Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Cohousing communities and tax-exemption, 501c3

[David Heimann (heimann]

Hi Ken,

	As mentioned earlier in this thread, not all non-profits are 
501c3's.  Assuming that Sunward Cohousing is organized as a non-profit 
(presumably it is, since to my knowledge most homeowners' associations 
are), it could likely qualify for those discounts whether or not it's a 
501c3.

Regards,
David Heimann
JP Cohousing


Date: Fri, 12 Jun 2015 12:15:37 -0400
From: Ken Winter <ken [at] sunward.org>
To: Cohousing-L List <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ Cohousing communities and tax-exemption, 501c3
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I was asking about 501(c)(3) for another, less obvious, reason.

As mentioned in threads several months ago, I'm looking for a way to
provide cohousing communities with portals - member's web sites that
provide one-stop-shopping access to all of a community's information
services.  One way to do this is to use a commercial "platform" - a
facility that provides you most or all of what you need, more-or-less out
of the box.

All you have to do to get it is *pay*.  Alas, you have to pay many times
what a coho community would be willing or able to pay, because the
sustaining customers of these platforms are for-profit corporations.
However, some of these platform companies offer their facilities at deeply
discounted prices to non-profits.  Salesforce.com, the one I know the most
about, has a nonprofit rate that is roughly 10% of the for-profit rate.
(By the way, even at that price, I'm not sure the Salesforce platform would
be affordable for our purposes.)

Generalizing from the portal example, I'm thinking that there may be a
whole range of goods and services out there that for-profit companies,
governments, or other providers make available free or cheap to 501(c)(3)
nonprofits.

~ Ken, from Sunward Cohousing