We are a group of families that came together last year to work collectively in sharing the role of teaching each other’s children one day a week. We have lots of interested families that want to join us next year. I’m thinking Co-Op is the way to go, but I’m still not sure of the road ahead. We have 5 Board members and are working on Bylaws now.
The Articles of Incorporation are not clear to me. Do they have to be submitted outside the Co-Op if we are not Non-Profit/501c3?
As soon as you have a board, mission, and bylaws your organization IS a nonprofit organization! Congratulations! It is an unincorporated association, but it is still a nonprofit organization.
Filing to be a nonprofit corporation in your state is another, more formal step that I highly recommend to homeschool co-ops (who are high risk operations) for all its benefits, mainly limited liability for your board and all members. Unincorporated associations have no such liability protection for their members or leaders.
These articles from my website should help:
Do we need to Incorporate?
5 Great Reasons to Incorporate
Like many people, you are mixing the concepts of nonprofit status and tax exempt status. It can be confusing! This short video should help: Is my homeschool group a nonprofit? short video
To be clear:
- unincorporated association status and nonprofit corporate status are defined and granted at the state level. They are legal entities.
- 501c3 is a tax status granted by the IRS to qualified unincorporated associations and nonprofit corporations.
- The co-op is a program operated by the unincorporated association or nonprofit corporation.
So when you ask, “do they (Articles of Incorporation) have to be submitted outside the Co-Op if we are not Non-Profit/501c3,” it would really better be asked like this:
“When should the nonprofit organization we just started consider filing Articles of Incorporation? We run a high risk program: a homeschool co-op with lots of children and families and are worried about potential liabilities. We also want to know the advantages of 501c3 tax exempt status for our nonprofit organization.”
See the difference the word choice makes? Words are important and using the correct terminology helps you understand these confusing concepts. 🙂
I am very careful with my terminology; I am careful to say “nonprofit organization” or “501c3 tax exempt status” when I mean different concepts.
I think my Homeschool Co-ops book would be helpful at this point.
And perhaps my webpage of Articles and some podcast episodes.
Or my webinar on Create a Nonprofit for your Homeschool Community would be helpful at this stage as well.
If you still have questions (and you probably will!) I would be happy to arrange a phone consultation with you. Contact me.
