This entire page was updated on March 21, 2006, copyright 2006, Brian Ewing, please don't use without permission. Check it out. Thank you drive through. :-)

Some events list donors in their programs. Others not only list donors, but allow them to give their store locations in the programs. And some events actually sell ads. The IRS website will tell you that advertisements in an event program, including listing a sponsor and allowing them to give their store location, are "Unrelated Business Income". This isn't necessarily true. Most of our income that might be considered unrelated business income will fall under an exception: money raised by totally volunteer labor is not unrelated business income. See the next couple paragraphs for details.

It is called "Unrelated Business Income" because you are selling stuff and the sales are unrelated to our exempt purpose. All of our activities should be directed towards "working toward religious rights", and selling stuff really is not directed to that goal. Saying "well, the money raised will be used for our exempt purpose activities" is not enough. Saying the ads are Pagan is possibly not enough to avoid it being called unrelated business income.

Unrelated Business Income is bad because the Project will pay a tax on it. But there are exceptions; the most important exception, that you will use, is that any "activity" (for example, doing the program) that is done by all (or almost all) volunteer labor is NOT Unrelated Business Income. So have a volunteer design and print your event program and you are OK. If a volunteer designs the program and solicits all the ads for the program, but then takes it to a print shop to print, that is OK too. So have your volunteers solicit the ads, design them, arrange them, distribute them, and run the copy machine if possible. For bottled water sales and stuff like that, the fact that volunteers are selling the stuff at your event will avoid having the IRS call the income unrelated business income.

Ask Brian and he will send you the Project's IRS Exemption Determination Letter so you can rent your park or location, so you can get a discount on services, or for the city if they ask for it. We just don't want to POST the letter here. You can use the EIN, but when using it you must say that you are a "member" of the Pagan Pride Project, in accordance with the by-laws of the organization. Don't say you are "the Coordinator of Pagan Pride Anytown USA" or an "officer" of your own local organization (if you have one).

The Project does not have a central bank account. You can take donations and then use them for your event at the local level. Gift Donations under $250 do not need the EIN or letter at all. If you receive a donation over $250 from a donor and the donor wants a write off, the National Treasurer will send you a blank receipt to use. Send back to the National Treasurer a copy of the filled in receipt for central's records. Do not change the organizational information (i.e. the name Pagan Pride Project, Inc.) on the receipt. You should also send a nice thank you letter. Please also read below to understand what is a donation and what is not.

This applies to events that collect money for another organization; in other words, when cash proceeds from your event benefit the 9/11 fund, local non-kill shelters, etc. If the money was collected separately from all your event income, in a clearly designated collection box, and the donor knew where his donation money was going, then it can be excluded from your yearly "event income" and your financial report. In other words, if the person knew that they were giving directly to "them," then it is not "your" money to report.

But if the money was mixed in with Pride money (a bad idea in general, but it happens), or if you donated the proceeds of your event to them, or it wasn't obvious which money was going to which group, you must include the money in your financial report and then make a organizational donation to the third party group. Follow the above process if there was a donation over $75.

See our financial policies for details. Then email your RC and the National Treasurer for assistance.

The IRS forms require the National Treasurer to break down each event's income into categories. Your financial report should probably be a breakdown of every expense you spent and every income you received, but it is helpful for you to know the categories the National Treasurer has to fill on the IRS form:
Gifts and Donations - basically money people just give to you with no strings attached and they don't expect anything in return. This is the only type of income the donor can get a receipt for to write off as a deduction on their personal taxes.
Program income - money generated by your event, other than gift donations. These are NOT donations that can be written off, because they are not gifts: the donor gets something in exchange for money paid, like a button, a raffle ticket, a T-shirt, a bottled water, etc.
Special events and income - this separate subcategory includes gaming (raffle and silent auction income) even the raffle was at your event. Raffle ticket donations cannot be written off by the donor.
Unrelated business income: money generated from activities unrelated to our "exempt purpose", so money wholly unrelated to "promoting religious rights." We might pay taxes on this type of income so ask legal counsel if you think you have it.

For Program income, you should further break it down into any or all of these types: sponsorships, T-shirt sales, buttons sales, program ads, soda/water sales, and similar categories like that.

See the detailed discussion on Financial Reporting

• Become your own nonprofit corporation

TALK TO BRIAN before starting this process. The entire structure of the Project might be changing soon and it can affect your decision to become your own 501(c)3.

It does make some things easier and some things harder. It is a responsibility and many smaller events might not find it worth the trouble. On the other hand, Los Angeles and at least six others have done it, and others plan to do it. Philadelphia did it by partnering with an existing 501(c)3.

Submitted by Selene Silverwind, President of Pagan Pride Los Angeles (a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation), the steps to take to become a non profit corporation:

1. Decide who your officers will be and how your organization will be organized with regards to Board members, coordinators, committees, and volunteers. At the very least you will need a President, Treasurer, and Secretary. Most states require a certain number of officers.
2. Visit the national website for their by-laws. Download and edit as needed for your specific location's organizational structure.
3. Visit the website for your state, or contact your local state government to determine who handles incorporations for your state. In California this is the Secretary of State, but other states are organized differently. Find out the costs of incorporating and download any forms available through the website. If they have sample Articles of Organization, use those, otherwise copy the National articles, again modified to suit your needs.
4. File the necessary forms to establish a corporation in your state.
5. Visit the IRS website at www.irs.gov. Search for form SS-4 and the instructions. Download the form, then read and follow the instructions to mail, fax, or call it in using a toll-free number. This gets you an EIN, or Employee Identification Number, which is a Social Security Number for corporations
6. Use your EIN to open a bank account for your group. Deposit state and IRS filing fees here.
7. Visit the IRS website again and click the link for non-profits and charities. You are establishing a charitable organization, so click that link next. Download IRS publication 557 and package 1023 from this area.
8. Read the forms and fill out the application and submit with a check for the filing fee.
9. Contact your state's tax body and obtain forms for state tax exemption as a non-profit organization.
10. Fill out the application and submit with a check for the filing fee.
11. According to the IRS, the entire process should take 4 months. In California, we express filed for incorporation and it took five days to receive our papers back, one day to receive our EIN, one month for state non-profit status notification, and three months for the IRS to make a ruling. The non-profit department of the IRS is very helpful and easy to deal with.
12. Give a copy of your articles, by-laws, and ruling letters to all members of your new Board of Directors.