Instructions for Form 1023 Part I (1) Identification of Applicant

Kind of a no-brainer but apparently not. You have to use the full name of your organization. If your organization is called “Bread For Dummies Corp.” don’t write “Bread For Dummies Corporation.” Use the correct name all the time in every reference.

In this section list the name of your representative officer so all communications are done through one person. This way you don’t have to chase down your board members to find out who got mail.

A post office box is the best option as it will be less likely for your dog to chew your determination letter. Also PO BOX is a good idea because you can direct all your mails to a single address. Unless you already have an office and you do get your mails there, consider using a mail box to be safe.

You should already have your EIN, see What is an EIN and how to get one for your 501c3 nonprofit if you don’t.

It’s entirely up to your board to set your fiscal year. It can be January, March, or any other months. It’s a good idea to set your fiscal year to December 31^st so every accounting period ends with the actual year.

Use the agent you listed in the section b on this page. Keep that person the same throughout the application.

If you are starting your organization out of your home or actually care about succeeding with your mission, you need a website. There’s no way around it.  Not later, not tomorrow, but now. You need to have it up and running before you submit your application. Your organization’s website is your image for the IRS, where they can find more information and see if you actually mean business. Your website is your real office.

You can run an organization out of a garage with a well built website, but you can’t reach out to potential audience and donors without it. Think of it this way; how many of you have ever been to Google headquarter, and how many of you have been to Google website? It also serves as your medium for transparency, and publicly sharing your organizational documents which are required by law. Please see Tax Exempt Organizations Public Disclosure Requirements to see what documents you have to make available for public inspection.

Not only that, the IRS explicitly instructs its examiners of your application to review the exempt organization’s website for existence of required disclosure for tax deductibility on your donation page.

Here you should list the name of all your directors and their corresponding contact information. If you need to add more directors, I suggest to use my attachment rather than using the box provided.

There is no minimum number for directors in a nonprofit organization set by the Federal Government, but the IRS wants to see that the organization is managed by a qualified and diverse board of directors. A good nonprofit board of directors should at least have four or five directors and preferably from both sexes. If you have two directors that are on the board who are related to each other, you need to count them as only one (1), and up the umber of directors to 6 or 7.

The more caring your board is, the better the outcome of your nonprofit organization will be. Distribution of power is what the IRS has in mind, and a two or three member board of directors does not guarantee that. Directors of a nonprofit organization CAN NOT be compensated for their board duties.

• Nonprofit Articles of Incorporation,
• Nonprofit Bylaws,
• Nonprofit Conflict of Interest Policy,
• Conflict of Interest Policy Acknowledgment,
• Form 1023 Attachment with all the answers,
• Form 1023 Expedite Letter template,
• and Donor Contribution Form