Starting a Nonprofit

CT Nonprofits receives calls every week from ambitious individuals who want to start a nonprofit organization. In order to help them navigate the waters, we have found resources that provide guidance and food for thought. We also highly recommend that if you are thinking of starting a nonprofit, you consult our Principles & Practices for Nonprofit Excellence in Connecticut.

If you have any resources that you’d like to share with the nonprofit community, please email a brief description, and link or PDF to Melissa Harris.

Where to begin

Starting a Nonprofit in Connecticut Connecticut Council for Philanthropy.

Nonprofit Law Resource Library – Checklist and resources for starting a nonprofit in CT

Small Business Development Center, Central Connecticut State University

Pro bono Partnership: A partnership founded by members of The Corporate Bar Association as a tax-exempt public charity. Provides free business legal assistance to community-based nonprofit organizations serving disadvantaged populations in Westchester County, New York, Hartford & Fairfield County, Connecticut.

5-Step Guide & Resources from the National Council of Nonprofits

Five reasons to incorporate your nonprofit

Do I need a lawyer to do this, how much should it cost?

Why Running a Nonprofit is the Hardest Job in Business

Can a nonprofit be a business?

Guides & Exercises

Top Ten Strategic Principles for Nonprofit Organizations: Developing a set of principles to position a not for profit organization for success is a challenge in this day and age. Our world is changing and evolving, and at lightening speed. Without the simple bottom line for measurement, where you are going and how you are getting there can confound even the best strategic planners.

So you want to start a nonprofit!: Ten steps to starting a nonprofit organization.

Business Planning for Nonprofits: What It Is and Why It Matters

The business-planning process offers nonprofit decision makers an opportunity to connect the dots between mission and programs, to specify the resources required to deliver those programs, and to establish performance measures.

How to Start a Nonprofit Organization A five-step outline from a graduate-level class on how to create a charitable nonprofit organization.

Sample Articles of Incorporation

Other tools and considerations

About.com questions to ask

Starting a nonprofit: some early preparation.

Tools to Help Nonprofit Organizations

How to Form a Nonprofit Corporation

Faith-Based HUD Tookit

Internet Nonprofit Center: Where to start

CT Nonprofits’ Tips for Starting a Nonprofit

Look before you leap! This information was amassed with a little help from our friends. Before going through the process of starting a new charity we strongly encourage you to read the first two FAQs.

Before you begin, some issues to consider.

Five alternatives to starting a nonprofit.

What are the key steps in forming a nonprofit?

What forms and documents do we have to file?

What takes place at our first board meeting?

Who can I contact at the IRS that can help?