Starting a nonprofit is a great cause. You are giving back to the community, which ultimately inspires an improvement in their lives. It may help someone with their unaffordable medical treatment, food for the hungry, or clothes for homeless people. It can stretch to even helping a homeless person build his own house or maybe providing an opportunity to help others earn their livelihoods.

This article will be answering queries related to:

• Starting a nonprofit organization with no money?
• How much does it cost to setup start a nonprofit organization?
• How to start a nonprofit organization for dummies?
• Starting a nonprofit organization checklist
• How to start a nonprofit youth organization?
• Non Profit startup ideas
• Nonprofit start-up checklist
• Nonprofit tech startups
• Starting your own nonprofit organization
• Charitable startups
• Nonprofit startup costs

Your Essential Non-Profit Startup Checklist

Let me start with the fact that any of the noble causes mentioned at the beginning of this article cannot be fulfilled alone, so you need people like you to be on the same page, so you need to set up a nonprofit organization. I am sure you are not short of business ideas for a nonprofit concern, but just in case, if you are undecided, make sure to check within your local community and find what people need more desperately, and that can be a perfect nonprofit startup idea for you.

After having a charitable startup idea that you will help people, you should consider this checklist that highlights steps you need to fulfill to let your nonprofit startup operate legitimately.

Setting up a nonprofit is very much similar to setting up a for-profit business, but there are a few differences that you should be aware of.

Let’s get started with the nonprofit startup checklist:

1- Gather Knowledge about How Nonprofits Work:

Gathering knowledge means understanding and analyzing how your unique idea about helping the community will serve its purpose. The data required can be gathered from individual surveys and other sources already in this field. Be confident that the idea you have will serve its purpose, and you will not back out. Also, check these areas in detail.”

• What are your sources of finance? You may look for crowdfunding as a major funding source or reach big investors in the relevant fields, i.e., reaching out to Nestle Water for a clean water supply.
• How will you bring people to finance your idea? Remember that charity is not all about money. You can start a nonprofit without money, i.e., you may start a free education startup whereby you teach people yourself, and as the organization grows, more volunteers join. So, take all these considerations.
• Is the finance reliable enough to continue your program up to years or months? Yes, you may not need a huge amount of investment to start up a nonprofit, but still, there are some basic expenses to be met, i.e., registration costs, running costs, etc.

2- Register Your Nonprofit:

After having a well-thought business plan for your nonprofits, the next step is to register the business. The process of registering a nonprofit organization is almost the same as registering a for-profit business, but the non-profit concerns are exempted from taxes. 

There are 3 ways to do this in South Africa;

1. You can register as a Non Profit Company (NPC) with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC)
2. You can register as a Non Profit Organisation/Association with the NPO Directorate at the Department of Social Development (DSD)
3. You can register as a Trust with the Master of High Court

By preparing the Memorandum of Incorporation (MOI), Constitution, and/or Trust Deed and filing all the documents required by your locale where you want to operate and submitting all those documents to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) or Department of Social Development (DSD) or High Court, you complete the process. The required documents may vary from each of these institutions, but in general, you are required to submit the following items:

• Name of the Organization
• Type of the Organization
• Date of incorporation
• Board of Directors their names and signatures
• Office address of the organization
• Number of employees
• Members of the organization
• Roles of members
• Constitution of the organisation

3- Define the Mission and Vision of your Organization:

The mission and vision reflect your organization’s beliefs and values. The mission and vision should be clear and meaningful and should serve a specific purpose. It is important to state a mission and vision statement because your organization cannot move in the right direction without it.

4- Develop Organization Laws and Policies:

You must develop a set of rules and regulations that define how your organization will be managed. To implement rules and regulations, you should develop policies and procedures. And a hierarchy under which all those procedures will be governed.

5- Apply for SARS PAYE Number, and open a Bank for Transaction.

Obtain the PAYE from the South African Revenue Services. SARS rules and regulations apply. After acquiring the SARS PAYE, you can open a bank account in any suitable bank for cash and fund transactions. That bank account will help you obtain cash easily for the smooth running of your organization.

6- Apply for Tax-Exemption and Follow Non-Profit Regulation:

You should apply for tax-exemption with SARS and fill in multiple page documents that the revenue department requires. Properly file all the documents. You might need an expert’s assistance for that. After that, you have to follow the rules and regulations mentioned by the non-profit organization for commencing your work.

7- Rent an Office Space and Buy Office Equipment:

After completing all legal requirements now, you have to look for office space to operate your nonprofit organization. It is important to have an office where people could visit and get knowledge of your work. After renting office space, you have to buy office equipment. If you are operating it from a home office, check the zoning laws of your local municipality for operating home offices.

8- Hire Employees and Develop a Payroll System:

Hire employees who will work under supervision to achieve organizational goals and objectives, i.e., the paid staff who will contribute their time in serving the community and managing activities related to achieving goals. Then you have to establish a payroll system according to which they will be paid.

9- Develop a Marketing Plan

Even though you are running a nonprofit, you’ll still benefit greatly from bringing awareness to your company. Garnering a following, attending events, and having your name out there in any way can become a gargantuan driver for donations. Without donations, a nonprofit may struggle to operate comfortably.

So, you’ll need a marketing plan. Think of all the different ways in which you could get your message across ethically and naturally. Your goal will be to reach as many people as possible and hope that your message resonates. For that reason, it might help to spend a good amount of time on your marketing strategy or outsource some help.

The Bottom Line:

Setting up a nonprofit organization is not too different than that of setting up a for-profit business. So, you may feel that it’s a tiring process to register your nonprofit and start operations. But, in the end, when you start operating a legitimate nonprofit startup, you are already doing great by aiming to bring positive change in some people’s lives.

We hope you enjoyed this nonprofit startup checklist. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next week.