Any ideas on how to start my own charitable organization? I want to start an outreach type foundation in my community but am not sure how to go about going it. How could I get funding for the beginning stages of this? I thought about holding a benefit dinner.

You have to have a special license before you start collecting money for a charitable organization. Unfortunately there is a lot of fraud related to this venture. And how would you be compensated for doing this ?

Hello S:

Well, who'd you be reaching out for? Would people donate money for you to reach out to them. How are you going to reach What are you going to do? Talk? Action? Feed the hungry? Pass legislation? Lead marches? Train unemployables? House the homeless? Treat the uninsured? Teach the unlearned? Pick one. There's others too.

Once you pick what, in fact, you're going to do, then you got to figure out how much it's going to cost. Once that's done, you can get a license and start raising money.

A benefit dinner is a good start, but it'll only fund you for a week or so. Fund raising is going to be a full time activity so you're going to need help. It ain't going to be cheap. It's really like starting your own business. In fact, it IS starting your own business. Certainly, you can pay yourself for running your charity.

excon