[hackerspaces] Examples of IRS 1023 froms Nonprofit Makerspaces

[Alan Fay]

On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 10:45 AM, Robert Davidson <
robert at dallasmakerspace.org> wrote:

> I hate to state the obvious but if this determination letter Go's though
> and is approved. It is a game changer, it will be the determination letter
> that all Makerspace's hackerspaces fablabs will be judged against.
>
> And will set the tone for all who come after and before (eligibility
> audit).
>

I don't think this is how the approval process works.  It's not a court,
with a judge and prior case law or anything like that.

My understanding is that you apply, your application is reviewed by one
group to determine if you completed it correctly (all documentation
present, applying for correct status), and if "pre-approved" - it moves on
to the stage where you have a reviewer assigned to you.  Then that reviewer
will actually read your documents and either make the determination or ask
for follow-up and more information.

Without seeing MakeHaven's application, it's unclear what may have shifted
the opinion of the reviewer towards recommending a 501(c)4 vs. 501(c)3
designation.

Once you're at the stage where you have a reviewer, the process should be
reaching completion.  I'm not a non-profit expert or lawyer or anything
like that, but my experience with Freeside's 501(c)3 application was simply
to call the reviewer to introduce myself and ask if they needed anything
further from me.  That seemed to get the process moving again and got us
our letter of determination faster.

The agency responsible for 501(c)3 application recently got a lot of flak
over the whole "denying status to politically oriented non-profits" fiasco
from early 2013, so of course applications are getting more scrutiny.
 These folks are used to people taking combative tones with them,
threatening legal action, and on top of that, probably have a huge backlog
of work to deal with.  Thinking of it in combative terms of a "battle" or a
"war" is, at best, going to slow down the process, if not outright anger
your reviewer.  Being patronizing is also a bad idea.  You probably do know
more than the application reviewer on a number of subjects.  However, the
reviewer has all the leverage and can hold your application hostage.

Try being super friendly and helpful, first.  Be nice.  Sometimes
bureaucracy is aggravating and it seems like the people on the other end of
the phone "don't get it."  The process seems opaque and needlessly complex,
but it's actually pretty straightforward given all the types of cases they
have to deal with.  Exercise a little patience and take an honest
assessment of your communication skills.  If the message isn't getting
through, then try to find somebody in your community that is much better at
communication to handle conversations with the reviewer.

By all means, seek some legal advice - it looks like your pro bono lawyer
sees something in the application and that's why they recommend taking a
look at what other organizations did.  It helps to remember to write
concisely - say only as much as you need to get your point across.

Thanks,
Alan
Director/Treasurer, Freeside Atlanta
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