I want to start an online charity will patreon work?

[Beamin]

I want to start a charity for the victims of all the BS that's going on in America right now. I have a domain picked out and have a general idea but was wondering how the money end works? Figured there are people here who live off the internet so I think you guys could help and you would also be kind of donating to the charity by helping me out.

I have two requirements:

I want it to be anonymous; people can use their real names if they like but I don't want to take any credit for it. I feel all charity should be like that but that's just me.

I want people to also be able to make one time donations as well. Patreon doesn't seem like it likes that.

Also I want as much money to go to the charity as possible so fees are to be taken into consideration. I would like it to be accountable so people can see its for real and all the money goes 100% to the people. None of this business like the redcross where they have advertising and other BS expenses like paying the board $47832948923 a year or holding the funds (I'm looking at you again red cross and wondering when Haiti is going to get that hurricane money?)

[Zero999]

Firstly you should start with a specific goal or objective. "The victims of all the BS that's going on in America right now" is pretty loose. What BS? As far as I know, there's lots of it. The lack of proper healthcare for the poor? People being killed by gangs? Innocent, more often than not black, people shot by police?

[Brumby]

Before you start worrying about how to raise funds, I'd be checking the legal requirements for setting up a charity - even something low-key.

Since there is going to be money involved, there will have to be accountability ... and probably a whole lot more.

[roffvald]

You'll really want to make some more research into what you actually want to achieve, you'll also want to look into a 501(c)(3) excemption. https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-section-501-c-3-organizations

[Bud]

POTUS needs no help from stinkin' charities.

[IanMacdonald]

Yep, I suppose it's not relevant to the mechanics of setting up a charity, but I think you have to be clear what's meant by BS if you want people to support it.

I mean, it could stand for Bataclan Shooting, and as far as I'm concerned, any reasonable measures to stop that kind of activity are not (the other kind of) BS.

 

[cdev]

Take a look at how organizations like Guidestar evaluate charities. Also, (gathering that you live in the US) Nolo Press might have some books on setting up a nonprofit.


Quote from: Beamin on Today at 08:56:29

I want to start a charity for...

[Beamin]

POTUS needs no help from stinkin' charities.

Its because of him: its for the people who were run over and the family of the girl that was killed by neonazi terrorists last weekend. I have a domain ready for them that I already bought. Its to help with their medical bills and time lost from work and emotional stress.

[Brumby]

While the circumstances are unfortunate and your motives might be honourable, there will be several impediments to you being able to start this up as a brand new concern.

As an example, there is the issue of ensuring the "charity" is not an excuse for someone to rort money out of others for their own personal gain.  The unscrupulous will try this on, so there is a duty of care by the authorities to make sure it's all above board.

Try starting something without the proper approvals ... and watch your world come crashing down.


You might be better off trying to enrol the aid of an established concern who will handle all the financial and regulatory requirements and are happy for you to do the rallying.

[MarkS]

Try IndieGoGo. The charity doesn't even need to be legitimate.

[cdev]

Just be honest.

 Most NGOS are honest. But, unfortunately, many also aren't. As legitimate business is squeezed out by the damands for higher and higher profits by speculation, charities have grown as a source of outsourcing-and globalization-proof jobs- (along with 'national security', especially when its privatized, which has some similar issues)

They are one of the biggest rackets around in the US due to our "hands off" approach to taking care of the ever growing numbers left behind.

This is seen as appalling by Europeans and many others who feel that its the governments responsibility to do many of the things charities in the US are supposed to do. But disinvestment/services liberalization has meant that public services are being dismantled due to international agreements to let corporations have their turn, leaving nobody to help the poor.
This is because starting January 1, 1995, major limits were placed on what governments can do by the WTO GATS agreement, and they basically had to come up with a timetable and plan to end doing even that. ("progressive liberalisation" its called)

Despite the growing need, you'll find that too many well-established "charities" when it comes down to it, don't or even won't do important things needed to solve the problems they are claiming to want to solve.

If they did they often argue things like "they would lose their corporate funding", but the fact is, if government did its job, many NGOs would not be needed at all.
 

In the coming years, NGOs could be the main dysfunctional face seen of some real disasters by large portions of the American public, and as people in the developing world know, thats a truly awful situation to be in. Because there is ZERO accountability.

No matter how many trade deals they sign and how many services are auctioned off to multinational corporations, responsibility is ultimately demanded of governments (and if the electorate fails to pick up on something they do, it often ends up paying.) 

