43
Boardman library event informs on starting a nonprofit
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Grant center librarian Sally Freaney conducted the event on starting a nonprofit at the Boardman library, giving people information on whether stating a nonprofit is for them.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.Grant Center librarian Sally Freaney led the two attendees in the starting a nonprofit event at the Boardman library.
Photo
Neighbors | Tim Cleveland.A woman looked and listened intently during the presentation by grant center librarian Sally Freaney for the starting a nonprofit event at the Boardman library.
By TIM CLEVELAND
A new program was started Sept. 13 at the Boardman library, giving area residents a course on starting a nonprofit organization and seeing if starting one is the right direction for them.
“The Foundation Center, which is headquartered in New York City, has library centers in some of the large cities,” said grant center librarian Sally Freaney, who conducted the program. “They want the materials top be made available throughout the country. They establish these library learning centers and the Youngstown Public Library is one of them. There are a core collection of programs that we offer to the public so they don’t have to travel to Cleveland, New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington, D.C.
“The people want to do good, they have an idea how they want to improve lives in the community. We go through and show them the advantages and disadvantages of being a nonprofit and if look at it and think that’s not the direction they want to go, we give them some other ideas.”
Freaney said applying to start your own nonprofit organization is no easy process.
“It’s quite involved and it’s also quite costly,” she said. “There are a number of forms that they need to fill out. One of the things we strongly suggest before they begin is they look at the community and see if anybody else is doing the same thing. We don’t want to duplicate services.”
Freaney added that nonprofits should not rely on grant funding for their organization, instead they should diversify.
“No profits go to the individual, the money goes back to the program,” she said. “Much of the giving to nonprofit organizations comes from individuals. We support our churches, we support causes be it cancer, ALS. Even though there is a lot of grant money, the majority of funding still comes from individuals.”