January 14, 2002 | Read Time: 1 minute
Q.I am interested in starting a nonprofit organization. It is a Christian camp designed for high school students. I would like some information on how I would get started.
A. Your first stop should be the Foundation Center’s Web site, which includes a host of books and Internet resources to guide you through the process of registering as a charity, getting Internal Revenue Service approval, finding a lawyer, securing liability insurance, and so on. Go to http://fdncenter.org/learn/faqs/starting_nonprofit.html
In addition, you might find helpful a very comprehensive site written and compiled by Carter McNamara, co-founder of Authenticity Consulting, in Minneapolis. In addition to plenty of practical advice, the site offers detailed checklists for the tasks founders need to complete in order to get their organizations up and running smoothly.
Go to http://www.managementhelp.org/strt_org/strt_np/strt_np.htm
When starting a charity — or, for that matter, when leading one of any duration — it never hurts to compare notes on a regular basis with other managers of similar organizations. A resource that might be helpful in your specific case would be Christian Camping International/USA, an association of 950 organizations that operate Christian camps. The Web site links to those of member camps, so you might find it easy to contact people who run organizations like yours and ask them for tips. Go to: http://www.gospelcom.net/cci/
