The Sound of Hope :: We’re INCORPORATED!

On May 18th, we filed our Articles of Incorporation with our lawyer. Here we are signing the papers with our lawyer…

On May 20th, we received our official paperwork from the State of Michigan. I was THRILLED! After years of working and praying and dreaming, The Sound of Hope is now an official non-profit!

And so, STEP #1 – Filing with the State to be incorporated – has been completed. We are in business! STEP #2 – Creating a Board of Directors – has also been completed. Our next BIG step, STEP #3 is filing with the IRS for tax exempt status. This requires a lot of confusing paperwork (26 pages to be exact) and a ‘waiting period’ once they are filed. I am working with our lawyer on this paperwork and hope to file it in the next two weeks. Then, it could take anywhere from 2 months to 18 months to get back our approval from the IRS. Once that happens we will be able to receipt the donations people give us as tax deductible gifts!

Last week we opened a bank account and applied for a credit card, so we are able to take donations. We are still working on getting a website, online store, and blog up. We are also going to be making some large purchases in the coming months to equip us to run this nonprofit and raise funds effectively. That’s a big reason why we’re writing this blog; we need YOUR HELP to continue to move forward.

Media is a huge part of fundraising in the non-profit world. We need a camera equipped to shoot professional pictures and HD video to share stories and pictures from overseas. (The cameras Rusty has been using this year are not ours and cannot be taken overseas – one belongs to The World Race and the other belongs to our church.)

We also need a new Macbook Pro for me. My Macbook has been having some issues lately and cannot function at the level needed to run a business. With Rusty and I as the only employees right now, all the responsibilities fall on us (fundraising, writing/PR, emails, website management, merchandise sales, bookkeeping, etc) so I need a reliable computer.

Those are just two of our biggest needs. We are looking at a total of $6,250 needed for our start up costs. PLEASE PRAY about giving towards these needs! Any amount will bless us! The full breakdown is below:

• $1550 – Legal fees & Filing fees
• 
  $2000 – Camera
  
• 
  $1500 – Macbook pro
• $200 – Quick books (software for our bookkeeping/accounting needs)
• $1000 – Final Cut Pro (software for Rusty’s video editing)

If you have a heart for orphans & vulnerable children, we would love to have you partner with us in this non-profit! We know God has led us to this point, but we cannot move forward alone. These things must be purchased for us to continue this work. We are incurring some of this debt now, with the rest to come in the next few months. We need you to invest in this vision! We would also appreciate it if you would share what we’re doing with anyone you know – friends, family, business partners, etc – who might want to donate towards this cause! We’d be glad to answer any questions you have about our needs and our work.

*Stay tuned for our next blog – we have more BIG NEWS to share! There is a very specific reason we need to make these purchases and be fully set up soon. To find out why, check back tomorrow!