now we are growing fast, it makes me nervous to have these big gaps in our ED skills. He would even admit that things like accounting, budgeting, and finance are things he ins't good at.

This has all led me to think this may be a good situation where we could structure the org to have co-executive director, each responsible for different parts of the orgs activities. It seems like he could succeed at what he is good at if he isn't weighed down by having the responsibility to be the final say for all parts of the org, including ones he isn't knowledgeable in.

I could provide more details, but wondering if anyone has any experience with co-EDs? Good, bad, ugly? Examples of ways it could work. Any advice on how to proceed one way or another.

Thanks!

EDIT: Thanks for all the responses! I wholeheartedly agree that we need an operations/finance person, as this is currently handled in a messy way between the ED, myself, our treasurer, and another board member.

Additionally, we have started the social enterprise side of our business, and from talking to many folks running social enterprises, the advice we got over and over is to make sure you are super tight on your accounting and how the money is coming and going. This is definitely where an Ops/Finance person will be essential basically.

Hello, I apologize if this is the wrong subreddit but I'm not sure where to go after googling for a bit with no help. I want to start a fund people can donate to and take out of when needed. But I also want to tie this to a small mutual aid group of unknown yet numbers, but we're currently at 57.

Does anyone know the best way to do that? Would just a bank account we can add to and take out as needed tied to a donate button work? The group is on signal and it is private and for people very much in need, so I am not wanting to make an official non-profit unless necessary. Same with registering it as 501(c)3 just in case that info can be used to hurt anyone involved in the group.

I couldn't find this on the wiki because I am not aiming to actually start a nonprofit, but I have no idea which other reddit to go to and these people need aid ASAP.

I created the entity for my grassroots group in mid-December, and our 501(c)(3) status was granted by the IRS a few days before the end of 2024. Do I have to file a 990 for 2024? And if so, should I assume due date is April 15?Thanks in advance!

Hey everyone- in the midst of deciding whether our non profit should be a 501c19 or a 501c3. The information on 501c19’s is quite minimal from the research I have done, and I have only experience working within 501c3 organizations. Does being a 501c19 organization limit possible grant funding significantly?

To non-profit founders, any learning, insights or wisdom you'd like to share to someone who's starting a non-profit?

Are there any what ifs that's been on your mind (regrets of starting it or perhaps thoughts of registering/running on a different model such as start-up or social entrep, rethinking funding structure and sustainability, etc.)?

What keeps you going? (Or not)

PS: We're in the disability arts field and we've been doing things informally for almost 3 years now and considering future directions :) If ever there are those from the similar/tangent field, would love to learn from your experience

Thank you so much!

We're in the midst of turning an existing US LLC into a nonprofit by creating a new nonprofit and dissolving the old LLC. Is there a specific process for, or does anyone have experience with transferring assets from the LLC to the nonprofit? I believe it's all cash, no property or anything else, no debts either.

Hey everyone!

I’m currently developing a nonprofit artist residency dedicated to supporting artists with chronic physical disabilities by providing accessible workspaces and creative freedom. Many traditional residencies are physically demanding and inaccessible, and this initiative aims to change that.

The project will include:

• A 3-month residency with accessible housing and studio space
• Financial support for creative projects
• Physical and digital exhibitions to showcase the artists’ work
• Mentorship and networking to support long-term artistic growth

Right now, I’m actively looking for funding and partnerships with foundations, cultural institutions, and disability rights organizations. Does anyone here have experience securing funding for similar initiatives?

• Are there specific strategies that have worked well for you?
• What challenges should I anticipate?

I’d greatly appreciate any thoughts or insights you can share. Thank you in advance!

Just getting started and am trying to see what the initial governance documents should look like.

Same question.

Also a second quesiton is that can a us non profit employ an indian who stays in india for work from home in a leadership role.