Government and civic life
🤝 Starting and Running a Nonprofit or Advocacy Group in Idaho
How to start and run an Idaho advocacy group the right way: choosing between an unincorporated association and a nonprofit corporation, articles, bylaws, filings and annual reports, the EIN, picking 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4) and the IRS forms, board duties, fundraising and tax rules, political activity limits and how to close down cleanly.
- 1Association, Corporation or Something Else: What Your Group Can Be in IdahoThe legal shapes an Idaho advocacy group can take (an informal group, an unincorporated nonprofit association under Idaho Code Title 30 Chapter 27, a nonprofit corporation under Chapter 30, a project under a fiscal sponsor, or an LLC) and how state legal form differs from federal tax status.24 min
- 2Filing Articles of Incorporation with the Idaho Secretary of StateWhat Idaho nonprofit articles must say under Idaho Code 30-30-202, the name rules, choosing a registered agent, incorporators and initial directors, members or no members, the purpose and dissolution clauses the IRS expects for a 501(c)(3), filing in SOSBiz and its fees, and assumed business names.25 min
- 3Bylaws and the First MeetingThe default rules Idaho's Nonprofit Corporation Act sets for boards, officers, members, meetings, notice, quorum, voting, remote participation, written consent and amendments; what bylaws should change; how to run the organizational meeting; and the governance policies IRS Forms 1023 and 990 ask about.26 min
- 4The EIN, the Bank Account and the Idaho Annual ReportGetting a federal EIN and naming the responsible party, opening a bank account, filing Idaho's free annual report by the end of the anniversary month, avoiding and curing administrative dissolution, keeping the registered agent current, and registering with the Idaho State Tax Commission and Department of Labor when the group sells things or hires, with a year-round compliance calendar.25 min
- 5Choosing 501(c)(3) or 501(c)(4), and Applying to the IRSWhat a 501(c)(3) charity and a 501(c)(4) social welfare group may each do, how deductibility, donor disclosure, lobbying and grants differ, how to apply on Form 1023, Form 1023-EZ, Form 8976 and Form 1024-A with the 2026 user fees, how the public support tests and the 27-month rule work, and how to run a (c)(3) and (c)(4) side by side.32 min
- 6Board Duties, Conflicts of Interest and PayWhat Idaho law asks of nonprofit directors and officers, how the Idaho Nonprofit Corporation Act handles conflict of interest transactions and loans, how volunteer immunity under Idaho Code 6-1605 and the federal Volunteer Protection Act work, how the IRS excess benefit rules and rebuttable presumption apply to pay and deals with insiders, and what the Attorney General may do about misused charitable assets.31 min
- 7Fundraising Rules: Receipts, Raffles, Online Giving and Restricted GiftsThe federal rules for donor acknowledgments, quid pro quo disclosures and noncash gifts, the nondeductibility notice for 501(c)(4) groups, what the Idaho Charitable Solicitation Act does and does not require, Idaho's constitutional and statutory rules for charitable raffles and bingo, crowdfunding, restricted gifts and grants, and when fundraising income is taxable as unrelated business income.33 min
- 8State Tax Exemption, the Form 990 Family and Public InspectionHow Idaho income, sales and property tax treat a nonprofit, which federal Form 990 a group files and when, what happens after three years of silence, and which documents any member of the public may walk in and ask to see.32 min
- 9Political Activity, Lobbying and Advocacy: Building the Organization Around the RulesHow an Idaho advocacy group sets itself up to lobby lawfully: the substantial part test or the 501(h) election, what counts as direct and grassroots lobbying and what does not, the 501(c)(4) primary purpose rule and the dues notice or proxy tax, when staff or volunteers must register as Idaho lobbyists under Title 74 Chapter 7, and when a separate PAC is the cleaner choice.34 min
- 10Records, Transparency and Closing Down CleanlyWhat records an Idaho nonprofit must keep and for how long, who has the right to inspect them, why the Idaho Public Records Act usually does not reach a private nonprofit, and how to handle a struggling group: merging, voluntary dissolution step by step with the Attorney General notice under the Idaho Charitable Assets Protection Act, the final IRS return, and administrative dissolution and reinstatement.35 min