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On June 18th, we held a class called "Building Your Personal Branding through Social Media" and raised $192 for We Can Solve It.  Jose Mateos Leandro was instrumental in recruiting the students and securing the venue.  Thank you Jose!  The students were very enthusiastic and I think we all had a lot of fun.

Here are a few pictures from another successful class with Classes for Causes.

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Last weekend we finished a fabulous Create Your Business Plan Workshop with Michaela Hayes or Hayes Marketing & Communications.  She raised $400 for Women's Initiative and $100 for Classes for Causes.  (For those of you that don't know, 80% of each student's tuition goes to the cause of the instructors choice and the other 20% covers the operating costs of Classes for Causes. Since we are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization the instructor can receive a tax deduction for the full amount that the students pay in tuition.) 

Michaela Hayes' class was an excellent introdution to what you need to think about when creating your business.  We worked through thirteen different worksheets and each one made us think about our business goals and what we need to do to achieve them.  Since I took the class, I know it was well done and I am proud that Michaela is one of Classes for Causes' featured instructors.

We hope to offer the Create Your Business Plan class again and may be changing the format slightly.  We are interested in your thoughts.  We're thinking about offering the workshop over a longer period of time, say six weeks.  This will enable people to complete about two worksheets per week.  There would be an introductory meeting and a closing meeting of about 2 hours each with time to discuss via email and/or scheduled phone calls in between.  How does that sound?

Would you be interested in taking a Create Your Business Plan Workshop with the above suggested format?  Do you have suggestions for us?  Please add your comments below.

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Last Saturday I received a very important letter in the mail.  Do you remember a day or perhaps a few days when you received a very special piece of mail and opened it with baited breath?  This was one of those days.  I picked up the letter and read the return address: "IRS - Department of the Treasury" and my immediate response was "Uh oh...." 

My brain went into overdrive trying to imagine why I would be receiving a letter from the IRS.  I had paid my taxes on time, filed everything and felt confident I had done all the necessary paperwork for them, and then I remembered that just recently I had received a phone call from a very kind woman about the Classes for Causes 501(c)(3) application that we filed on April 17th, 2009.

Humor me so that I can tell you what a major step this is:  We incorporated Classes for Causes on April 23, 2008 and just the incorporation was daunting enough.  We had help from LegalZoom.com to speed up the process, but even so it was a big deal.  And then of course we didn't understand that incorporating didn't give us the tax exempt status and that would be another application, another fee and a ton of work.  We started the 501(c)(3) application in August and it was basically complete in October, but for some reason I was petrified of filing it.  I was told it would take 6 to 9 months to get the designation and that it was a really big deal.  The application had to be perfect.  I kept making changes, refining and making sure everything was in order.

Needless to say over the next several months I spent a few solid days (including January 1, 2009 trying to use the new year as a motivating factor) going over everything in the application to make sure it was perfect before eventually sending it in on April 17th.  To finally drop it off in the mailbox was an incredible feeling for me.  I was elated to finally have it in the mail and to be able to look my board of directors in their eyes and say - yes, it is done:  it's in process.

Then in early May I received a phone call which I mentioned in a previous blog post and I was pleased to be in communication with the IRS about the application.  They were very helpful and if you are considering applying for tax exempt status, I hope my experience will set you mind at ease.  With 20-20 hindsight, it's not as scarey as it seems and the IRS is really there to help you.  If you are doing something for public benefit and have the paperwork and website to back it up, you have a good chance of receiving the 501(c)(3). 

For your reference, here is the 501(c)(3) tax exempt status letter of designation.  I can't tell you how pleased I am to have it.  And I thank you for all your help and encouragement in persuing it.  This means that we can apply for special grants and services that are only available to 501(c)(3) organizations and that all contributions to Classes for Causes are tax deductable. 

In short (with tears of joy): Hooray!

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