i'm pretty sure we included that in Sopo's 501(c)3 forms, which you can find in the bike collective starter kit on the wiki. the advice from our accountant was: be brief and just descriptive enough. you don't really need to go into a lot of detail, and the feds don't really need to know alls the ins and outs of your programming. for example:

the youth earn-a-bike program is conducted by awesome city bike co-op in awesome city, excellent state during saturday shop hours year round. this activity furthers our tax exempt purposes by providing a charitable service--teaching bike maintenance skills and distributing bicycles--to our neighborhood youth. 10% of our time is allocated to this program, and it is funded by a fantastic grant from some great community foundation.

-rachael

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Boson Au boson.au@gmail.com wrote:

Hi everyone, we here at Baltimore's Velocipede Bike Project are in the middle of applying for 501(c)(3). We're actually a little apprehensive about Part IV of the Application and was wondering if other collectives out there who do have this status can help out. Specifically, we're not 100% sure how to go about writing a "Narrative Description of Activities"... here's what the application says:

---

Part IV. Narrative Description of Your Activities Describe completely and in detail your past, present, and planned activities. Do not refer to or repeat the purposes in your organizing document. You may refer to other parts of the application rather than repeat information provided elsewhere.

For each past, present, or planned activity, include information that answersthe following questions.

• What is the activity?
• Who conducts the activity?
• When is the activity conducted?
• Where is the activity conducted (for example: Los Angeles and San

Francisco, California)?

• How does the activity further your exempt purposes?
• What percentage of your total time is allocated to the activity?
• How is the activity funded? (This should agree with the financial data in

Part IX.)

• List any alternate names under which you operate, including any “aka”

(also known as) or “dba” (doing business as) names.

If you have a website, you may attach a paper copy to support your narrative description of activities.

---

We at Velocipede was wondering if there are other collectives that have already done this part and could show us your answers just as an example. We're not 100% sure how detailed we should go, etc... any help is appreciated.

thanks in advance. if you don't want to spam the list please feel free to email me directly at boson.au@gmail.com

-Boson Au Velocipede Bike Project Baltimore, MD

---

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That is exactly what we're looking for. thank you all for your input.

I agree, next bike bike needs to be in Awesome City.

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 3:05 PM, veganboyjosh@gmail.com wrote:

Awesome city needs to step it up and host bikebike soon. That place sounds rad.

I'm just sayin'.

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 1:02 PM, rachael spiewak rachael@sopobikes.orgwrote:

...

i'm pretty sure we included that in Sopo's 501(c)3 forms, which you can find in the bike collective starter kit on the wiki. the advice from our accountant was: be brief and just descriptive enough. you don't really need to go into a lot of detail, and the feds don't really need to know alls the ins and outs of your programming. for example:

the youth earn-a-bike program is conducted by awesome city bike co-op in awesome city, excellent state during saturday shop hours year round. this activity furthers our tax exempt purposes by providing a charitable service--teaching bike maintenance skills and distributing bicycles--to our neighborhood youth. 10% of our time is allocated to this program, and it is funded by a fantastic grant from some great community foundation.

-rachael

On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 1:43 PM, Boson Au boson.au@gmail.com wrote:

...

Hi everyone, we here at Baltimore's Velocipede Bike Project are in the middle of applying for 501(c)(3). We're actually a little apprehensive about Part IV of the Application and was wondering if other collectives out there who do have this status can help out. Specifically, we're not 100% sure how to go about writing a "Narrative Description of Activities"... here's what the application says:

---

Part IV. Narrative Description of Your Activities Describe completely and in detail your past, present, and planned activities. Do not refer to or repeat the purposes in your organizing document. You may refer to other parts of the application rather than repeat information provided elsewhere.

For each past, present, or planned activity, include information that answersthe following questions.

• What is the activity?
• Who conducts the activity?
• When is the activity conducted?
• Where is the activity conducted (for example: Los Angeles and San

Francisco, California)?

• How does the activity further your exempt purposes?
• What percentage of your total time is allocated to the activity?
• How is the activity funded? (This should agree with the financial data

in Part IX.)

• List any alternate names under which you operate, including any “aka”

(also known as) or “dba” (doing business as) names.

If you have a website, you may attach a paper copy to support your narrative description of activities.

---

We at Velocipede was wondering if there are other collectives that have already done this part and could show us your answers just as an example. We're not 100% sure how detailed we should go, etc... any help is appreciated.

thanks in advance. if you don't want to spam the list please feel free to email me directly at boson.au@gmail.com

-Boson Au Velocipede Bike Project Baltimore, MD

---

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-- Sopo Bicycle Cooperative 404-425-9989 www.sopobikes.org

---

Hours of operation: Tues, Wed, & Thurs 7 pm - 10 pm Sat & Sun 2 pm - 6 pm

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