RDI Consultant, Marija Savitt, M.A., continues her story about the process to create a funding source for RDI programs. This is the second part in a two-part blog series titled Creating an RDI® Funding source.  

Well now that you have come up with a funding resource, you are ready to start raising money, right? Well, yes and no. This is not the same as the carwash you did in high school or the lemonade stand you had in elementary school. This is big time fundraising and you will need to pull together a lot of information and get through a lot of red tape before you are  ready to dive into it head first. My first stop on this journey was my local book store to purchase a legal book on starting a non-profit in my area. This gave me a good idea of where I needed to go and what my road map would be, but it did not answer everything. I also got into contact with my local small business development center which had a wealth of information on starting a business and the places I needed to go to file as a business.

We started out with our first meeting to discuss what role each person would play in the development of our non-profit. I was the business person so I handled all of our licenses. Through our groups of friends, we were able to find people who were happy to donate their time such as an accountant and a lawyer that were well versed in the dreaded 501c3 application that the IRS makes you complete. We still might have been on step one without their help. I have found that many people are happy to help when you tell them about the cause.

The first thing that we needed to do was to determine what we wanted to name our organization. We then filed the name with our state as well as online with the IRS for a tax payer identification number. Once this was done, we needed to determine what type of business we would form. Would we be a corporation, a limited liability corporation (LLC), a sole proprietor or a partnership? Being a sole proprietor was not an option for us. A sole proprietor usually consists of one individual working as themselves and taking on all liability for the company. A partnership might apply but, it requires specific items on who the partners are and what their contributions are to start up the company and since we weren't starting with a capital, it really didn't make sense. That left us with two choices: a LLC or a corporation. They are pretty similar but, in the state of Nevada, it is actually less expensive to form a LLC. Both the LLC and corporation free any one person from liability for something the business does. So basically, if something bad were to happen, someone could not sue us personally and take away our homes. They could only sue the company. We made our decision to form a LLC and then we submitted the appropriate paper work and paid the fees to form our organization. After that, we were required to submit a list of resident agents who were responsible for the organization. This again required paperwork and fees.

I thought that the next logical thing to do would be to file for a business license but I quickly learned that in Nevada, you need to first be an approved 501c3 to qualify for a non-profit business license so, we started on the 501c3 journey. A 501c3 is the filing as a non-profit organization with the IRS in the United States so that you may receive tax exemptions and offer tax breaks to donors. Once this was completed, I had two simple steps to freedom: a business license and a charitable solicitation permit. Wow! What a process!

Completing the lengthy process to being recognized as a non-profit organization is not easy  but, it is well worth it. While I was busy with paperwork, other board members were scrambling to pull together many pieces to our fundraising event. Our event on June 4^th was a poker tournament and silent auction. There were so many pieces to the puzzle. In order to organize the event, my co-founder and I volunteered for another poker tournament charity event so we could learn what we would need to get things going. After that, we found a location for our event and started to pull together all of the marketing items we would need. For a poker tournament we needed people that would make others want to come to our event. We had been able to secure a list of various celebrities and professional poker players.  Next for the silent auction that would be for non-poker playing people, we needed to get items donated. Local businesses can be a great resource and with marketing in return for donations, they were happy to supply us with items. We also had to develop fliers and post cards so that we could invite our community to come out for this special night. We pulled together an extensive mailing list and sent out post cards asking everyone to spread the news. It is quite an accomplishment to not only know that you could put together something so grand but that you can also help a community of parents who need these funds.

* Marija raised enough money to begin providing RDI programming for families and fund their next event.  They also received a 2.5 minute spot on the local news station.  Overall it was a great success!

Marija Savitt, M.A. and her family reside in Las Vegas, NV. She graduated from California State University, Northridge with both her B.A. in Psychology and her M.A. in Education, Psychology and Counseling. Marija spent many years working with children with autism as a behavior interventionist for programs that provided various behavioral techniques. As Marija grew as a professional, she started to seek out other means for working with children with autism. Marija was introduced to Relationship Development Intervention by a colleague and decided to pursue her certification. Upon completion of her first seminar, she knew that RDI was the answer to what she had been searching for as a professional. While obtaining her certification in RDI, Marija worked relentlessly to open her own business, Behavioral Resolutions in Las Vegas, NV and to make a name for herself in her community.

To access part 1 of this series, please click here.

Marija Savitt, M.A.

Behavioral Resolutions

522 E. Twain Ave.

Las Vegas, NV 89169

Phone: 702-883-1905

Email: BehavioralResolutions@live.com

Website: www.BehavioralResolutions.net & www.Allin4Autism.org