Clad for cures.. Nonprofit idea.

[j.dean]

So I have had this idea bouncing around in my head for a few years. I even mentioned it on the whites forum a couple years back, but didn't go past the idea phase. Basically I am thinking about starting either a nonprofit or just a club that allows us to donate, as a group, a portion or,in my case, all of my clad finds to something like st. Judes or shriners etc... I know I have gallons of old clad coins sitting in my den, and this would be a great way of putting our hobby in good light instead of us lookinh like a bunch of grave robbers.

I have never started a nonprofit, but would love to talk to other members about this. what do u guys think?

James

 

[kleinerschmitter]

Sounds like a great idea to me. I started a 'nonprofit' about 3 years back when I was a sophomore in college. I got a great idea during class one day and built a website that has since earned thousands of dollars. Now, it was rough for me to do so, because I had to teach myself computer science skills, I'm a Biochemist, but I labored on and got it done and am very happy I did.

Now, the reason I put 'nonprofit' is that it is quite taxing to start a nonprofit, you get lots of agencies, IRS, whatnot looking in and trying to make sure you're not stealing part of the pie. Apparently, there are many procedures that must be followed for starting a non-profit. It was easier for me to just make a company that fails, haha, in other words, I donate all of my profits, hence I am not profiting, but I run a company that purposely fails, the IRS doesn't try to collect because I have no profits to claim, nothing goes into any of my bank accounts, etc. Anyway, my company donates thousands every year and has never been questioned about our motives, profits, etc. The only problem I have is that my house was robbed in March and they took my backup files for the company so I can't change my website at all now without making a new one and people loved my correspondence. However, I set the company up to be able to run itself and while it doesn't make as much as it used to, it still earns about $200-400 a month.


So, basically what I am saying is that there are both wrong and right ways to start a nonprofit but there is no wrong way to start a business that is intended to fail and donates its profits.

 

[N.J.THer]

I'm involved with a metal detecting non-profit that uses our funds to help promote, preserve and research history. Our focus is the American Revolution but we have done Civil War and other projects. We don't do the clad concept but we charge a fee to companies that are required to do historical surveys on properties they are developing. We then use those funds to help historic sites, museums and the such plus we give out grants to students working on projects in this field. The work is very rewarding and gets us into sites that you would normally be arrested for detecting. Grant we don't get to keep anything we find but that is fine by us.

Good luck with your project.

NJ

 

[j.dean]

Sure thing! I will be registering the website tomorrow or sunday, depending if I have to work. And I will start trying to set things up to be ready for spring. I will be paying for the site and upkeep with my own money, and plan to keep none of the donations that are given. I'm excited to take on this project... It won't be big sums of money, im sure, but if we present it as a group, it will still put a good light on our hobby, and help some pretty important causes