The first thing to understand is that whenever you create a nonprofit group, it takes two steps:

1. Form an organization: this means incorporating in your home state. This gives you legal protection, meaning you cannot be sued personally for mistakes the organization makes (for a funny example and explanation, click here), but it does not give you tax exempt status, meaning you are not yet a "charity." This step requires brief paperwork and is quick.

Note: even with the legal protection of "incorporating", you should still get event insurance. Insurance will pay if you get sued, instead of having the event sued into bankruptcy.

2. Become a Charity: This you do with the IRS, not with your home state. You fill out a long IRS application, and the IRS gives you tax exempt charity status. This step requires a lot of paperwork and is slow.

"Joining the GEN" is a legal term that simply means using National's charity status instead of getting your own, or simply "joining National". It is a way of becoming a charity, without having to do the paperwork to become a charity (National has done it for you, and National "vouches" for you in the eyes of the IRS). Your event can join the GEN instead of doing step two (above), but you still have to do step one, which is much easier and shorter than doing both steps.

Essentially, the state views you as separate "organizations", but the IRS views us as one umbrella organization with many chapters. Sounds a little confusing, but that is how it works.

The second thing to understand is that the Pagan Pride Project is not really one organization, but is a network of chapters, made up of (generally) three types of organizations:

1. Events who have applied for, and received, their own tax-exempt (charity) status from the IRS. These events have their own letter from the IRS that says "you are exempt from taxation under 501(c)3." Examples are Los Angeles and Eastern Massachusetts, to name two.
2. Events who have "partnered" with a local organization, who lets them use their own IRS tax exempt status and/or their own bank account. These events are wholly run by another local organization. The local organization generally has its own letter from the IRS that says "you are exempt from taxation under 501(c)3." Examples are Phoenix (partnered with Valley of the Sun Projects), Tucson (partnered with Tucson Area Wiccan/Pagan Network), and Philadelphia (partnered with Delaware Valley Pagan Network).

The two types of events above are also called "affiliates". They rely on either their own, or someone else's, charity status, and therefore DO NOT need to join the GEN to become a tax-exempt charity. These events, if they have not already, should submit the information requested on the entity info page.

3. Events who do not have charity status either on their own or through another group. These events need to "join the GEN" to become "tax-exempt" events.

Click here for FAQs and explanations.