Tag Archives: 501(c)(3) organization

Can We Get a Charitable Discount?

From time to time (actually frequently) Hansen Pole Buildings is contacted by individuals who are looking for a “price break” for being a “charitable” organization. Popular examples are for helping military veterans, disabled, terminally ill children or animal rescue shelters. We have tremendous respect for those who have given their service to our country and having personally lost two children to cystic fibrosis, my heart goes out to parents in similar situations.

While the great majority of these requests seemingly are for good causes, there are so many requests and, in order to at least make some sort of profit to keep our doors open, some criteria needed to be established to qualify.

In this case, we let our U.S. Government establish criteria to qualify for a discount as a charitable organization. Any 501(c)(3) exempted organization qualifies for a 10% discount off from Hansen Pole Buildings low everyday retail prices.

501(c)(3) exemptions apply to corporations, and any community chest, fund, cooperating association or foundation, organized and operated exclusively for religious, charitable, scientific, testing for public safety, literary, or educational purposes, to foster national or international amateur sports competition, to promote arts, or for prevention of cruelty to children or animals.

There are two exempt classifications of 501(c)(3) organizations as follows:
A public charity, identified by Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as “not a private foundation,” normally receives a substantial part of its income, directly or indirectly, from general public or government entities. Public support must be fairly broad, not limited to a few individuals or families. Public charities are defined in Internal Revenue Code under sections 509(a)(1) through 509(a)(4).

A private foundation, sometimes called a non-operating foundation, receives most of its income from investments and endowments. This income is used to make grants to other organizations, rather than being disbursed directly for charitable activities. Private foundations are defined under Internal Revenue Code section 509(a) as 501(c)(3) organizations which do not qualify as public charities.

Animal Shelters

Animal Shelters – a Building Problem
Animal shelters have many challenges facing them in their quest to unite abandoned animals with good homes. Battling people’s preconceived notions about rescue pets, public ignorance over curbing animal overpopulation, lack of centralized funding for these non-profit shelters, and the staggering number of animals all contribute to a veritable host of problems to surmount. One of the best ways to help shelters combat this issue is to raise public awareness, and spread information about the difficulties faced in providing such a valuable service.

Agricultural Pole BarnRunning an animal shelter is difficult; you have to balance the desire to help as many animals as you can against the need to run profitably in order to keep your doors open. Compounding this issue is there is little federal or subsidized funding available for humane societies, meaning many of the non-profits have to make hard decisions in how many animals they can help, how much staff they can maintain, and how effective they can be.

I’ve seen both photos and in real life, some truly beautiful animal shelters. Some of these had to have costs over a million dollars! Not very many animal shelters can do fund raising and/or acquire grants and donations to this extent.

A highly affordable solution for animal shelters on a budget and in need of one or more structures is post frame building kit packages. For a fraction of the investment into an architecturally designed beauty, volunteer help can be mustered for a “barn” raising.

Allocating fewer hard fought funds towards buildings allows more animals to be rescued and placed in deserving homes. Hansen Pole Buildings has a program which helps stretch the budgets of non-profit animal shelters. Any 501(c)(3) exempted organization qualifies for a 10% discount off from the everyday retail price of a Hansen Pole Building.
For more reading on the Hansen Pole Buildings’ 501(c)(3) program please read: https://www.hansenpolebuildings.com/2013/08/charitable-organizations/.

With experts to assist in design, complete and detailed engineer sealed blueprints, a step-by-step construction manual and a discount – this makes for a winning combination which saves not only money, but most importantly animals!

4-H Barn

4-HWhile the inspiration for this posting came from an article written about a 4-H Barn at a Minnesota county fairgrounds, it could speak for hundreds, or even thousands of similar livestock barns scattered in fairgrounds across America.

“The century-old red wood barn stood bent with age, its rotted walls crumbling and its fractured roof ready to collapse.

Since it was built on the Anoka County Fairgrounds back in the early 1900s, the barn has sheltered hundreds of animals and thousands of people. But last year a building inspector, seeing its deterioration, said, “You can’t have animals or people in this one anymore.””

In this case the county 4-H secretary, treasurer and animal coordinator for the large livestock program, made it her mission to replace the old barn.

Youth and families who participate in 4-H livestock shows and competitions staffed a food booth during the fair, and every penny they made went towards a brand new pole building built to replace the old barn.

The old red wood 4-H barn was razed early this spring – while there was still snow on the ground. And, as soon as the ground thawed, the new barn went up.

While using the same layout as the old 4-H barn, the new one is larger (over twice the size of the old one), with a capacity of 52 cattle on one side and up to 50 sheep, goats and swine on the other. It also features more space for spectators, too.

In the case of this particular building, the fund raising has only covered a portion of the new pole barn’s costs. The old red barn’s wood windows and doors have been put aside for sale as a fund-raiser to help pay off the cost of the new barn.

For other groups, in similar circumstances, besides fund-raising and direct donations there are other ways to make projects like this more affordable.

First – consider building it yourself. A complete custom designed pole building kit package will allow the use needs to be satisfied, includes detailed plans down to the location of the last board, and step-by-step instructions on how to get it done right.

Many organizations have more than enough people power to pull off a barn raising, which can easily cut costs by half, compared to having to pay prevailing wage.

Second – a 501(c)(3) organization? Hansen Pole Buildings offers a 10% discount to any such recognized by the Internal Revenue Service organization.

Good Luck and let us help plan your new building!