Starting a Nonprofit Webinar Series, Session II: Form the Corp

Patrick McWhortor, President & CEO of the Alliance of Arizona Nonprofits will offer unique insights and advice from someone who started two nonprofits in recent years and has experience in leadership of several local and national nonprofits.  The four-part webinar series will cover:


• Basic nonprofit organizational and legal concepts
• Steps in planning the formation of a nonprofit
• Alternative approaches to serving your mission
• Resources for starting and supporting a nonprofit
• Basic practices for building a board of directors
• Practical advice and tips for nonprofit start-ups

Webinar took place on Oct 20th, 2011
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM
Listened to recording today

In Session 2 of our Starting a Nonprofit Webinar Series, you will learn the 6 Steps to the formation of your nonprofit and meeting legal requirements.
 
My Takeaways:

Step 1 - Evaluate the Decision

Why?

1. Mission
2. Need - reinforcing assets in the community
3. Innovation
4. Passioni

Why Not?

1. Why not for profit?
2. Nonprofit market analysis - competition
3. Collaboration - look for a home first/Incubation (Member Match)
4. Incubation Option
5. Fiscal sponsorship?

When?

• Ecomonic climate
• Political climate
• Nonprofit climate

~ Find Expertise:

• Business planning
• IRS
• Professionals: attorney and accountant

~ Nonprofit capacity building:

• www.asu.edu/copp/nonprofit
• http://www.oneaz.org/
• http://www.nonprofitquarterly.org/

Step 2 - Planning

Business Plan

• Financial model
• Resource development plan
• Marketing plan
• Pilot Phase
• Incubation

Where does the money come from?

• Donations
• Government
• Earned income

~ Infrastucture

• Restricted funds
• Investment capital vs operationg
• Administrative/fundraising costs
• Accountability

~ Board Development

• Role of Board
• Founders
• Incorporating board

~ Stakeholders

• Community support
• Volunteers

Step 3 - Incorporation

• Legal formation
• Corp name research
• Corporation Commission - Articles of Incorp, Bylaws, etc.
• Secretary of State - solicitatation registration
• IRS tax exemption: Form 1023 application

~ Fundraising

• Solicitation
• Registration

Music to my ears...

Music Around the World Free Arts Day

When: Saturday, May 7^th, 2011 from 9 am – 1 pm

Where: The Musical Instrument Museum

I'm a volunteer for Free Arts AZ and on this rare occasion, I actually got to participate in a Free Arts Day at the Musical Instrument Museum. This featured a drumming workshop with renown Free Arts of Arizona Professional Teaching Artist, Frank Thompson. It was so. Much. Fun. The MIM is a spectacularly beautiful facility. We didn't get to go through the whole thing, of course. That would take too long. But we got a quick tour, got a chance to play some instruments in the hands-on area, created a handmade castanet (out of beads, tiny rocks, string, and pill cups) and participated in a drumming circle.

So. Much. Fun. I love volunteering with Free Arts AZ.

Month of the Military Child Recognition Day

Arizona Operation Military Kids in partnership with the Arizona National Guard Family Programs presents…


MONTH OF THE MILITARY CHILD RECOGNITION DAY
Saturday, April 9th 11:00am – 4:00pm


This event is for the whole Family and includes a picnic-style lunch, an AZNG VIP welcome, plus interactive activity stations hosted by various military and community partners.

Events include a rock wall, static educational displays, ball toss, F-16 simulator, fire truck, crafts & much, much more!

Join us as we salute our Military Youth and their Families!

This event is FREE! Pre-registration required. Visit www.jointsupportservices.org for registration information
This event is open to all current Military Families　
All Branches - Active Duty, Guard and Reserves
--------------------------
I volunteered for the morning shift, 9-12, for this event today and nearly froze. My. Butt. Off. The weather was supposed to warm!

What we got was cold and rain. There were supposed to be more vendors there, and an Apache helicopter was supposed to land there, but some of the vendors bailed (due to the weather) and the 'copter couldn't get clearance to leave its location. Which kinda sucked. I would've enjoyed seeing that.

