Below are some helpful ideas and links that might be useful to those who are starting a foundation or thinking of ways to enhance it.

• Although school foundations rely heavily on volunteers, it is equally important to hire qualified individuals for key-positions such as a foundation director, an accountant and a lawyer.

• It is important for a school foundation to apply for its tax-exempt status.   You can find useful information about tax-exempt organization on the Internal Revenue Service website available at: http://www.irs.gov/

• Contact your Secretary of State in order to get the forms necessary for incorporating your foundation. Click here to find contact information about your Secretary of State.

• A school foundation must have a clear mission statement. Here are two examples of statements:

• Iowa City Community School District Foundation, Iowa  http://www.iowa-city.k12.ia.us/foundation/

  The ICSSD Foundation will promote quality education within the ICCSD by generating resources, as well as assisting others in generating resources, to enhance educational programming and activities for all students within the district.

• Hillsborough Education Foundation, Florida http://www.educationfoundation.com/

  ‘The Hillsborough Education Foundation supports academic excellence for teachers and students by securing private sector resources for K-12 public education.’

Procedures 

Here are two books that give detailed examples of how to write bylaws and articles of incorporation:

·        McCormick D. H., Bauer D. G., Ferguson, D. E. (2001). Creating foundations for American schools. Gaithersburg, Md.: Aspen Publishers

The appendixes include three handbooks about public relations, the development of alumni associations, and gift registration and acknowledgement, as well as IRS forms and samples of bylaws and articles of incorporation.

• Mancuso, A. (2002). How to form a nonprofit corporation. (5^th ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Nolo

The book provides for each state the information necessary to prepare the legal paperwork to form a nonprofit corporation. The first part gives an account of how nonprofit corporation works. The second part offers detailed tutoring for incorporating a nonprofit organization. The incorporation consists of filing articles of incorporation, preparing bylaws, applying for federal 501(c)(3) tax exemption, organizing your nonprofit corporation, and advice on choosing lawyers and accountants with nonprofit organization experience. The CD-rom that comes with the book provides printable forms for all the articles, bylaws and minutes for your newly established nonprofit. A reliable self-help legal tool!

Last Modified - 08/04/2003