Corporations are designed to shield investors and leave the public with the bill for their mistakes.

Even though corporations can have their assets sold off (but often only after they have been already stripped of assets and left a debt ridden shell) they can leave problems which cause massive losses to a population, as when the environment and peoples health is destroyed.

As you pointed out NGOs do also often siphon off lots of $$$. Especially in "emergencies". But then again, so do various "emergencies" elicit extreme levels of looting elsewhere. (see image below)

[Ampera]

Hot damn, this topic seems about ready to catch fire in a flame war.

[cdev]

There are big differences between what various legal forms of charities can do.


Quote from: roffvald on 2017-08-16, 12:26:52

You'll really want to make some more research into what you actually want to achieve, you'll also want to look into a 501(c)(3) excemption.

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/exemption-requirements-section-501-c-3-organizations

[Beamin]

While the circumstances are unfortunate and your motives might be honourable, there will be several impediments to you being able to start this up as a brand new concern.

As an example, there is the issue of ensuring the "charity" is not an excuse for someone to rort money out of others for their own personal gain.  The unscrupulous will try this on, so there is a duty of care by the authorities to make sure it's all above board.

Try starting something without the proper approvals ... and watch your world come crashing down.


You might be better off trying to enrol the aid of an established concern who will handle all the financial and regulatory requirements and are happy for you to do the rallying.

How do you know this? It almost sounds like you speak from experience or assumptions.

At the malls in America there are these people who are supper pushy sales "kids" that try to get you to donate to a charity like good will. When I asked them more about this told me they were a for profit company that raises money for charity. I told them that by not giving all the money to the charity they're essentially stealing from the needy. "Oh but if we weren't out here the charity would get nothing" That maybe true but that's just wrong. Like when a place asks for a donation but they say "donation are not tax deductible" That's a big red flag.

I never donate to the red cross anymore because last I checked it was three years after an earthquake in Haiti and the CEO said "We are waiting for the right time to give to the victims". The right time was the day it happened. By now the people have rebuilt or cut their losses and moved on.Best thing to do is give directly to a small charity.   

[cdev]

I always find myself referring to the nonprofit "industry" because thats really what it is. And fixing whatever problem their development efforts revolve around is sometimes it seems the very last thing they really want to do.  "We would lose our corporate funding" one person who I spoke with last year told me, when I asked her why didn't they tell the truth on something important, and its true, they would.

Politics are like that too. certain big problems are such consistent vote getters were they to do their job and fix them they would have to come up with actual ideas and solutions for much more than they do today. I hate to say that but the facts speak for themselves.

[Brumby]

While the circumstances are unfortunate and your motives might be honourable, there will be several impediments to you being able to start this up as a brand new concern.

As an example, there is the issue of ensuring the "charity" is not an excuse for someone to rort money out of others for their own personal gain.  The unscrupulous will try this on, so there is a duty of care by the authorities to make sure it's all above board.

Try starting something without the proper approvals ... and watch your world come crashing down.


You might be better off trying to enrol the aid of an established concern who will handle all the financial and regulatory requirements and are happy for you to do the rallying.

How do you know this? It almost sounds like you speak from experience or assumptions.

No single source.

It comes from several simple things - like watching the news; seeing the hoops a local church group is going through for a food distribution effort; a healthy cynicism about people who would be happy to rip off the community for their own gain - not to mention the expectation I have that government should be well and truly involved in keeping such organisations honest and accountable for the benefit of those that support the charity as well as those the charity purports to assist.

Without some third party involvement to vet any "charity" efforts, the difference between an individual who is passionate about a genuine cause and one who is genuinely passionate about lining their own pockets is going to be imperceptible.  That's a bipartisan political football that begs for action.

Besides ... what bureaucracy wouldn't enjoy spreading their net across such opportunities...?

[ez24]

redcross where they have advertising and other BS expenses like paying the board $47832948923 a year or holding the funds (I'm looking at you again red cross and wondering when Haiti is going to get that hurricane money?)

$47,832,948,923

This is about 48 billion, seems too high.  BUT I live in San Diego which is a big city but not the biggest.  The local Red Cross chief makes over $500,000 a year (there was a local news story about the person taking the job about 4 years ago)!  This is just one person in one city.  I guess it is possible Red Cross pays themselves 48 billion. 

The Red Cross does one thing well and that is pay their big wigs well.   They will never get a penny from me.

