Food for Life Ministries, Inc is a permanent 501(c)(3) public charity. We received the letter from the Internal Revenue Service early this week and decided to celebrate last Tuesday night with our downtown friends and faithful volunteers.
We started this long journey 5 years ago when we decided to dig through mounds of paperwork to apply for Non-Profit status. We elected a Board of Directors, wrote a Constitution and By-Laws which we documented for the application “Recognition of Exemption under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code”. All of this paperwork was necessary to establish our purpose and substantiate that we were meeting a community need for our services. In addition, we had to document our expected donations for 5 years indicating that the majority of funds would come from the general public as opposed to the officers and their relatives of Food for Life. Based on the application submitted, we received an advance ruling that allowed us to operate as a Non-profit organization. During the 5 year conditional ruling, all donations were tax deductible until we received a final ruling at the end of the 5 years. During this period, it was necessary to maintain records of donations, files tax returns, and have regular meetings with our Board of Directors. This is to insure that we maintain our status as outlined in our application.
This year was at the end of our advance ruling and we were notified that we had to report our record of donations for 5 years. At this point, there was more paperwork with the possibility of having to substantiate our report by providing detailed documentation. Much to our relief, we were notified this week that we had met all the requirements to establish Food for Life, Inc. as a permanent Non-Profit organization. Praise the Lord.
We did all of this because God had put a vision in Paul’s heart to help the hopeless and poor of downtown Greenville for God’s glory. But we could not have done this without our faithful volunteers that come week after week and donate their time and financial support. We are grateful for them and all who support Food for Life with their donations.
A special thanks to that individual from Florida who made a donation through our blog. Rest assured, that your donation is tax-deductible and you are making impact in Greenville, SC.
Marc
We started this long journey 5 years ago when we decided to dig through mounds of paperwork to apply for Non-Profit status. We elected a Board of Directors, wrote a Constitution and By-Laws which we documented for the application “Recognition of Exemption under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code”. All of this paperwork was necessary to establish our purpose and substantiate that we were meeting a community need for our services. In addition, we had to document our expected donations for 5 years indicating that the majority of funds would come from the general public as opposed to the officers and their relatives of Food for Life. Based on the application submitted, we received an advance ruling that allowed us to operate as a Non-profit organization. During the 5 year conditional ruling, all donations were tax deductible until we received a final ruling at the end of the 5 years. During this period, it was necessary to maintain records of donations, files tax returns, and have regular meetings with our Board of Directors. This is to insure that we maintain our status as outlined in our application.
This year was at the end of our advance ruling and we were notified that we had to report our record of donations for 5 years. At this point, there was more paperwork with the possibility of having to substantiate our report by providing detailed documentation. Much to our relief, we were notified this week that we had met all the requirements to establish Food for Life, Inc. as a permanent Non-Profit organization. Praise the Lord.
We did all of this because God had put a vision in Paul’s heart to help the hopeless and poor of downtown Greenville for God’s glory. But we could not have done this without our faithful volunteers that come week after week and donate their time and financial support. We are grateful for them and all who support Food for Life with their donations.
A special thanks to that individual from Florida who made a donation through our blog. Rest assured, that your donation is tax-deductible and you are making impact in Greenville, SC.
Marc
