It’s been an interesting experience so far, this new journey, this coming together of a passionate and dedicated group of people and forming a brand new non-profit. I honestly don’t think I could or would do it without them. Having that camaraderie and built in support system is the key element for me in taking these steps.
Let me start from the beginning…
When you feel passionate about something — something you really believe in — and all of a sudden it’s gone from your life, you feel a big hole. This hole that used to be filled with helping abandoned, neglected and in need pugs could not stay empty.
We couldn’t not do anything. We couldn’t sit on the sidelines and see all these amazing, squishy faced, curly tailed creatures that needed help and keep scrolling past them in our Facebook feeds, Twitter streams or Instagram posts.
So we started to talk.
This awesome group met to talk about what we could do. We talked about different scenarios and different paths we could take to our goal of helping pugs in need. It quickly became apparent that we needed to incorporate and file for 501c3 status if we had any hope of making a difference.
Three main things needed to be accomplished next:
- Board of Directors
- Volunteer Categories
- Budget: Year One
We held our first in person meeting and discussed our board of directors. The board was easily agreed to. On to #2: create a list of volunteer categories we would need to achieve our mission.
Now that we had a list to work from for both of these, we brought it all to the larger group. We added a poll to our group with our volunteer categories and asked everyone to choose where they wanted to help. Seeing everyone participate fueled our passion to continue this path.
That just leaves #3: the budget.
I am only going to say that generosity is overflowing in this group. So many give of their time, their talents, and in this case, their wallet. Our first year budget was covered by people within our own organizing group. So on the chance that you are reading this because you are thinking about starting a non-profit, I have to say this: this is a huge hurdle we were lucky to easily jump. You might not be as lucky. But, I will say, we were all prepared to chip in and cover the initial expenses and create a seed fund. This made things so much easier.
Next week…Getting Down To Business
