non-profit eco village startup questions

I’ve started crowd funding to buy some land with like mined permies in my area on some off grid land.

Now that I have donations I need to set up a non-profit, so I can set up a bank account to hold the funds until enough are generated to procure property for this massive project.

Does anyone have experience setting up a nonprofit for an ecovillage which will generate income from food production and camping revenue?
(All residual income to be in a community fund for improvements voted on by the members, examples being roads, bridges, domes, saunas or greenhouses )
The goal is to create a non profit which can have members on staff who are paid a salary to work a certain amount of hours on the land. This property will be geared toward educational family camping and learning experiences. Anyone with non profit trust or llc experience is welcome to shower me with knowledge. Initially I envision 4-5 big share holders in the project who are the heads of the nonprofit who live there with their families building the initial phase and doing the maintenance there after.

Not the answer you are looking for, but the answer I can guarantee that you need.

You need to talk to a lawyer.

My wife is a trusts & estates lawyer who also practices business law and does some pro-bono work with startup non-profits. You need to talk to a lawyer in the state you plan on operating out of to know the specific rules of your area.

You are opening yourself up to risk by accepting donations, assumingly in your name, before even having some kind of entity setup to separate your personal assets from that of your project.

Do more research, get a plan created and get your 'core' group of people who are going to help execute this plan, but protect yourself legally!

Timothy Norton wrote:Not the answer you are looking for, but the answer I can guarantee that you need.

You need to talk to a lawyer.

My wife is a trusts & estates lawyer who also practices business law and does some pro-bono work with startup non-profits. You need to talk to a lawyer in the state you plan on operating out of to know the specific rules of your area.

You are opening yourself up to risk by accepting donations, assumingly in your name, before even having some kind of entity setup to separate your personal assets from that of your project.

Do more research, get a plan created and get your 'core' group of people who are going to help execute this plan, but protect yourself legally!

I don’t think I have enough money to talk to a lawyer and pay the $600 fee for WA to get the nonprofit started yet.

Wait are you saying some lawyers help nonprofits get started pro-bono? Isn’t that free?

Okay im going to look into that! Thank you Tim I appreciate you following my stuff you’re my new permie buddy! I read all your threads too good stuff man!

Pro-Bono does in fact mean free!

Look to see if you have any law schools around your area, many of them have clinics that are pro-bono which is essentially you having a new attorney (supervised by an experience one) working on your 'case' helping you navigate the legalese that is the law. They get experience, you get free legal help.

I tried to do a little bit of a dive, and the details are what is going to be difficult figuring out non-profit status.

Your idea might be a 501C5 or maybe a 501C7... it all depends. I'm not familiar with non-profits that own the assets that that voting members dwell in and how that is viewed? I'm not a lawyer myself, but I have been an over-the-shoulder learner of the law while she was in school.

I'll chat her up tonight and maybe I can get a better idea of what to look for.

Timothy Norton wrote:Pro-Bono does in fact mean free!

Look to see if you have any law schools around your area, many of them have clinics that are pro-bono which is essentially you having a new attorney (supervised by an experience one) working on your 'case' helping you navigate the legalese that is the law. They get experience, you get free legal help.

I tried to do a little bit of a dive, and the details are what is going to be difficult figuring out non-profit status.

Your idea might be a 501C5 or maybe a 501C7... it all depends. I'm not familiar with non-profits that own the assets that that voting members dwell in and how that is viewed? I'm not a lawyer myself, but I have been an over-the-shoulder learner of the law while she was in school.

I'll chat her up tonight and maybe I can get a better idea of what to look for.

Man you’re on it! Thank you thank you! You better come visit when we get this all done you don’t realize it but you’re helping this vision come
To pass!