Permaculture non-profit dreaming

There has been mention of forming a non-profit entity that promotes permaculture. This is just an exercise in what some of the staff mentioned in a fictitious non-profit that would support permaculture in the State of Montana. We're using Wheaton labs and Montana as just a name holder since it is an already established educational permaculture entity. Wheaton labs has ideas that a non-profit could build on, so these ideas are specific to supporting  Permies but not limited to Permies. This non-profit could support other entities. This is just a what-if game, but I'd like to run through the process of how a non -profit is formed in this discussion. The first step is developing the language that is concise and specific to the non-profits purpose. There is no current plan nor intent to create this vision at this time. This exercise might end up being a road map to a non-profit in the future.   Some staff have been or are involved in non-profits that promote or benefit other entities. We're starting with "what we are" and then a discussion on incorporation and By-law creation to support a non-profit request/creation.

For this particular conversation let's establish some givens:
I)  Established and incorporated in Montana.
2) Wheaton Labs being a benefactor but not exclusive to Wheaton Labs.
3) Initially operated by volunteers but with the hope that expansion would lead to compensated personnel.

Some of the things that we came up with follow.  We being the non-profit.

We want to promote permaculture education.

We want to be able to underwrite educator's travel. This would include Wheaton staff off campus travel and travel of other educator's either on campus or to a permaculture event elsewhere.

We want to underwrite events at Wheaton labs or other locations that promote Permaculture.

We want to be able to help finance improvements/experiments at Wheaton Labs or other locations. Tooling as well as material

We want to be a vehicle that applies for grants to further Permaculture.

We want to create a vehicle that can accept property donations and with direction from the donor ensure that the property is taken care of according to the donor direction. The main goal not being to hold the properties but to pass the properties on to good stewards. This would not preclude the non-profit accepting property as an asset to further the effort. Those properties held by the non-profit could be used as teaching properties, essentially Wheaton led labs or sub campuses. Always keeping in mind, the donors wish.

I think that covers most of what has been shared so far. I do think we would need to look at some local (meaning Montana initially) entities whose ideas parallel Wheaton Labs values. The non-profit supporting, even in a small way, an outside venue would be an attention generator. It could be as simple as organizing a "Farm to Fork" event. Farmer's Market support?  The first ripple of the pebble in the water, spreading out from there as successes accrue.

Do you have any additions?

Robert, can you tell me why a person would want to set up a non-profit enity?

Who would benefit from setting up a non-profit rather than an LLC?

Is an LLC easier to do than a non-profit or are they two separate entities or statuses?

I have read a lot on the Internation Community Forum about people setting up bylaws and agreements so how would these folks benefit from a non-profit vs. an LLC?

Hi Robert,

Of course,  you will need a board of directors. I think the minimum is 3 in Montana.   Are you going for tax exempt status?  If you do, I would suggest that thought be given for the NPO to be used as a vehicle for the transfer of property from Otises to Skip participants.  

A non-profit serves the public interest a Permie non-profit would be an entity that is educational. Similar to Wheaton Labs. An LLC can be a non-profit but not all are, A non-profit is a corporation where LLC non-profits are kinda new and not the same state by state. The language is similar in the formation of both. So, in this exercise developing the language with a few tweaks would be very similar and could be used to form either one. LLC Articles of Organization are a broader than a non-profit. A non-profit not quite as flexible as an LLC.

Being a non-profit could be a vehicle to accept and transfer properties to Skip's. Would being a non-profit be an encouragement to receive a donation, perhaps depending on the donor's circumstance. In the wind up prior to creating this thread concerns were voiced about retaining property. Unfortunately, another layer to property transfer but one that might need to be considered to ensure a donor's wishes. It would also allow expansion of Labs to different climactic regions to further permie education. Prior to relinquishing a property. It would also allow confirmation of proper stewardship over a period of time. The Nature Conservancy started out with 60 acres and now watch over 119,000,000 acres.
Would there be a tax advantage in being a non-profit over an LLC should property be retained or held until transferred, would be a lawyer question.

Whatever way one would decide to go the formation language would be similar.

Not being based in the US I don't know how onerous your tax and accounting rules are likely to be. On this side of the Atlantic what I would call a "charity" tends to have quite onerous accounting requirements, and this is an overhead cost that can eat into any revenue generated significantly. Obviously the aim is to make sure that the stewards/directors of the charity are using the funds as intended, but for a small organisation this can be overwhelming.

A case in point on property donations. A woman had a 15-acre property adjacent to the park that I manage. Un-buildable wetlands. Once the required assessed value was determined, it was far below what she wanted as a tax break, and she elected to keep the property. Even though we are a non-profit the benefit for her donation was not great enough in her case for the exchange to occur.  We couldn't elevate the value to her perceived value.

Land trusts is a whole other method for transferring properties and protecting their use. For now, we should leave them for later exploration. They could be a component of insuring a property intended use beyond the donor's life while avoiding probate.