Are non profits a joke?

There are actually quite a few hoops to jump through to become a nonprofit, and it can take quite some time to get approval.

What you are describing does not sound like a nonprofit, it sounds like an alternative business model. If he says he is a nonprofit, he should be able to provide you with a 501(c )3 number – that’s how you would claim your donation for tax purposes.

At least in theory, nonprofits are not created to make money for the creator. As far as I know, the only way to get income is to create a position for yourself within the nonprofit and pay yourself a salary.

Just because an origination is a non-profit, it does not mean that the folks that work for it do so for free. It is perfectly legitimate (even common) to create a non-profit organization with a stated altruistic goal that pays somebody a reasonable fair market value for the work they do to keep the organization running. It is also fairly common for the founders of a non-profit to be payed by the organization for their work in their role of general management.

@YoBob So what basically. In a nutshell is it like saying, “we aren’t profiting anything other than our goals demand, yet we are being paid to do the work provided that the company is pursuing?” In this case sezio productions in san diego seems legit. But I mean, how is it exactly a non profit? I’ll state a run down of what they do. They bring bands to certain venues, (booking) they offer discounts at certain stores they are hooked up with, (but you have to purchase them) where does that money go to? I don’t have a problem with this but it seems like they are just bringing music to the community which is fine, but I don’t see how they benefit from the non profit tag. Can you help explain how this work in this case?

*Note, they cater to an exclusive crowd of artists and musician lifestyle in San Diego. Furthermore, they bring really good high quality production to anything they host.

I actually volunteered on a board of a non profit that helps musicians in need. I worked my tail off and got nothing. You need 501c3 tax status to help you with legitimacy.

There are crooks in every field. and all are looking for creative ways to make some cash these days.

In case you get really curious, this article may shed some light.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_of_America_non-profit_laws
Thought it is rude of me to only include a link to a US article. Hm.

Have no idea about sezio productions. However, I do know that just like pretty much anything else, there are good non-profits and not so good ones. Pretty much no matter what rules one puts into place there will be folks out there who figure out ways to “game the system”.

OTOH, I know a couple who makes a pretty decent living creating and managing non-profits. The thing is, their non-profits do exactly what they say they are going to do. Yes, they get paid for running them. But then again, it is that income that allows them to eat and keep a roof over their heads so they can spend their time doing good in the world thorough their non-profits. Everybody wins.

Non-profits differ from for-profits in that the money that would ordinarily be called profit is instead called other things and spend, saved, or invested accordingly.

You should conceptually separate a non-profit from its employees. A non-profit has certain goals, it can make expenses to reach those goals and it can raise money to cover those expenses. Those expenses might be the cost of a server hosting the website, but also the loan of the people maintaining the website. If a non-profit buys goods at a store, and the money paid for those goods is partially used to pay the employees of that store, that sounds pretty reasonable too, right?

The difference with a for-profit is that there is no incentive for the people working there to maximise profits, as those profits would not be paid to shareholders which need to be kept happy, but be reinvested in the non-profit. This way, it should try to be sustainable, and if its employees cannot be covered by the generated income, and no employees can be found that are willing to do it for a lower income, then the non-profit is just unsustainable.

@Vincentt Ok, so hypothetically speaking, let’s say I open up a Non Profit and it approved or whatever. Let’s say I set up a nation wide “color the electric boxes” an artist industry non profit. Who pays me, and do I get to eat with that money used or do I have to use it only for spray paint.

@auhsojsa Non-profit businesses sell goods and services and pay employees just like any business does, but the main difference is, they must use the excess revenue (after all expenses are paid) for the purpose they have established, such a providing supplies to artists or such.

@auhsojsa If you take a look at some of the links posted, you’ll see that you must have a minimum number of individuals on your Board of Directors, you designate officers, you create by-laws, use an accountant and a book-keeper, establish Board Committees…..it’s an involved process and has plenty of checks an balances. You don’t just declare yourself a nonprofit and write yourself a check.

@syz who pays the non profit

@auhsojsa You are looking at the concept of “nonprofit” too narrowly. Who pays depends on how it’s structured. Some nonprofits depend on monetary donations. Some nonprofits raise funds through the sale of goods or services. Some nonprofits don’t have much of a budget, and work at a grass roots level.

edit: Oh, and just to muddy the waters, many nonprofits get grant money, which often comes from other nonprofits. One group may solicit donations specifically for the purpose of support other worthy organizations.

@syz Thanks for clearing that up for me. It’s just that I need to see things in steps. I take in things quite literal, yet I express my art and music abstractly. I don’t know why this is. Thanks for expressing your opinion about my thought process :)

@auhsojsa – Who pays the non-profit?

A non-profit can raise money from a number of sources including soliciting donations or selling a service, the proceeds from which go towards furthering the stated goal of the non-profit.

For example, from your description it appears as though sezio productions raises some money by selling coupon books.

Are Wikipedia authors writing articles for free a joke?