Martial Arts instruction as a Non Profit?

[Big Don]

Anyone have experience with it? What are it's unique hurdles?
Any advice?
I've been wondering about this for a week or so and finally realized where, and who (collectively) I should ask.

[stickarts]

Many years ago I had looked into running a non-profit club. While I don't remember many of the details, I can tell you I contacted someone that worked for the State, and The State was able to send me a bunch of very useful information about how to set it up and the rules and guidelines.

[kidswarrior]

There are some good threads in this section form days past. One to get you started is here (http://www.martialtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=52493&highlight=nonprofit+clubs).

[Hopeful Tomorrow]

I can tell you from experience that the process of setting up a non-profit is very expensive and tedious. Once you are a registered non-profit your books are also open to the public. The expense is different in every state. Our organization pays the fees in every state we have a partner studio. Many of our schools go on to obtain their own non-profit status but Hopeful Tomorrow is a very useful tool for those that do not wish to jump through all of the hoops. We keep 20% of the money we raise for your studio but at the same time.... the remaining 80% goes right back to your studio to support the disadvantaged kids in your own community. We can easily get your studio publicity from your local news media as well as create an additional revenue stream for your studio. We can never have too many partner studios or help too many children so if any of you are interested in working with Hopeful Tomorrow please let me know and I'll be happy to talk with you about our wonderful program. We also have a brand new flash intro on our website that I'm very proud of. I think it really gets our mission across visually for our visitors. If anyone gets some spare time check it out and let me know what you think :-) Have a great day!