Innovative advisory firm uses Yippiekiyay to accelerate IRS tax-exempt status and fundraising compliance for world-changing nonprofits.
A new way to support not-for-profit business
Charitable and nonprofit organizations probably aren’t the first things that come to mind when you think of mergers and acquisitions, capital financing, and corporate counsel. But for Heidi Hancock, Vice President at Exemplar Consulting, LLC, nonprofits are key constituents and clients.
Exemplar is the first consulting firm of its kind, aiming exclusively to support mission-based organizations poised to change the world. Behind its Quadruple Bottom Line™ approach—emphasizing the financial, social, environmental, and spiritual outcomes of its clients—Exemplar is out to revolutionize the way emerging visionary companies impact social interaction.
“It doesn’t matter to us whether a company is just starting up or brings in several hundreds of millions in revenues each year,” Hancock says. “We want to use our unique mix of business, legal, and fundraising expertise to help companies succeed in making a significant positive impact on society overall.”
Cultivating tomorrow’s game-changers
One of the emerging visionaries Exemplar Consulting supports is The Braude and Glidden Center for Deep Social Design. The California-based organization’s core mission is to research unique social constructs such as evolutionary kinship that inform the way humans work and live together.
The firm’s goal of creating a community based on its research findings is exactly the type of forward-thinking and creative solutions to societal challenges that captures Exemplar’s attention. However, building and maintaining a practice to support such innovations in an underserved market can require a lot of time and money, a precious commodity in the nonprofit world.
“The biggest challenge in working with visionary non-profit organizations is organizing the information needed to file an application for tax-exempt status and keeping the company compliant with onerous registration laws for fundraising across the US afterward,” says Hancock. “We have all the resources to do it internally, but chose InstantNonprofit and CharityFilings by Yippiekiyay to provide a more cost-effective and efficient alternative to doing it ourselves.”
Yippiekiyay’s cloud-based services streamline the process of applying for 501(c)3 tax exempt status and becoming compliant with charitable solicitation laws in 40 states, helping Exemplar provide better, prompter service to business leaders who need it most. Unlike conventional paper-based applications that can be confusing and take weeks or months to complete, Yippiekiyay automatically populates the right forms fields with the proper information to ensure accurate, timely submission of a non-profit’s Form 1023 and fundraising compliance documents.
“Yippiekiyay makes it easy to collect requirements, simplifies the writing process, and even helps founders better understand the narratives they need tell,” Hancock says. “Along with their guidance and advice, it’s the most complete solution available outside of a full-service advisory firm.”
A vital resource for nonprofits everywhere
One of the biggest challenges for nonprofit organizations is balancing their need for guidance with their ability to afford it. With InstantNonprofit, many of the most time-consuming—and costly—parts of forming and filing for 501(c)3 recognition are automated, enabling Exemplar Consulting to significantly reduce the amount of time its advisers spend on paperwork and pass along the savings to their clients.
Hancock notes that gaining tax-exempt status quickly is an important step for non-profit businesses because of the advantage it confers in fundraising. “Without a 501(c)3 designation, companies lose the impact of the endorsement of the federal government and the legitimacy that comes with it,” she says. “It also means that fundraising might be delayed and funds are harder to procure.”
InstantNonprofit also reduces the overall length of the tax-exempt application process, helping non-profit businesses achieve the milestone. “Filing for recognition as a 501(c)3 is a famously long and frustrating process,” Hancock says. “InstantNonprofit has helped our clients attain their status in as few as four weeks, which is simply remarkable.”
Moving forward, Hancock views Yippiekiyay as an essential resource for nonprofits looking to get their start on changing the world. “InstantNonprofit and CharityFilings guide charity leaders through some of the most confusing parts of getting their organization formed and compliant,” she says. “The solution makes it easier for us to provide our clients the help they need at a price they can afford.”
