It's Official!
I'm excited to let everyone know that just a few weeks ago, Wheel Truth Media received the letter of determination from the IRS stating that we are now a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. This means all received gifts are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
Now you might be thinking, “Why are you just now telling me this?” And that's a good question. It certainly would be nice to immediately accept donations at the moment that letter is received, but that is not entirely realistic. Many donation platforms require your 501(c)(3) status so you can get non-profit pricing and when the letter was received, I was still in the process of selecting which platform to use. You'd be amazed how many options there are for payment processing, accounting software, and donation management. That means that when I got the letter, I not only had to evaluate options, but I also had to present those options to the board of directors so we could discuss the pros and cons. Thankfully, I found an all-in-one solution that includes all of those functions and even some automation to make it easier.
But that's not all! If I'm going to receive donations, I must have a bank account to put them in. That means I had to research banks and their options and features for nonprofit organizations. I had already investigated that to some extent, but when I got the letter, the race was on! This filled my brain with swirling thoughts of opening deposits, minimum balances, interest rates, fees, etc, you get the picture. This was also another decision that the board had to make.
If you thought all that was complicated, wait till I tell you about the board meeting. So, there was a lot to prepare for our most recent meeting. In addition to the decisions I just mentioned, we also had to discuss some important policy updates centered on receiving donations and handling money. It probably took me two full days to prepare for this meeting. After all that preparation, it turned out that we couldn't meet as scheduled due to a couple of complications.
Just a few days before the meeting, I discovered that with a five-member board, if two people are related, one absence from the rest of the board disrupts quorum requirements. It boils down to this; the IRS does not like it when more than 49% of people are related at a board meeting. This wasn't going to be a problem until one of my board members started having major health issues. He said that he could not attend in person because of these issues though he could join by phone. Great, perfect. Problem solved! That is at least until he had to go to the ER about five hours before the meeting was scheduled. I was frantically searching for a solution and found a way to allow him to vote by proxy. We get all of this figured out, but thankfully he was discharged early enough and could still join by phone. Then last minute another board member got hung up and could not make it.
It's funny how life goes sometimes isn't it? Due to life's circumstances that no one can control, but especially these quorum requirements, we had to delay our meeting a week and a half. During that wait a board member resigned because of his health issues, and we elected a new board member. Once we finally held the meeting, I could start setting up the donation management software and bank accounts. I started doing all that last week. Early this week, I set up the donation page on our website.
Now, the day has come! Everything is configured and tested, and we are ready to receive donations!
