Form 1023-ez for WhyDRS 501c3 filing w/ IRS

[tehchives]

Following up on discussion on the community discord, found in this thread.

@JFWooten4 and I already talked out a few items in the thread, and earlier today I went through a run of the paperwork submission process and prepared everything we'll need to submit. I'm coping below my message in the discord following that process, found here. It is a list of items that could use some more eyes so we're confident and aligned in our submission.

I think we should push forward. I've gone ahead and set up a pay.gov account and received an EIN for WhyDRS from the IRS.

Going through the form, there's some items to touch on in the application I felt needed some discussion.

1. We do need to confirm the most appropriate NTEE code. They are listed starting on page 21. Looking through, some that seem close to me are "W22- Public Finance, Taxation &
   Monetary Policy" and "W60- Financial Institutions" both under the "Public and Societal Benefit" category.

2. There is a mandatory requirement to name at least one 'Officer, Director, or Trustee'. I can put my own information here, as I've already been listed as the sole organizer on the WhyDRS filing documents, but wanted to mention that intention here first.

3. We need to select a month for the nonprofit's tax year to end. I think going with December as a default option should be fine.

4. We need to supply a brief mission statement / info about notable activities, with a character limit of 250. Prompt: "Please review your activity narrative to ensure you fully describe the most significant activity or activities you conduct or will conduct to accomplish your tax-exempt 501(c)(3) purposes. Don't refer to or repeat purposes in your organizing document or speculate about potential future programs. You should describe either actual or planned mission or activities."

5. It asks "Do you or will you attempt to influence legislation?" and instructs that if we are or will, to consider filing Form 5768. Considering that we've mentioned in the articles that we intend to do this, recently drafted the NSCC Close Out Policy petition and have plans for other petitions, this is something we'll need to look into as a supplemental filing step.

6. "Do you or will you pay compensation to any of your officers, directors, or trustees?" My desire is to answer "No."

7. "Do you or will you donate funds to or pay expenses for individual(s)?" This is a tricky one - If we wanted WhyDRS to appear at conferences with representation, would we want items like plane travel to come out of the nonprofit budget? I am not sure.

8. "Do you or will you conduct activities or provide grants or other assistance to individual(s) or organization(s) outside the United States?" I think we can answer No to this one. Let's focus on US markets and market reform.

9. "Do you or will you engage in financial transactions (for example, loans, payments, rents, etc.) with any of your officers, directors, or trustees, or any entities they own or control?" I think we should be able to answer No to this one as well.

10. "Do you or will you have unrelated business gross income of $1,000 or more during a tax year?" I don't expect we will have business income and would prefer to structure things so that we don't.

11. "Do you or will you operate bingo or other gaming activities?" Neat question here. It hadn't ever crossed my mind. I think we can answer No, but does anyone have reservations about that?

12. "Do you or will you provide disaster relief?" I think we can answer No.

13. We must identify as at least one of the following. I think clearly Educational is the best descriptor.
    Charitable
    Religious
    Educational
    Scientific
    Literary
    Testing for public safety
    To foster national or international amateur sports competition
    Prevention of cruelty to children or animals

14. We must either identify if we qualify for public charity status or as a private foundation. I'm not sure which applies more correctly and need to do more research on this.