For Startup Organizations: Are You Ready To Start?

ARE YOU READY TO START A NONPROFIT CORPORATION?

All successful nonprofits started somewhere, and WAACO can help those organizations that show promise of success to step off on the right foot.  At the same time, there has been a a tremendous proliferation of new nonprofits incorporated in the last few years, many of which will not survive.  Before we ask a volunteer attorney to donate his or her time to assist your startup nonprofit, we want to make sure it is at the organizational stage where it is likely to be viable, and that there is a demonstrated community need for the services it will provide.  We require that a startup nonprofit organization do the following before applying for pro bono legal assistance through WAACO:

• Identify a board of at least three committed volunteers who are willing to donate time, money, community connections and/or other resources to the startup efforts.  These volunteers should be unrelated by blood or marriage, and should not anticipate becoming paid staff of the organization in the first year.
• Adopt a mission statement.
• Prepare a three-year budget that clearly shows how the nonprofit will fund startup costs and sustain ongoing expenses for the first three years.
• Prepare a business plan that at minimum:

1. Identifies the population to be served.
2. Describes the need or problem to be addressed, and how that need was determined.
3. Identifies what other organizations are doing the same or similar work in the community, and how the proposed organization differs from those other organizations.
4. Articulates clearly the program or services that the nonprofit will provide and how it will provide those services (answer "who, what, where, when, why, how").
5. Identifies specific fundraising sources to sustain the organization through its startup phase.

Executive Service Corps of Washington has also created a useful guide for your organization to review to determine whether you are ready to start a nonprofit.  This guide also contains a sample Business Plan.

to help your organization to review to determine whether you are ready to start a nonprofit.

Additional resources on business planning, including sample business plans include the Free Management Library or the Community Technology Centers' Network or the BulletProof Business Plans.

Additional resources are listed at this link.

If your organization has completed all of the above, and it needs assistance in incorporating as a Washington State nonprofit organization, preparing bylaws, and/or applying for 501(c)(3) status with the Internal Revenue Service, please fill out the Startup Application and return it by email to WAACO at contact@waaco.org, or by mail to PO Box 2134, Seattle, WA  98111-2134.

Your completed application must also be accompanied by a check for $50.00, payable to WAACO and mailed to WAACO at PO Box 2134, Seattle, WA 98111-2134.  This is a nonrefundable screening/placement fee.

Once a completed application and the application fee are received, it is referred to our screening committee who will review the materials and verify eligibility for legal assistance.  If your application is approved, you will receive notice of eligibility.  At that point, WAACO uses its best efforts to place the matter as soon as possible.  WAACO cannot guarantee it will find a volunteer or how long it may take for an attorney to volunteer.  Eligible startup organizations will be notified promptly when an attorney has volunteered to assist.  WAACO itself will not provide legal representation.  Your organization will need to sign an engagement letter with the volunteer attorney outlining the scope of the representation, and will work directly with that volunteer attorney.

For links to resources that may be useful to organizations in the startup phase, go to our Resources page.