Austin Humanists at Work Recieves 501(c)(3) Nonprofit Status

Austin Humanists at Work (ATXHAW) is proud to announce that we have received our 501(c)(3) designation, officially establishing the organization as a nonprofit.

Since 2014, ATXHAW has been collecting donations of personal care items to help people experiencing homelessness and limited means in Central Austin. We are very excited to grow as an organization, and this will give us a boost to help as many people as we can with the resources we are given.

“This is a major milestone for our organization. Acquiring our 501(c)(3) designation means a lot in terms of how we operate and will help us better serve the people who need it most in Central Austin. Being able to receive monetary donations will have a huge impact on the roughly 150 people we serve at each of our monthly giveaways. I am humbled to how far we’ve come, and hope to grow to help cure chronic homelessness and poverty in Austin.” 

– Virginia Miller, ATXHAW president

The story of how we got here 

“The process took about 21 months from start to finish. It’s not just filing an application with the IRS; there’s much more to it than that. It began before we changed our name. There have been some bumps in the road, but we have worked together to iron things out. We greatly appreciate the assistance of Texas C-BAR and the lawyers that they’ve referred us to.”

– Laura Tanner, ATXHAW donations director

In 2016, we started the process of applying for a 501(c)(3) status with a six-person board of directors. We discovered Texas C-Bar, an organization which provides free legal resources and business law services to organizations working to improve the quality of life in low-income neighborhoods. After it was determined that our organization qualified for their services, we were assigned a team of lawyers from Dykema Cox Smith in San Antonio and they guided us through the entire application and filing process. They were pivotal to getting our 501(c)(3) approval and our application was approved without any correction requests from the IRS. We would like to extend our most heartfelt appreciation to Texas C-Bar and Dykema Cox Smith.

In October 2016, while the board worked with the lawyers on forming our bylaws, we ran a fundraiser using the crowdfunding site Indiegogo for our 501(c)(3) application fee. In only six days, we collected $500 dollars from nine donors. Thank you Jen, Kate, Oren, Kellie, Kellie, Vesta, Rudy, Keely, Melissa and their families for your generous donations!

“There are many reasons why we incorporated and became a nonprofit, including: the ability to apply for private and federal grants reserved for nonprofits; we will be exempt from paying state and federal taxes; making donations tax-exempt will expand our donor base and allow corporations to match donations; and, we will be exempt from paying property taxes, which will help us greatly when the time comes for us to get an office. All of these benefits will help us to uphold our mission of assisting as many people in need as possible.”

– Laura Tanner, ATXHAW donations director

After many board meetings, phone calls, and emails, the application was ready to be sent off.  A huge thank you goes out to our board:  Betsie Eikenberry, Jennifer Moore, Kayla Guentzel, Laura Tanner, Mike Guentzel, and Virginia Miller for their hard work and dedication achieving ATXHAW’s 501(c)(3). We would like to spotlight Laura Tanner in this significant endeavor. She was the applications lead champion for all the long hours of reading, emails, facilitating the writing of our bylaws, and phone calls to the lawyers. Laura was an integral part of getting 501(c)(3) designation. Thank you, Laura!

What does this mean for the organization?

 

“Getting registered as an official charity is a huge step forward for us.  So many of our volunteers have employers that will match donations they make to registered 501(c)3 organizations, and there are many online resources that are now available to us. This should expand our support for the people we serve.

– Michael Guentzel, ATXHAW technical director

Our nonprofit status changes how you can donate. For the first time ever, can accept monetary donations from this time forward. We will be happy to write a receipt for your taxes for monetary or in-kind donations.  Click on the link below to donate via PayPal: