Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
4. TAKING CARE OF GARDEN
BUSINESS
A Structure for Sustainability
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls
and looks like work.
—Thomas Edison
For years, neighbors have been guerrilla gardening on empty lots, growing food and community with
very little formal organization, legal structure, or even rules. While the simplest approach is usually the
best, there will be situations in which it will be necessary to create a formal structure for your garden,
with all the legalities that kind of structure entails. Legal matters and accounting may not be as much fun
as gardening and building community, but they are vital to the long-term success of the organization and
the garden community it represents.
If your group has the opportunity to be, or is already, part of a larger organization, much of the in-
formation in this section will be addressed by your parent organization. For those of you starting new
organizations, there are key elements you will need to consider to manage the business side of things. Set
these components up the right way at the start, and they will be woven into the fabric of operations, so
nobody has to worry about them in the future.
NONPROFIT STATUS
Many garden organizations eventually have the “Should we be a nonprofit organization?” talk—and for
good reason. Nonprofit status can provide a lot of benefits.
In the United States, federal recognition as a nonprofit 501c3 organization is a two-step process: ac-
tion at both the state and federal level is required. The first step involves being recognized by your state.
This type of status is usually helpful when seeking funding on a local level, but it does not provide tax-
exempt status—the garden organization will have to pay state sales taxes as well as state and federal in-
come taxes. To have your garden recognized on the state level, you can file as a nonprofit or a for-profit
organization, although most community garden organizations are nonprofit because they don't, generally,
have a profit-driven motive. (For-profits are not eligible to apply for federal 501c3 status, or for most
types of government and grant funding, and are subject to different laws and regulations than nonprofits.
For-profit status will not be addressed in this topic.)
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