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]