blueprints

Tools for Framing | 217
relishes doing taxes every year and has the confidence to tackle incorporating
and filing for nonprofit exemption status. Alternatively, if you know a
lawyer or an accountant who is passionate about poetry, he or she may be
willing to join your volunteer base or sit on your board with the primary
responsibility of shepherding you through the process. If not, some lawyers
will provide this service at no cost as part of their professional public service
commitments. If there is a Lawyers for the Arts group in your area, it may
be able to help you find one. If you can’t find someone who will help you
for free, you might still consider hiring a lawyer to help. If you have the
money to do this, it may be more efficient and effective for your organization
than doing it yourself. Almost certainly, it will save you time and
aggravation.
Incorporate
To be incorporated means that your state recognizes your organization’s
corporate bylaws and articles of incorporation. Incorporation protects
board members and other individuals in your organization from being
held personally liable in case of lawsuits or other legal problems. Your organization
must be incorporated before you can file for tax-exempt status
with the Internal Revenue Service.
The following are the basic steps to incorporation:
• Select a name for your organization that is legally available in your
state. Stay away from any name that sounds like another organization’s,
both to avoid confusion and because in the Internet age, you
need to think about domain name considerations. Even if you
don’t have a website yet, you may want to reserve a domain name
as soon as you name your organization. Note that your website
domain name might be slightly different from your official name.
AWP.org, for example, was already taken when the Associated
Writing Programs (now the Association of Writers and Writing
Programs) looked for a domain name. It was far too late at that
point to change the organization’s name. The domain name is currently
AWPWriter.org, which is an imperfect solution for a group
known widely as AWP. One place to search for domain names in
use is networksolutions.com.
• Create your articles of incorporation (see below), file with your
secretary of state’s office, and pay the filing fee. At this time, you can