Product Description

The forms and information you need you need to give back to the community!

Thousands of arts groups, educators, social-service agencies and others have used How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation in California to organize. It's so easy to use, anyone can do it!

With a nonprofit corporation, you gain recognition, save money, become eligible for grants, and protect your members and directors from liability. And you can do all this without an attorney.

How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation in California includes complete instructions for obtaining federal 501(c)(3) tax-exemption and for qualifying for public charity status with the IRS. It also provides:

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #61147 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 2
• Binding: Paperback
• 376 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781413310276
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"A useful resource to help you get underway." (Entrepreneur )

"If you're thinking of forming a nonprofit corporation in California, you'll find this handbook invaluable." (MacUser 20080202)

"Includes examples of typical forms and formats for preparing the incorporating documents." (San Francisco Examiner )

About the Author
Anthony Mancuso is a corporations and limited liability company expert. He graduated from Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, is a member of the California State Bar, writes books and software in the fields of corporate and LLC law, and studies advanced business taxation at Golden Gate University in San Francisco. He has also been a consultant for Silicon Valley EDA (Electronic Design Automation) companies, most recently working on a C++ open-source integrated circuit database project team. He is the author of several Nolo books on forming and operating corporations (both profit and nonprofit) and limited liability companies. His titles include Incorporate Your Business, How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation (national and California editions), Form Your Own Limited Liability Company, The Corporate Records Handbook, and LLC or Corporation?. He wrote and programmed Nolo's LLC Maker and Incorporator Pro software programs, which generate state-by-state articles and other forms for organizing corporations and LLCs. His books and software have shown over a quarter of a million businesses and organizations how to form a corporation or LLC. He also is a licensed helicopter pilot and has performed for years as a guitarist in many musical idioms.

Customer Reviews

Excellent Step by Step Guide to Forming Your Non-Profit
This book is an excellent step by step guide for starting your non-profit corporation in California. The author does a lot of hand holding, which is especially helpful when it comes to filing your 1023 with the IRS which establishes your tax exempt status as a 501(c)(3) organization.

So here is what you will get out of the book:

1)Should you form a non-profit or a regular business?
He discusses the advantages and disadvanges of a non-profit.

2)501(c)(3)- What is it, do you qualify?
He goes in to detail on if your organization's purpose and activities qualifies you as a 501(c)(3) non-profit with all of its tax advantages. This is a key and important consideration. He also goes into the detail about the structure of your organization- the directors, officers, and how officer's/director's salaries and family affliations might affect non-profit status. He gives plenty of examples, which I found very helpful.

(3)Step by Step filing of articles of incorporation with the State of California.
He gives sample articles of incorporation for "public benefit corporations", which a general category as well as religious corporations. He give plenty of information on how to modify these articles to your individual needs.

(4)Step by Step creation of Bylaws. Again, discussion of each point in the bylaws with suggestions for modification to suit your needs.

(5)Filing for tax exempt status with the State of California and the IRS. This is potentially the most daunting part of the process, but I found that he takes you through it slowly, step by step, to make it as painless as possible although I am sure it is still a somewhat painful process.

(6)Finally he takes you through how to keep corporate records, and conducting your first board of directors meetings.

All of the forms, sample bylaws, articles of incorporation, IRS instructions, etc. are found on the CD rom that comes with the book.

What the book doesn't provide:

--Some practical and common questions did remain unanswered. For example, Lets say you pour seed money into a non-profit corporation, from your own pocket, to pay for travel, meetings, conferences and other promotional activity. Is this tax deductable to you?

--Doesn't offer very much guidance of where there are free university and other resources for new non-profits. This would have been very helpful.

Perhaps both of these like that are beyond the scope of the book.

If you are looking for a book that will give you an very good understanding the structure of a non-profit corporation and a practical step by step guide of how to form one and fill out the proper paperwork, I highly recommend this book.

Esential for staring a nonprofit organization
I am working with a group in Sacramento to start a nonprofit French cultural group and school. Others suggested this jewel from Nolo press and it has been extrodinary. Initially, I checked it out from the library and found it so useful, I am purchasing it. The CD ROM provides all form letters and forms essential to register the organization. From state tax exemption, to federal tax exemption, to establishing a name and reduced tarriff postage, it's all there. They also provide step by step instructions to completing the dizzying federal tax exemption forms which will reduce days of your prep time. I strongly recommend this book!

Does What an Attorney Does For LOTS Less Money
If you go to an attorney to get him to set up a corporation, he will ask you a bunch of questions, write down the answers and get his secretary or paralegal to type these answers into their standard corporation form on their word processor. She will then press the print button and you get billed for a thousand dollars or so.

Anthony Mancuso is a corporations corporations attorney licensed to practice law in California. He decided to take his standard corporate form and put it out in the form of a book. In the book he will ask you a bunch of questions, taking the time to point out the alternatives (that a lawer probably doesn't do unless asked. You then take his standard corporation form (supplied on a CD) and fill in the answers. Files these with the appropriate offices and you have a corporation for only the filing fees the state charges.

The forms used here have been used thousands of time to form California corporations. This is the eleventh edition of this book, it reflects the latest changes in California law. Non-profits never have any money. Doing this work yourself will literally save the corporation hundreds of dollars that your organization probably doesn't have.