Hot answers tagged non-profit
9
I think your best bet early on is to start with the crowd funding websites like:
http://www.kickstarter.com/
http://rockethub.com/
http://www.pozible.com.au/index.php
http://www.quirky.com/
http://www.fundbreak.com.au/
http://www.catwalkgenius.com/
http://en.fansnextdoor.com/
http://www.indiegogo.com/
http://www.cofundos.org/
http://www.profounder.com/
...
7
What you are looking for is an "impact investor" also known as a "venture philanthropist" : some organization ready to invest on social impact rather than on financial return only. There are several such global organizations as well as some local ones. This field is quickly maturing.
Here are some of them :
Ashoka
Echoing Green
the members of The European ...
5
People in the shareware world have been testing your honesty hypothosis for many years. Every test has shown the same results. In general, people are very rarely (not most of the time, not even some of the time, but very rarely) honest given a purchase choice like you mentioned. They will almost always chose to pay $5 rather than $999, even when they know it ...
4
I can't speak for your country, but in the U.S. the term non-profit is really just a tax classification.
In the U.S. non-profit organizations are allowed to make a profit, just like any other business. The only difference is that non-profit organizations must spend all of their profits by the end of the year. So if through out the tax year, a non-profit ...
4
What a great question. I think that Rob has put together the exhaustive list of resrouces for crowd sourcing the launch of your nonprofit. That is one fantastic idea. Here are others.
Framing the Campaign to Raise
The key difference between sourcing launch capital for a for-profit and a not-profit is the desired return.
In a for-profit the desired return ...
3
I would be very careful about trying to dictate their beliefs. You say 'convince', but I would take into account your position over them: they are your employees--it can come across to them as dictating.
Trying to do this with employees, even (or especially) with people you call friends, could lead to a sticky and outright messy situation. I remember having ...
3
The best way you can convince someone of anything is to model it to them. If your employees see your desire to impact the world positively and they see you acting on it, they will take notice. This will have more impact on them than you know - much more than talking about it.
In the end, it is their choice whether they share you beliefs or not. If it is ...
3
Get hold of the handbook that says "Outside projects are allowed".
For the contract you have to be very careful, they shouldn't be able to retrosepcitvely include "pre-existing work" may say "for all new projects created beyond the date i sign, I will agree, but any prior art to this date is not subject to the agreement".
Ask to get a copy of the agreement ...
3
I can't comment here, so I will directly respond to Rob Allen who asked "why non profit" - there are a lot of reasons one might want to do this...
non profit does not mena no money or no salary - you can make a nice salary
exposure - depending ont he product or service, etc. you can get a lot more press or exposure with a non profit. Many new ...
3
@GaryE's suggestions are good. Another suggestion, if you don't want to change your pricing (or even if you do) is to only offer the $999 version automatically through the web site, and ask individuals and NPOs to contact you to order the software at the special price. Then you can ask them to prove they are not a business (of course a business can lie, ...
3
A non-profit or not-for-profit is any organization that by design does not distribute profit to shareholders but re-investments them in the mission of the company. A non-profit has a board accountable to it's members (can be the same group). They can have staff.
In the US you can declare yourself as a nonprofit by intent -- but this really means very ...
3
Just to clarify, when you say you:
My partner and I discussed business plans, premium services and what not, but finally decided to keep the project as completely non-profit
Makes me think you are using terminology different then I may use it. "Non-profit" does not have anything to do with bringing in revenue or charging people for your services. I ...
2
Non-profits have many great abilities however, and really can grow exponentially with working them. You have no taxes to pay, and you have in some ways infinite currency in the ability to grant tax credits for many donations. You would be amazed what you can get donated, stocks, real estate, other holdings, etc.
Of course this all depends on the non-profit ...
2
If it's a non-profit, you don't own it. You can never sell it or "cash out" in any other way. There is no equity position for you.
The paperwork and compliance issues are fairly straightforward, but can quickly get complex in a number of ways, for example if you are mixing in business that isn't clearly related to the charitable purpose.
The "Non-profits ...
2
In order to create the legal entity, you need to incorporate as a non-profit. This is not a lot different than creating a for profit, but there are a couple of differences.
First, you need to decide if it is a federal corporation or a provincial one. Usually, this depends if you operate only in one province (which could suggest a provincial corporation), or ...
2
Congratulations on your development of a software which can make the process of ranked-choice voting and IRV accessible to more organizations -- and hopefully municipalities. It was great to see your software as the #1 listing on the FairVote.org website. You decisions to maintain the open nature of your software will be welcomed by their members.
...
2
Learn from Wordpress and other successful open source projects, give away your software for free, but charge for support and other premium additionals like priority hosting. Revise your current licencing terms to perhaps draw a finer line between a commercial and non-commercial user.
Not everyone is a commercial user or large company that can afford to pay ...
2
It's easy to figure out your dilemma,
Software will be free for non-commercial use
Everyone is happy, even leave it open source doesn't matter. As soon as license is clear on commercial usage restrictions you can make money.
Your bigger problem is making money from such a niche subject. Possible you can by selling this to big places for big bucks, but ...
2
Your contribution in monetary terms is determined loosely by the salaries of other people in your position, with right/responsibilities similar to yours governing other 501(c)3s that are similar in size (by revenue or number of FT employees).
This valuation is specific to non-profits. If it were a for-profit company, you could value your contribution at ...
2
It’s important in a volunteer group and a start up to have:
A clear purpose of the organization.
Defined roles, responsibilities and organizational structure of the membership.
Clearly defined goals and the means to accomplish them.
Open communication within reason where everyone is heard and feel they are able to voice their ideas, opinions and concerns.
...
2
A non-profit is just a regular company, it just has to comply with additional set of rules to be eligible for non-profit, tax-exempt status. Those rules vary by state. See http://www.councilofnonprofits.org/howtostartanonprofit for the minimum basics on establishing a non-profit.
In that respect it doesn't matter where you are located, physically, as you ...
2
Nonprofits have a controlling board or members that vote and determain the financies of the organization. This has to be defined in your by-laws before you can be given nonprofit status. Due to the need for a board or members, they will decided when it is appropriate for you to recieve pay, and how much. You can sit on the board but you cannot be the only ...
1
I don't think creating a non-profit entity is going to help your chances much.
And don't think because your prospects are 'non-profit' that they don't have money. Non-profit's are sometimes in situations where they have to spend money.
Anyways, $5,000 is a pretty minor investment for any company / individual to put in for the development of a concept. You ...
1
Im with Alex.Having a culture and business mission is great for making sure employees and business decisions are all on the same track. But your questions comes across like "how can I make sure my employees are all Christians" (or similar).
Their beliefs about what programming is all about are not going to perfectly coincide with yours and it doesn't sound ...
1
As far as I know the 501c3 is only for Not For Profit organisations. See http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html for eligablity criteria.
If your a for profit organisation then you are an LLC or similar variant.
1
Non-profit
I've noticed there tends to be a lot of confusion around the term non-profit.
Non-profit is basically just a tax designation. All it means is that at the end of the year the business books must show a profit of $0. It does not mean that a non-profit cannot have income, charge for services rendered, or pay for services received. A non-profit ...
1
a website that provides a free service to a certain community (disability related). [...] run by a charitable foundation [...] there's no charge for the users of the site. [...] How might you arrive at a valuation for the site for purposes of a sale?
Ehmn, "0"?
I don't get it -- if the site
was created by a charitable foundation (which is probably ...
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