[iampoor]

If you are forming a charity in the USA and you want to stay small, you want to qualify under the 501 (c)3 ez-file program. Yes I have expierence with this, and was part of a small successful charity that used this method.

[cdev]

In the United States you should be able to get the "form 990" of any charity you have questions about, that is the financial statement they all need to file every year.

Its public information.

[Beamin]

redcross where they have advertising and other BS expenses like paying the board $47832948923 a year or holding the funds (I'm looking at you again red cross and wondering when Haiti is going to get that hurricane money?)

$47,832,948,923

This is about 48 billion, seems too high.  BUT I live in San Diego which is a big city but not the biggest.  The local Red Cross chief makes over $500,000 a year (there was a local news story about the person taking the job about 4 years ago)!  This is just one person in one city.  I guess it is possible Red Cross pays themselves 48 billion. 

The Red Cross does one thing well and that is pay their big wigs well.   They will never get a penny from me.

I meant $498712984793287493832 that's how I came up with the first number. Here is another:$384750984735892473

[cdev]

Where did you get these figures?


Quote from: Beamin on Today at 19:33:48

The Red Cross does one thing well and that is pay their big wigs well.   They will never get a penny from me.

I meant $498712984793287493832 that's how I came up with the first number. Here is another:$384750984735892473

[Old Don]

To set up a charity where donors can take a tax credit for donating you need to set up a 501C3 non-profit corporation. Normally you start with creating a set of bylaws and a constitution and apply to your state (method varies for each state) and then get a EIN number from the IRS. The bylaws spell out the purpose, the number of board members and details on the usage for the money. Board and other personnel may be all volunteers or paid. Getting a Guidestar rating helps with fund raising since many larger companies screen their donations based upon Guidestar. No Guidestar ratings and you are SOL for getting one of the companies to give you a grant. Plus most larger companies issue grants only one or a couple times a year and you need to wait and hope they select your charity.

But since there's so many good charities now, why not just support an existing one? Unless you wish to pay yourself lots of bucks and pass on only a few percent to the group at the end. In that case, apply to Wounded Warriors or Red Cross - they've got that covered now!

Salvation Army or the American Legion's National Emergency Fund (NEF) are two charities with little overhead. You can use Charity Navigator to pick charities with little overhead too.

If you use Amazon, then logging into their Smile Amazon home page allows you to pick a charity and then about 0.5% of all your purchases goes to the charity of your choice without costing you any extra over their normal home page log-on.

[ez24]

If you use Amazon, then logging into their Smile Amazon home page allows you to pick a charity and then about 0.5% of all your purchases goes to the charity of your choice without costing you any extra over their normal home page log-on.

Never heard of this so now I am checking it out   

https://smile.amazon.com/

[Old Don]

Unless a charity is properly set up there's no way of knowing where the money is going. GuideStar is one way if investigating a charity and they make their money off big companies trying to not get ripped off with fake charities. I'm the post commander of the local American Legion post and so have investigated charities and how to raise money for our post and for the Legion programs to help local vet's and youth. Veteran organizations are 501.c19's and a lot of large companies only donate grant money to 501C3's and this puts a lot of pressure on veteran organizations. Our post took the time to get GuideStar rated and wanted Amazon to allow us to be in the smile program. But so far they are not allowing us to be one of the charities listed. Our post supports a lot local children and youth programs along with veteran programs and 100% of the money passes through us since we all war time veterans and volunteer our time. There's no salaries.

If interested in the national American Legion charities, see:   https://www.legion.org/donate  plus:     https://www.legion.org/programs

[cdev]

I've been using Guidestar for years and thats not unusual. (NGOs not paying anybody)  Its not unusual at all.


Quote from: Old Don on Today at 20:08:47

Unless a charity is properly set up there's no way of knowing where the money is going. GuideStar is one way if investigating a charity and they make their money off big companies trying to not get ripped off with fake charities. I'm the post commander of the local American Legion post and so have investigated charities and how to raise money for our post and for the Legion programs to help local vet's and youth. Veteran organizations are 501.c19's and a lot of large companies only donate grant money to 501C3's and this puts a lot of pressure on veteran organizations. Our post took the time to get GuideStar rated and wanted Amazon to allow us to be in the smile program. But so far they are not allowing us to be one of the charities listed. Our post supports a lot local children and youth programs along with veteran programs and 100% of the money passes through us since we all war time veterans and volunteer our time. There's no salaries.

If interested in the national American Legion charities, see: 

https://www.legion.org/donate  plus:     https://www.legion.org/programs