Exactly How we Registered our Religious Nonprofit in California.
Well, that was not too bad!
After much research and confusion on a solo journey of trying to find out just exactly what was needed to register our nonprofit, we decided to pull all hesitation and fear out of the way and went all in for it!
That said, these are the exact steps which were taken and the results from each.
Let’s just SIMPLIFY THIS:
Overall, the process took $325 and 14 weeks to complete. If you are able to give that, then you should have no problem!
Let’s get right to it, here are the seven steps:
Identify which of the three types of California nonprofits that you would like to be. The three types are Religious, Public Benefit, or Mutual Benefit. You can find that out by clicking the link below, scrolling a quarter of the way down the page to the section titled, “Articles of Incorporation – California Nonprofit Corporations”: https://www.sos.ca.gov/business-programs/business-entities/filing-tips/filing-tips-corp/#artsnp
Select the proper form link. For us, we decided to become a “Religious Nonprofit”, so we selected form ARTS-RE under the religious nonprofit section. This is the form we submitted on the next step (Step 3).
Hand write & mail in California form ARTS-RE (Articles of Incorporation of a Nonprofit Religious Corporation). This form has a $30 fee, three week turnaround, and response will be received by mail.
Link = https://bpd.cdn.sos.ca.gov/corp/pdf/articles/arts-re.pdf
Online, fill out & submit an IRS EIN Application. There is no fee for this form, the turnaround is immediate, and response will be received by email.
Online, fill out & submit California form SI-100 (Corporation Statement of Information). There is a $20 fee for this form, expect a two day turnaround, and response was received by email.
Fill out and submit federal form 1023EZ (Federal Tax Exemption Application). At the link below, you will register for a Pay.gov account, there will be a $275 form fee, one month turnaround, and response will be received by mail.
Hand write and mail in California form FTB 3500A (State Tax Exemption Application). There will be no fee, approximately a five week turnaround, and response was received by mail.
THAT IS ALL!
And after completing those seven steps, we became incorporated as a religious nonprofit with federal and state tax exemptions.
Good luck and I hope this helps anyone else who is looking to do the same!
-Ian
FearlessNonprofit.org