A non-profit corporation which many call “nonprofit organization” is a corporation formed to carry out a charitable, educational, religious, literary or scientific purpose. A nonprofit can raise much needed funds for important causes by receiving public or private grant money or donations from individuals or companies.
Everybody has great ideas for their non-profit corporation. They want to turn their vision into a reality; they want to open a wayward home for girls and boys; they want to feed, clothe and shelter the homeless; they want to stop domestic violence and stop people from going to jail.
These ideas are all great but are these people setting themselves up for failure?
What is the truth about grant money? Could it be that there is “no grant money” for certain people to open a non-profit corporation? Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that there is no grant money available for non-profit organizations. But what I am saying is that there is very little grant money available for certain people and certain purposes. Everyone should do extensive research before opening their doors.
Grant money is extremely hard to retrieve because it comes from the state and federal government; therefore, it’s closely monitored. Even after filling out stacks of paperwork about your potential goals for your non-profit, it’s like winning the lottery. And if you are one of the lottery winners, there’s no guarantee that you will ever win it again.
You have to dig for this money and many people are not willing to do that. They are also not willing to pay others to do it either. Others will tell you they will dig for it for a fee only to get your money and your hopes up and leave you at the end with nothing.
Once you accept funds with your 501C3, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), (http://www.irs.gov/) aka “the government” has a hold on you.
The IRS is not there to assist you! The IRS is in a position to: 1) audit you at anytime, 2) close down your non-profit venture, or 3) send you to jail if they feel like it.
People who work in the non-profit sector make very little money and continue to have that “poor man’s mentality.” The only action plan they have is to open up these non-profit organizations and start to beg for grant money.
The grants that are passed out to a very few non-profits are so small that when these organizations run out of money, they refuse to pay their employees for 90 to 120 days.
Non-profits are just that not-for-profit. That means chances are you are going to end up spending your own money to make your non-profit work.
The options should not be to open a “not-for-profit” corporation but it should be to open a “for-profit” business.
The only way you will succeed with a non-profit corporation is to write a business plan and run it like a business.
Many people have actually put their lives on hold because they seriously think they can receive grant money. So in other words they have set themselves up for failure.
No one should ever depend on grant money to open or run a non-profit corporation.
Cathy Harris is a motivational speaker and business consultant. She is the author of book series “How To Take Control of Your Own Life” (http://www.howtotakecontrol.com)
