On Other News...

I am going off course tonight. Instead of talking about non-profit world, I am going to share for just a moment about school. I'm a homeschooling parent you see, and we started the new school year today. It went really well actually. Better than I thought it would for sure. First of all, my kids were up and out of bed by 9 am. This is a huge victory since their normal up time has been many hours later than this all summer. I was very proud of them. Next, my kids were finished with their work by 11:30 am. This says to me, "great planning!" as the amount of work they had seemed not to overwhelm them, and it also did not seem too easy for them to get done. Instead it was a perfect amount of info for them to take in. If only they were all days like this. I know I am in honeymoon mode, but I feel the need to linger there for a bit. Tomorrow is another day you understand, and who knows what will happen. But for now, I bask in the glory!

The Next Step

It's been a busy time for our non-profit. Since getting our 501(c)(3) status we have been busy with researching grants and preparing updates on the business plan. Finding funding proves to be very hard right now in this economy, but we are staying positive. What we have found though, is that there is a ton of free information on the web on fundraising, writing grants, etc. This has been a tremendous help and within a few months I foresee funding coming in.

On the other side, we are also looking at buildings at the same time. I know, you are thinking what is the point of looking for a building when you have no money. I realize this seems a bit crazy, but finding the perfect property for your cause can be very tedious work, and we expect it to take quite a while as our cause is very specific needing a specific type of building.

As we forge ahead with this next step in our journey, there is a lot of uncertainty as to how things will turn out, but our passion keeps us motivated to keep moving ahead. Don't ever let the passion go. If it does you are done for.

FInally!!! We have arrived!

So this has been a long week of celebrating and embracing change. I was fortunate enough to have been celebrated at a dinner for a job I finished and stepped down from, I was provided the opportunity to go to a great picnic to celebrate the end of the school year, then I was blessed with attending my own graduation as I finished school recently, and tonight we celebrated our children finishing yet another wonderful year of school at a promotion ceremony. So much celebrating I could use a vacation. But wait, there's more!!!

I get home tonight, grab the Mac and go to check the email as I do every night before I go to bed, and there it is... the official word. We got our 501c3!!! We can now proceed to the next step. What an amazing feeling it was to see that email. It just makes for the perfect wrap up to a wonderfully blessed week and weekend.

So guess what I will be doing tomorrow? Celebrating once again a tremendous achievement.

Celebrate with me!

Hurry up And Wait!! Still

Yep, we are still waiting on our 501c3 status. Not sure what the hold up is, but should be any time now. We just had to go through some changes to our bylaws in order to continue the process and make the IRS happy, and now we are still on hold. There is just so much we would like to do but can't until we get this piece of paper that has now cost us, well, a lot of money.

Patience is hard. But you have to have them to get through this process. And you have to have a lot of faith that all things will work out. So, the waiting continues.

So what do you do in the meantime? Well, you work on policies and procedures, you work on volunteer contracts and a nice long fund raiser list, among many other items. And you continue to talk it up with the locals so they stay informed on your progress and stay interested and excited.

Plenty there to keep us busy. :)

Hic-ups in Non-profit World

There is bound to be a hic-up or two when starting a non-profit. We had one just this last week.

We have been waiting and waiting for our final non-profit status to be approved but have heard nothing until just a few days ago when we received a nice little letter in the mail. The IRS has asked us to make a few amendments to our bylaws and to get them officially done and sent back to them by May 11th. Yikes!!! To say the lease, we panicked a bit. Since when does anything get done in this state in two weeks? Especially when you have little to no money? But knew we had to do what was asked in order to get our status. So, we did what we had to do. Dug deep in our pockets and paid to expedite our paperwork so we could get it in on time.

The result? Well, we again get to hurry up and wait. And everything goes on, business as usual. Our hope is that we get our official status by May 11th or soon after.

As hic-ups go, it's kind of small so we lucked out there. Can't wait to see what happens next though. It would be great to have the ability to fund raise soon.

On another note, we found a rather large building that has been empty for years with an owner that just may be ready to donate. I'll update more on that later as the process unfolds.

Isn't non-profit world just full of excitement??

Hurry up And Wait!!

There is nothing more frustrating in non-profit world than waiting on your 501c3 status to come though. We last heard it would be another month. ARGGG! We are in need of funds people! We are trying to raise money with fundraisers, but we can't to anything without that stinking number!! In the meantime, we work on things like policies and procedures for volunteers and potential employees in the future. We work on defining our positions within the organization and what we are okay with and what we are not in regards to fundraisers, grant options, business hours, etc. It is a long and slow process that sometimes feels painful. But I know we are working on important stuff and we will thank ourselves later. So, while we are a bit anxious to see things move ahead, we realize that we are okay where we are as well.

Hurry up and wait! That's us.

Oh, be sure to check out the work we are doing on the website. We have a picture up and some color. But understand it is a work in progress...www.riseresourcecenter.org

Taking a Trip Down Non-Profit Road...

Ha! Like I am some kind of expert or something. NOT!! But I have been through it recently and continue to experience and learn, so I thought I would share a few tips:

First, make sure what you want to do is something that can fit under the non-profit status description and that it is something others will support. Trying to raise money to support shoe shoppers on Rodeo Drive will probably not fit under the description, however, collecting shoes to provide to homeless individuals might.

Then, find some people who have the same passion, vision, and similar mission as you do and get together for some talk time. LOTS of talk time. Get to know all you can about these people, even if you already know who they are. Taking a trip down non-profit road can be a long one and you will want to make sure you can handle the ride without any major road blocks. Be honest and extremely blunt about your ideas and agenda for your non-profit idea. (Everyone has an agenda!!!) Find out what special skills each of you has because you will need people with writing skills, community contacts, non-profit law knowledge, non-profit experience, and many other skill areas to help you create a great organization.

Oh, and be prepared to invest a bit of money. The non-profit status paperwork charge has been upped recently and it's not cheap. Nor is filling out the paperwork something you can do in one day. It requires certain documents and filings to be completed first so do your research and have everything in place.

And that is how it all starts really; a vision, a passion, people to share it with, and the courage to move forward.