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Fundraising question
posted by
malekfreak
on
July 24, 2007 at 7:40 am
INDEPENDENCE, IA — I’ve recently become involved with the restoration on the Malek Theater and was reading a lot of helpful stuff on this site. What I really need to know though, is does a theater have to be a not for profit business in order to do fund raising for restoration?
Comments (3)
For the exact wording talk to your accountant but if you are not a “not for profit business” you can collet money and then use it to to restoration and then at the end of your year have that amount taken off your taxes as a business expence for building upkeep. Again talk to your accountant on the exact way this can be done so you will not have any problems down the road.
The problem is that people who donate money can not write it off unless you are a non-profit business.
If your theater is not a registered 501c3 non-profit, then you can still raise funds, but you have to make it clear that there are no tax benefits for the donor. The best thing to do in this case is offer advertising or sponsorships. The business then files the expense as advertising in their accounting.
Special events such as screenings of popular classic films, movie premieres, concerts and comedy shows if you have a stage, etc. can be good special events. You will raise funds via tickets (higher than normal film tix) and esp. through the business sponsorships.