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The Basics Of Starting A Nonprofit with Christian LeFer
Managing a nonprofit is a very noble move, but materializing it can be a daunting process even when you have billions of cash waiting to be used for a wonderful cause. In this episode, we learn from the knowledge bank of https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianlefer (Christian LeFer) who is the CEO and Founder of http://InstantNonprofit.com (InstantNonprofit.com) as he walks us through the steps of starting a nonprofit, including dealing with the IRS and lawyers. He also presents how he and his team can help anyone aiming to start a foundation or charity and presents them their 501(c)(3) package.
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Listen to the podcast:
The Basics Of Starting A Nonprofit with Christian LeFer
We have Christian Lefer. He’s the founder and CEO of https://www.instantnonprofit.com/ (InstantNonprofit.com). Christian, welcome.
Good to see you again, Bob.
Christian has been a previous guest and we’re going to talk about InstantNonprofit.com. Christian, tell us about your business and who you serve.
I had volunteered to start a nonprofit with some friends around 2008, 2009. I completed the application, which I figured how hard can this be. I sent it in. A few weeks already, I received a letter with an agent’s name on it and a phone number. I couldn’t seem to get ahold of that person. When I did get ahold of somebody in the front desk, they told me it was going to probably be about twelve months and I could sit back and cool my heels a little bit because that’s how long they take to approve on a 501(c)(3). I thought, “How ridiculous.” I grew up with my little sister being developmentally disabled. I had experience with her running in Special Olympics. People don’t even realize how much they count on nonprofits as part of our fabric of society, whether it’s PTA or local little league or whatever. I was pissed and morally outraged. I decided to call about twenty extensions north and south of that agent’s phone number and whoever I could get ahold of, I would beg, plead and cajole them to give me the information about why this was such a nightmare.
What separated a good file? What gave them a good day at their desk versus a bad day? The IRS has made this process very Byzantine and very confusing. There’s no real source of information that says, “This is exactly what you need to do.” They’ve only layered more and more anti-fraud Band-Aids on top of their process over the years, so it’s only become more complex. I put together what I called a love letter to a bureaucrat based on grilling all of those agents. I edit the application and I got an approval in about 45 days. I tried this again with my little formula. A couple of other people in town heard that I can do this. I had a school with a billionaire donor. The school needed to get their approval in time to admit kids into the school and the billionaire donor would match all of that donations. I said, “I think I can get this done.” I had no idea, but I got it done and I went from blogger to businessman at that point.
You hear many stories where people get motivated for one reason or another and typically, it’s a significant frustration. That’s your significant frustration. What does your ideal client look like?
There are probably three different types of ideal clients. One is this successful entrepreneur or successful person or even corporate. Something where there’s already success, there’s already somewhat of a framework in things like generating revenue and building teams and those kinds of things. They’ll come to us and say, “We’ve got this idea. We know we want to do this, but we don’t want to wait forever for this paperwork or slog through a bunch of delays and back and forth.
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By Bob Roark
5
1212 ratings
Managing a nonprofit is a very noble move, but materializing it can be a daunting process even when you have billions of cash waiting to be used for a wonderful cause. In this episode, we learn from the knowledge bank of https://www.linkedin.com/in/christianlefer (Christian LeFer) who is the CEO and Founder of http://InstantNonprofit.com (InstantNonprofit.com) as he walks us through the steps of starting a nonprofit, including dealing with the IRS and lawyers. He also presents how he and his team can help anyone aiming to start a foundation or charity and presents them their 501(c)(3) package.
—
Listen to the podcast:
The Basics Of Starting A Nonprofit with Christian LeFer
We have Christian Lefer. He’s the founder and CEO of https://www.instantnonprofit.com/ (InstantNonprofit.com). Christian, welcome.
Good to see you again, Bob.
Christian has been a previous guest and we’re going to talk about InstantNonprofit.com. Christian, tell us about your business and who you serve.
I had volunteered to start a nonprofit with some friends around 2008, 2009. I completed the application, which I figured how hard can this be. I sent it in. A few weeks already, I received a letter with an agent’s name on it and a phone number. I couldn’t seem to get ahold of that person. When I did get ahold of somebody in the front desk, they told me it was going to probably be about twelve months and I could sit back and cool my heels a little bit because that’s how long they take to approve on a 501(c)(3). I thought, “How ridiculous.” I grew up with my little sister being developmentally disabled. I had experience with her running in Special Olympics. People don’t even realize how much they count on nonprofits as part of our fabric of society, whether it’s PTA or local little league or whatever. I was pissed and morally outraged. I decided to call about twenty extensions north and south of that agent’s phone number and whoever I could get ahold of, I would beg, plead and cajole them to give me the information about why this was such a nightmare.
What separated a good file? What gave them a good day at their desk versus a bad day? The IRS has made this process very Byzantine and very confusing. There’s no real source of information that says, “This is exactly what you need to do.” They’ve only layered more and more anti-fraud Band-Aids on top of their process over the years, so it’s only become more complex. I put together what I called a love letter to a bureaucrat based on grilling all of those agents. I edit the application and I got an approval in about 45 days. I tried this again with my little formula. A couple of other people in town heard that I can do this. I had a school with a billionaire donor. The school needed to get their approval in time to admit kids into the school and the billionaire donor would match all of that donations. I said, “I think I can get this done.” I had no idea, but I got it done and I went from blogger to businessman at that point.
You hear many stories where people get motivated for one reason or another and typically, it’s a significant frustration. That’s your significant frustration. What does your ideal client look like?
There are probably three different types of ideal clients. One is this successful entrepreneur or successful person or even corporate. Something where there’s already success, there’s already somewhat of a framework in things like generating revenue and building teams and those kinds of things. They’ll come to us and say, “We’ve got this idea. We know we want to do this, but we don’t want to wait forever for this paperwork or slog through a bunch of delays and back and forth.