The Phoenix Suns Gorilla was supposed to show up, as was Howler, the Phoenix Coyotes mascot, but I don't know if they showed. A slightly paunchy Spiderman was there, too, which I thought I was hilarious.

I was in the registration area, so at least we were covered, and we put together a lot of good bags for the kids: journals, stickers, suckers, canteens, caribiners, pens, pencils, pins, hats, CDs...tons of stuff. And they had some goodies to raffle off, too. Including Build A Bear animals! Too cute. I hope more people came in the afternoon and signed up for that raffle because there was A LOT of cool stuff.

When I got home, I stood underneath a hot shower for 15 mins to get warm. I'm so glad I wore a turtleneck, sweatshirt and coat. I even had gloves on and I was still cold! I felt sorry for other people who showed up in just short sleeve shirts and hoodies. One college kid showed up in long basketball shorts! Definitely not warm clothing. Crazy, it's like these people don't check the weather before leaving the house.

Still I had fun participating. A few people from my job were there on the same shift as me and I got a chance to meet other people from different organizations as well as people who came out to support family service members. Pretty cool

Welcome to The Write Zone

My name is Celise Colston and I'm an undergrad student at Prescott College getting my degree in Nonprofit Management. I'm also an indie author who writes young adult fiction (www.celisedowns.com). By indie I mean "self-published". Way back in 2001-2002, I created my own company, Gemini Mojo Press, to publish all the books I would write. In 2008, I closed GMP and decided that I wanted to publish the work of aspiring teen writers. That spawned another company, Youthful Wisdom Press. During it's short-lived reign, I didn't publish any books by teen writers.

Because by then, I figured out another way I could inspire teens who love to write: by providing a place just for them to learn about all the different forms of writing--from full-length novels to screenplays. Creative writing is a dying art that is no longer available in public schools. Untapped talent is being squandered. Imaginations are being stifled. I believe that teens will always have a story to tell and should have an opportunity--and a place--to express it.

And eventually they will.

At a place called The Write Zone.

I wanted this place to be special and you really can't get any more special than a nonprofit. But I knew nothing about the nonprofit sector from a business standpoint. Only from a volunteer perspective. I've always wanted to go back to school, but never felt motivated to do so until my best friend told me about Prescott College. There, I could create my own degree plan and get the hands-on guidance I needed from experts in the field. So I closed Youthful Wisdom Press in 2009 and began my journey...

I am now in my second year of school and will finish in September 2012. As I've gone through this undertaking, the idea of The Write Zone has manifested in many different ways. In all of my school assignments to date, I've been referring to my future organization as "The Write Place", because I see my NP  in a Victorian house (like Hugo House). The more I thought about it, the more I began to realize that, while that may be pretty cool, what if it doesn't happen? What if it doesn't end up residing in a "place", but a place within a "space" or a small corner of the Internet? Writing isn't about the physical place you go to write, it's about the inner place that makes you want to write.

For us writers, that's called The Zone.

Hence the new name.

On this blog, I plan to chronicle the journey of opening my nonprofit--from education to grand opening. I'll be writing about the successes, lessons learned, A-ha moments, and epic fails---all the while hoping that I'll be entertaining and imparting knowledge to the public at large.

The most talked about categories will be:

• In Session - stuff I'm learning in my courses at Prescott College (including my mentors) and other continued education resources.
• Sector Knowledge  - stuff I'm learning through conferences, workshops, seminars, forums, networking, retreats, etc.
• A Little Reading - books and/or articles I've read.
• I Signed Up - my volunteering experiences.

Everything else is gravy. I hope you join me for this wonderful experience and provide your $1.50 (inflation and all) when it comes to advice, suggestions, tips and whatnot regarding the nonprofit sector.

And when the time comes, and you happen to live in the Valley of the Sun, stop by The Write Zone and say hello. :)