Starting your own Nonprofit? Here’s how NPCG can help...

Your passion about a cause or industry has led you to this exciting moment.  As you focus on the next steps, let Nonprofit Consulting Group (NPCG) be your working partner to prepare the compliance documents required to create and maintain a new nonprofit.

We offer a complete, start-up package that includes:

·    Reserving the desired nonprofit name in the desired state of incorporation

·    Drafting, filing, and publishing articles of incorporation

·    Obtaining a tax identification number

·    Drafting customized By-Laws

·    Drafting organizational meeting minutes with required resolutions

·    Drafting various governance policies the IRS recommends as applicable including, conflict of interest, gift acceptance, document retention and destruction, joint venture, fundraising, compensation, and travel and expense reimbursement

·    Drafting and filing the Form 2848 Power of Attorney

·    Drafting and filing the IRS exemption application (either Form 1023 or 1024) and related statements

·    Representation before the IRS and response to any IRS follow-up questions

·    Drafting certain ancillary documents that may be called for by the business plan including scholarship guidelines, grant agreements, and resource sharing agreements

·    Providing an Action List of start-up tasks

·    Providing a Board Action Calendar summarizing key governance and compliance deadlines

·    Providing a letter detailing the laws and operational restrictions that govern the organization’s activities

Our typical timeline for project completion can be two to three weeks from date of agreement.This includes reviewing the information you’ve provided and clarifying any additional questions you or we may have about your plans.Then we begin preparing articles of incorporation, bylaws and organizational meeting minutes, governance policies, along with the required IRS forms. Once drafts have been prepared, they will be sent to you for review and approval prior to filing with the IRS.

What happens next?

Once the application is filed, the IRS typically takes approximately three weeks to acknowledge its receipt and begin the screening process. Should they determine the application does not raise issues of fact or law, completion will take within a few weeks to a few months. Should the IRS have issues or concerns, a reviewer will be assigned to the application. Current processing times for applications assigned to a reviewer are posted on the IRS its website at(cut and paste the link below to your web browser):

The IRS’s determination of exemption will be retroactive to your date of formation provided the organization files its Form 1023 Application for Recognition of Exemption within 27 months of the date the entity is legally formed, and is ultimately successful in obtaining tax-exempt status.  To raise funds prior to the date the IRS determination letter is issued, new entities like yours should explain to potential donors that an application for tax-exempt status is pending. Donors who claim a charitable contribution deduction for their gifts before then take the risk of an adverse IRS decision.

Organizations whose status is pending can apply for grant funding and either defer acceptance of the grant if the grant-maker is willing or find a fiscal sponsor. A fiscal sponsor is a recognized charitable organization that is willing to offer legal and fiscal sponsorship of the project until the organization receives its tax-exempt status.