Customer Reviews

How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation in California

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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.

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!

This book has gotten us through filing papers with the Secretary of State. I haven't gotten into writing bylaws and filing tax forms yet--which should be much more challenging--but from skimming over those sections, I think I should be able to manage. I expect this book will have saved us hundreds, if not thousands of dollars in lawyer and accountant fees by the time our nonprofit is up and running.

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.

This was an excellent book, very well written for the layperson. The online links to further instruction and the CDROM were fabulous tools. I highly recommend this to an start-up non-profit.

This book has saved my theatre troupe hundreds of dollars. Easy to use and extremely helpful, it explains all of the legalease and other intricacies that go into filing for a 501c(3). A good for instance -

A friend recently filed for a 501c(3) for the same purpose as me (educational). Her filing fees and legal costs have totaled over $800.00. Mine, including the purchase of this book, are estimated at $300.00! That's a huge savings, especially for a small group like mine...

My wife and I helped start a non-profit organization and used this book as guidance for the state incorporation and IRS filings. The non-profit recently received 501(c)(3) approval with public charity status and we believe this book was instrumental in getting this accomplished.

We purchased this book early when thinking through starting the non-profit, so many early decisions were informed by this book's suggestions. For example, the book advises on choosing directors and structuring a NPO to make clear that you are not self-dealing.

This book won't work by itself -- whoever does the paperwork should have a good eye for detail and an ability to write. Don't think that this book makes it so easy that you just need to fill out a few forms with simple entries and you will have IRS approval. My wife's background as a paralegal and her college degree were helpful in getting this done. One of our NPO directors is also a paralegal and provided helpful advice on the final paperwork. Also, your charity should be set up with clearly stated purposes, and you should prepare yourself to address how those fit in with the IRS guidelines.

The book's instruction on getting public charity status is important to read and understand. For our desired IRS category, the book explains the need for a history of donations from many parties and/or the need to prepare a fundraising plan. This was very important advice and prepared us to have the charity structure and plan in place prior to filing.

In summary, this is a very good book that helped our organization to attain IRS public charity status without paying an attorney fees the charity could not afford. If you want to create a 501(c)(3) public charity, your organization needs a clearly charitable purpose that meets IRS standards, a board that doesn't create a climate for self-dealing, and a plan for or history of public fundraising. That, combined with a reader's willingness to follow instructions, to write clearly for the IRS, be detail-oriented, and seek outside proofreading and advice will help you gain approval.

The charity we used this book for is Christ and Cancer, a public charity that provides Christian encouragement and financial grants for families battling cancer and low-cost housing for patients at the Houston Medical Center / MD Anderson Cancer Center. http://www.christandcancer.org/

This book was a little wordy, even for someone who has incorporated a for-profit before. But the information is very consistent, and the forms provided and website references make this a very handy book to start with. Just make sure you want the right kind of 501(c)(3) that this book is written for first (public benefit), or he continually reinforces that this book is not right for you!

Using this book and the CDRom we were able to learn exactly what we needed to do and how to complete all the paperwork necessary to obtain our nonprofit status. It will be a wonderful reference as our group goes through the normal process of growth and change.

This book is an outstanding resource. Not only does it contain line-level detailed instructions as to the forms, but it guides you in thinking through your purpose and whether a public charity is right for your organization. As a retired CPA, I can appreciate Mancuso's thoroughness in covering the subject matter.