It has been a whirlwind month for Knit Girl and Knit Around the World. At the beginning of the month we finally got our letter of incorporation so Knit Around the World is now official!!!!! It's really exciting to see the first step in my dreams coming true but it's just the tip of the ice berg at this point there is so much still to do to actually get over to Malawi and start teaching. I've already had my first board meeting with 2 great board members and we are still trying to flush out the mission statement but we are heading in the right direction. I never realized how much work needs to be done in order to start a non-profit.
Here are just a few of the things that are needed to get started:
-Federal Employee Identification Number (from the IRS)
-apply for 501(c)3 (so people donating can get a tax deduction) there is a big fee that goes along with this
-register for charitable solicitations (in VA at least) also a fee here
-prepare by laws to submit with registration
-open a bank account
-start keeping financial records for next year's renewal of registration
-organization logo
-email addresses
There are also things that I need to work on just for Knit Around the World:
-solicit yarn and knitting needle donations
-contact groups interested in working with KATW in Malawi
-see about being able to use someone else's knitting directions (images) to teach knitting
-get up to date shots to travel
At this point I'm willing to take any additional help in terms of understanding the law and getting things set up for the non-profit in Virginia. I have another board meeting on Monday so hopefully we'll solidify some more information to get started on a lot of these tasks that need to get done.
I did have a wonderful fundraising idea pop into my head, let me know what you think about it: kNickles for Knitting, where people would donate nickles in a jar to be donated to Knit Around the World.
Great News!
I just shipped off a lot of knitted items to be brought over to Malawi and given to the children of the Crisis Ministry Nursery. Here are pictures of the 2 blankets and 41 baby hats that I knitted them. Hopefully the kids will love this.
I will hopefully be able to post a little more often but I'm swamped with things to do.
Until next time...same knit time....same knit channel!
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