I recently became the president of a local filmmaking organization, Upstate Independents. We are considering changing our status to a 501c3. Anyone have experience with this who could give the pros and cons? Specifically, we're looking to do this to begin a substantial fundraising campaign that will help us launch a bunch of new programs.

Marco,

This is likely gonna get moved to "Taking Care of Business" but I'll start it out here.

The most important advice you can get here is that you shouldn't look here for advice! Few of us (with the exception of a few attorneys who post here) are any where NEAR qualified to give you advice on the business form that's appropriate for your situation.

You need to talk to an attorney and/or CPA who has direct experience with not-for-proft work.

(I've sat on the board of directors and am currently the board chairman for a local 501 (c) 3 and that qualifies me NOT AT ALL to offer you any advice in this area.

Operating under a 501 (c) 3 has specific requirements. You NEED to talk to someone who understands the current law in this area and can advise you how to do things legally and properly.

What you'll get here is unsupported opinions, from non-professionals.

What you need is qualified advice from professionals.

Good luck and I hope your projects turn out great!