Hi everyone ... especially shelters and donors to shelters!

I think I need to clarify what the "S.O.S. umbrella" is. There have
been some misunderstandings that could potentially complicate things
tax-wise for either a shelter or S.O.S. Our non-profit status benefits
shelters and people who donate to shelters in just a few very simple
ways.

We received our 501(c)3 non-profit status in January 2001 because more
people are able to donate--and donate in larger amounts--if they
receive a tax deduction for their donation. Our intention (and it has
worked beautifully) was that shelters who did not have 501(c)3 status
would benefit from this. We also help shelters that have their own 501
(c)3, of course. We are here to serve all the shelters. The purpose of
getting one for S.O.S. was to help the shelters who do not have one.

This is what our 501(c)3 non-profit status does:

**Anyone who donates to S.O.S. can take a tax deduction. (Keep a record
of your donation. We also send thank you letters at the end of the
year.)

**Anyone can send a donation to S.O.S. and designate that a specific
shelter receive the donation. The donor can take a tax deduction even
if the shelter is not 501(c)3 because the donation is made to S.O.S.
and not the shelter directly.

Now to correct some of the misunderstandings people have about how our
501(c)3 non-profit status applies:

**No shelter can say that they are a non-profit or a 501(c)3 shelter
under the S.O.S. umbrella. You have to have your own to be one. What
shelters can say is: "Tax deductible donations can be made to our
shelter through Support Our Shelters" and then say how to do that.
(Either send a check made out to Support Our Shelters to the address
in my signature below with a note specifying that the money should go
to xxx shelter, or make a donation through PayPal with a note about
how to apply it (see my signature below).

**A raffle is not at tax-deductible activity. We do not run other
people's raffles and shelters cannot tell people to purchase their
raffle tickets through us. We do not include raffle ticket purchases
in our tax-deduction letters to donors.

**We do not participate in the Giving Tree. We LOVE the Giving Tree,
but we are not part of it. A shelter who puts ferrets on the Giving
Tree should not expect donors to use S.O.S. However, if a donor wants
to use us to pay a vet bill for a ferret on the Giving Tree, we will
do that.

**No shelter can mention S.O.S. on eBay for any reason.

**No shelter can claim to be a non-profit through us on PayPal.

However, shelters ARE very welcome to apply for grants from PetCo and
PetSmart and anyone else using the S.O.S. umbrella as long as you
inform us of what you want to do beforehand. We are also happy to fill
out forms for corporate matching funds and then pass those on to the
shelter of your choice.

I don't like how negative some of this post sounds, but we simply never
imagined that people would use our 501(c)3 in so many ways when we were
imagining the positive things we wanted to do. Our goals were and are
pretty simple. Help shelters by helping donors. As always, the funds
we receive go to pay vet bills, buy food and supplies, and pay for ADV
testing and implants.

If you have any questions, please ask me directly. We are here to help.
I sure hope there is nothing in my post to stir up anyone's emotions.
We are all volunteers who have never been paid a penny except postage
reimbursement for the hours of work that we do for the love of ferrets.
All of us are busy and tired. And here to serve to the best of our
limited abilities :o)

Thank you all for YOUR love of ferrets!

Judith White, President and Treasurer
Sharon Bearden, Ela McAdams, Kat Parsons, Joanne Werstlein, Robin  
Jones, Risa DiVincenzo

~~~~~ Support Our Shelters ~~~~~
                 100 Walsh Road
            Lansdowne, PA 19050
                    610-626-6647

Helping the Shelters of the Ferret Mailing List
          www.SupportOurShelters.org

Ask me how you can help a shelter near you.
    <[log in to unmask]>

Tax-Deductible Donations through PayPal to:
<[log in to unmask]>
  501(c)3 non-profit  Tax ID: 23-3062176

[Posted in FML 6514]