10 Aug It’s Official! We are a 501(c)(3) Organization!

(August 10, 2014) We had to read the letter twice before it sunk in because we did not expect such a quick and easy approval. Three Rivers Mothers’ Milk Bank’s application for nonprofit status has been approved. We are officially a tax exempt organization. The time for approval was merely a few weeks- not months, not a year. We were expecting a long list of questions from the IRS because that is the norm but we were approved without any need to provide additional documentation or clarification. A rarity. We are not complaining!

So what does this mean for the organization? A lot. While we have been able to accept tax deductible donations through a fiscal sponsor… another established non profit… since our incorporation last November, we were prevented from pursuing many avenues of funding. A significant number of foundations will not accept an application through a fiscal sponsor and many programs/events such as The Pittsburgh Day of Giving and online charity sites require that an organization have its own 501(c)(3) status.

Now for a couple of important Thank Yous. First, a thank you goes to all of the board members who worked tirelessly for months on the very lengthy and involved application. The other thank you is to The Midwife Center for Birth and Women’s Health which acted as our fiscal sponsor for the past 9 months. Their staff has been wonderful and we are so grateful for their support and mentoring.

Just another step in this process to bring donor milk to our region’s NICU babies. This one is a big one though and takes this project to the next level.