By "we thought we could do this ourselves", philipn meant that basically I wasn't up to the task. Myself being not a lawyer and all.
Nolo's book isn't really meant for OSS/software/online projects, so it only really provides a rough outline of the process. Because of that, we got to the point where we did have to consult an attorney to get us back on track.
If you're working with an OSS community, it's important to note that giving stuff away != a charity. You need to emphasize that you are working specifically for the underprivileged. Even if you have an underprivileged community that you are serving, if you serve all comers it could easily seem as if it was self-serving to donors.
The educational exemption is generally much more appropriate for information and technology, like philipn said. When we took the time to explain that our goal was to teach people about their own communities, they were much more receptive. Other orgs like The Perl Foundation were similarly organized as educational (providing training at conferences, educational grants). Likewise with Wikimedia Foundation, which is fairly obviously educational despite major software investments.
If what you want to do is just be tax-exempt -- but not have tax deductible donations -- that's a much easier thing to do. A 501(c)6 may serve any community, so long as it gets most of its funding from donations or membership dues. That's how the Linux Foundation handles it. It's less desirable, but it will prevent you having to pay tons of back taxes.
Nolo's book isn't really meant for OSS/software/online projects, so it only really provides a rough outline of the process. Because of that, we got to the point where we did have to consult an attorney to get us back on track.
If you're working with an OSS community, it's important to note that giving stuff away != a charity. You need to emphasize that you are working specifically for the underprivileged. Even if you have an underprivileged community that you are serving, if you serve all comers it could easily seem as if it was self-serving to donors.
The educational exemption is generally much more appropriate for information and technology, like philipn said. When we took the time to explain that our goal was to teach people about their own communities, they were much more receptive. Other orgs like The Perl Foundation were similarly organized as educational (providing training at conferences, educational grants). Likewise with Wikimedia Foundation, which is fairly obviously educational despite major software investments.
If what you want to do is just be tax-exempt -- but not have tax deductible donations -- that's a much easier thing to do. A 501(c)6 may serve any community, so long as it gets most of its funding from donations or membership dues. That's how the Linux Foundation handles it. It's less desirable, but it will prevent you having to pay tons of back taxes.