Legal Question in Business Law in California

Re: Accepting Donations on my website

The Internal Revenue Code sets out the qualifications for a charitable organization, and, therefore, contributions, but each local community regulates solicitations. This can be a complicated process.

Re: Accepting Donations on my website

You have several separate issues to consider.

(1) First, the legality of soliciting and accepting donations;

(2) Then, the formation and qualification of your organization as a "non-profit;" and finally

(3) Recognition of your organization by the Internal Revenue Service as "tax exempt" so that donors can deduct money they give you as a charitable contribution.

Concern #2 above is probably the simplest to address. An attorney can form a California non-profit corporation for you without much fuss and at a relatively low fee, and possibly you could do it yourself with the aid of the right "self help" law book.

Obtaining IRS tax-exempt status (item #3) means filing for an IRC 501(c)(3) charity recognition, and this is not a simple, routine or foolproof process, and can be time consuming and expensive.

As for #1, state (and possibly federal and local) law imposes a wide variety of disclosure, record keeping, documentation, etc. requirements on the donor(s) as well as the solicitor(s) and the charitable organization. Detailing them all is well beyond the scope of a bulletin board, but you might look at California's Business and Professions Code sections 17510 et seq. for starters.

You may need an attorney for #2 and certainly will need one for items #1 and #3 above.