Define Your Who - How to Start a Nonprofit Step #2 - YouTube

Mark: Step number two in starting a nonprofit  is to define your who. This is really important  

because you're determining who your officers  are and what their responsibilities will be.  

Who will be on your board of directors, and who  will be your other partners in this journey?

I am Mark Lyda, from Lyda  Law Firm. Let's get started.

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Mark: So I break down the question of defining  your who into those three groups. One,  

your officers. Two, your board of directors. And  three, your other partners or other collaborators.

This is extremely important not only because you  need to know it in order to operate and to have  

your nonprofit run smoothly. But also because  you'll be specifically asked about it when you  

go to fill out your IRS Form 1023, which is the  big packet of stuff that you submit to the IRS  

to actually be recognized as a 501(c)(3)  nonprofit. So you need this information,  

not just to operate, but also to  be legally deemed a nonprofit.

OK, so first, your officers. These are the  people who will actually be running the day  

to day of your organization. If you are watching  this video, it's very likely that you will be the  

officer or an officer of your nonprofit. So this  includes things like the Executive Director. Or  

if you have a Development Officer, you know,  some sort of Co-Directors, or a Vice Director,  

however you want to do it. These are the people  who will actually be executing day to day.

If you are starting your  nonprofit with someone else,  

it's important not only to come up  with what each of your titles will be,  

but also what your responsibilities will  be. This really goes to more making sure  

that your operation runs smoothly. So what are  the expectations of your relationship with each  

other? Who will be in charge? Who will report  to whom? Who will be doing the day-to-day work  

on fundraising, on managing staff, on managing  operations, on serving the mission as a whole?

It's incredibly important, at the beginning  of this collaborative relationship,  

if you are starting this with somebody else,  

that you go into it with a clear sense of  what each other's expectations are. What is  

your expectation for your Co-Director or your  partner, or whatever else, and vice versa?

Next, you'll be talking about your Board of  Directors. So you need a Board of Directors, it's  

part of the IRS Form 1023 to say who your Board of  Directors is. Who is on your Board of Directors?  

If you are going to be a private foundation,  those people can be related by family relations  

or by business relations. But if you are starting  a public charity, you need your Board members to  

be independent, so a majority of your Board has  to be unrelated by, either, family or business  

relations. The IRS Form 1023 will ask for the bios  of your Board and for their job responsibilities  

in their non-Board life. So you'll need  to gather all of that information on them.

So who should be on your Board? Well, it's  important to have someone, to have a group  

of people you trust. It's important  to have people who have maybe subject  

matter expertise in your field. If you're  starting some sort of medical nonprofit,  

maybe people with a medical background. If  you're starting something involving civil rights,  

people who have experience  advocating in that field.

But it's also important to have people who  know about running a nonprofit, not just  

the substantive area, but actually the day to  day of what it takes to run a nonprofit. And,  

a lot of times, that means funding and  fundraising. So that's another thing  

that Board members bring to the table is,  potentially, they donate on their own and  

raise funds from their networks. So that's  a very important thing that Board members  

bring to the table, and it's another thing you  should think about when assembling your Board.

I always recommend that a Board have an odd  number of people. In case there is a tie vote,  

an odd number prevents a tie vote. So the minimum  you can have, the minimum I suggest you have  

is three people. You have to designate one as  Chair of the Board, one as Secretary, and one as  

Treasurer. You can have person wear multiple hats  but if you have three people, might as well assign  

one duty to each. And, of course, you can have  more than three members of your Board as well.

And then the third group to think about in  defining your why is your other collaborators,  

your other partners in this journey. So thinking  about vendors you will use. Thinking about other  

nonprofits you might want to collaborate with  in planning events, or serving your mission  

through programs, etc. Foundations who might be  funding sources for you or private donors who  

might help fund your operations. And Denise will  talk about your funding sources in the next video.

So I suggest that you write all of this down.  It's really not enough to just kind of think,  

"OK, here are my officers and I'll get three Board  of Directors, and here are the general types of  

people I'll partner with as well, as outside  collaborators." I suggest you really engage in  

the hard work of writing it down, defining those  relationships, defining those responsibilities,  

and defining those expectations. And  you'll thank yourself later for doing it.

Next up, Denise will talk about  your funding sources to actually  

finance your nonprofit. Thanks for  watching. If you have any questions,  

please drop them in the comments below.  Also, please remember to click Like and  

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