Cohousing-L Mailing List: Non-profit organizational structure

[Bruce Hecht (brucehe]

Our cohousing group is organized as a non-profit. This works for us as we
have a private non-profit housing developer doing our project. They own the
land during development and are responsible for developing all design and
construction contracts. Our non-profit (a mutual benefit with members, not a
501c3) is basically a pass through for the equity that will be used to build
the project. We do have to make sure we do not have any excess revenue at
the end our calendar year or there could be tax consequences. Once you start
holding assets as Chris mentioned I think the non-profit becomes more of an
issue especially if you are not a 501c3.

Our local attorney suggested this model and then referred us to an attorney
who is a non-profit specialist who also said it would work. We have also
checked with a CPA that specializes in non-profits. Once the project is
built our attorney said we can morph the non-profit into a homeowners
association by doing some bylaw re-writes.

We like being a non-profit as it more accurately reflects the intent of our
group.

Bruce
CoHo Cohousing, Corvallis, Oregon