Learn Essential Steps to Start a Nonprofit Organization

June 28, 2012 - PRLog -- ST. LOUIS – The University of Missouri–St. Louis Nonprofit Management & Leadership (NPML) Program announces a new course titled “Starting & Governing a Nonprofit 501(c)(3) Organization in Missouri.” The class is at 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Thursday, September 6, 2012, and meets at Room 202 in the J.C. Penney Conference Center on UMSL’s North Campus. The course teaches the first steps of starting a nonprofit organization and will provide the tools necessary to maintain the organization.

This intensive, 8-hour class explains everything one needs to know about how to start a Missouri nonprofit organization that will seek to obtain 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status from the IRS. In addition, this class will cover good governance policies, strategies and requirements that will allow your organization to maintain its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status with the IRS on an ongoing basis. The course focuses on practical information and resources such as forms to use, websites to access, governmental offices to contact or be aware of, and a checklist of steps to take.

“Many people have a dream of starting a nonprofit organization that will serve some greater good, or further an initiative or cause they find to be important,” says course instructor Dan Sise, JD, community engagement manager with the NPML Program at UMSL. “But many of these people don’t truly understand everything that is involved with starting and maintaining a nonprofit corporation that obtains tax-exempt status. This class is designed to aid and educate people who want to start a nonprofit, and to assist those who are passionate about a nonprofit’s mission, but could use more training on how to maintain and effectively govern that nonprofit in the eyes of the law.”

Assistant Attorney General Bob Carlson offers a lunchtime presentation with a list of do's and don'ts for nonprofits under Missouri law. Bob handles regulation and enforcement of Missouri state law as it applies to nonprofit organizations. He also monitors and investigates nonprofits across the state, and collaborates with staff from other attorney general offices around the country, as well as with IRS staff regarding broader issues for nonprofit, tax-exempt organization.

Course instructor Dan Sise, JD, joined the NPML Program at UMSL in October 2008 and serves as an instructor and community engagement manager. Dan directs the NPML noncredit continuing education program and teaches class on legal issues for nonprofits. His primary job takes him out into the community to develop even closer ties to the local nonprofit sector. A 1997 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Dan is currently licensed to practice law in Missouri and Illinois. He serves on the board of directors of a number of nonprofit organizations, including the Incarnate Word Foundation and SGSM Network. Prior to joining the NPML Program, Dan worked as director of operations for Habitat for Humanity in St. Louis.

The course fee is $89, which includes lunch and 0.8 Continuing Education Units. To register, or for further information, please call (314) 516-7250 or visit the course website at http://umslce.org/index.php/catalog/Professional-Developm....