We're an OFFICIAL Non-Profit now!

For the past few months we have been waiting for our papers to come through. The papers that would make us "official" - the papers that will make it possible to ask folks to make tax-free donations - the papers that will give us discounts - the papers that will allow us to apply for grants - the papers that will allow us to rescue more senior dogs!!

Well..... today we got our determination letter and we are so excited. We are now a recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization with an effective date of exemption of April 26. We feel that now is the TRUE START of Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary!

Here's how the process went.....

After some time with dog rescue, working with the wonderful folks at Middle Tennessee Golden Retriever Rescue, we began to realize that our real passion lies with the older dogs. Maybe because we are getting older, we felt a special camaraderie with the oldies, those who were down on their luck in their retirement years.

Slowly our dream started to take shape and earlier this year we decided to act upon it. We began to plan and dream, dream and plan. In March, we decided that we were going to make our dream a reality.

Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork.....
We had to fill out paperwork.

First we had to become a non-profit corporation in the state of TN. We decided to get some help from our friends at Legal Zoom for this part of the process. We had to get a mission statement together and bylaws. Then it took about a month, but by the end of April, we were incorporated as Old Friends Senior Dogs Inc. in the state of TN.

Next was the fun part. We had to fill out the IRS form to file for 501(c)(3) non-profit status. I decided to tackle this part of the job myself. It would cost hundreds of dollars to have someone else do it and Legal Zoom gave us a great book to guide me along the way. It took me until the first of July to get everything figured out and ready to go. This application was many, many pages long and required attachments galore to answer essay questions and to clarify various items. I was so relieved to bring it to the post office.

Then the wait began. I had heard that it could take as long as six months to get a determination letter, with lots of questions along the way. I was nervous... Around the end of July, we got a letter from the IRS. False alarm. It said that they had received our application and that it could take as much as 90 more days for a determination or for it to be assigned to someone for further review.

Again we waited.....

So, you can't imagine how excited I was to see another, thicker, envelope from the IRS in the mail today. Opening it was the best part. I think that we were actually pretty fortunate to get through the process as quickly as we did.

Now the REAL work begins! It is just what we have been waiting for.....