What a great idea. Giving away knowledge and education for free.
I was thinking about donating but I always check a charity at guidestar to see their rating. I searched for ‘free code camp’ but nothing came up. Is it under a different name there?
Having worked in the nonprofit sector, I can tell you that it’s not uncommon to have trouble finding new nonprofits on services like GuideStar. It can take more than a year for them to show up, and considering that FCC has been a nonprofit for less than a year and probably hasn’t had the opportunity to file their 990 returns (depending on their fiscal year) it is not unexpected for it to not show up in third party sites yet.
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I thought FCC was about 3 years old.
Established: 1,050days ago.
Yes, but it takes a while to get a new corporation to get all of its ducks in a row and get all of its paperwork into the IRS, and then wait for the official 501c3 letter to come back from the IRS. FCC officially became a 501c3 earlier this year.
How do you know it became a 501c3 earlier this year? Is that on the website somewhere?
No, it is not on the web site. I remember an announcement in the forum or on medium or on twitter or somewhere else a few months back.
Most nonprofits don’t publish their 501©(3) letters A few do. That is a matter for the officers of the nonprofit to decide.
With most nonprofits, you just take their word for it. After they’ve been established for a few years, they will start showing up in third party sites. And you can even request past copies of their 990 tax returns from the IRS, but it is unlikely that FCC has them up yet, seeing as how they just got nonprofit status. I am a board member on one nonprofit and have worked with many others. This is how it works.
But most people take it on the honor system, knowing that if they were dumb enough to try this scam, they would quickly be found out by the IRS and end up in jail.
FCC was a for profit business then decided to become non profit? Do you have to be a profit business before you can become non-profit?
It is very common to incorporate in your state and then apply for a nonprofit status with the federal government. They are separate steps. One is done with the state and the other with the IRS. It is not uncommon for a forprofit to become a nonprofit, and vice versa. I’ve worked with one of each. There are clear laws defining how it is done.
If you have further questions about becoming a nonprofit, I would suggest you google the subject. Any of your concerns about the process of becoming a nonprofit should be directed to the IRS or your senator.
This is a forum about computer programming, specifically applied to the FCC curricula. If you have a question dealing with those issues, I (and others) will be happy to help. Otherwise, this is drifting OT.
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We are a registered nonprofit, but we are still waiting for our 501(c)(3) tax exempt status determination letter from the IRS.
We expect to get it before the end of 2017, and thus should publish a 990
To be clear on the timeline, we are nearly 3 years old, and existed for much of that time as a non-entity (like most open source projects) before converting to a California close corp to pay taxes for t-shirts/stickers we sold to pay for servers and other costs. We formally converted to a nonprofit in early 2017 before we started accepting donations.
We would welcome your donations at freecodecamp.org/donate. With a little luck, the IRS will get back to us before the end of the calendar year.
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Thanks for the info! I think this website is a great idea. I have learned a lot just by reading the forums. I do not know it if is improper to ask if non profits are required to give donors their financials statements and how much their employees are paid.
Thanks again!
It’s fine to ask. But this isn’t the nonprofit. This is a forum discussing programming issues, specifically with the FCC curricula.
And again, NPOs are public entities so one they have been around a while, their 990 tax forms are available and they contain a lot of information including salaries of directors, officers, and key employees. My understanding is that FCC has few if any paid positions. But next year they will file with the IRS and you can check for yourself.
The last time the subject came up, I think that FCC had 3 employees. Everyone else who contributes is volunteering their time and expertise (which is something to remember when you get a little frustrated with a timeline or feature).
FCC used to sell merch to help support itself, but now everything in the shop is sold at cost. If you don’t feel comfortable making a direct donation before you can check nonprofit accountability stuff, it would be great if you could donate your time by contributing to our curriculum!
How could I contribute to the curriculum?
I think it would be nice for the founder of this website to have a bio of himself and some history. For instance I did not know it just had become a non profit and did not know it only had 3 companies. And what he did before.
It would personalize things more. Actually I thought it was a much bigger company.
I think that you’ll find that most of the information you’re interested in is easy to find. FAQs are on the about page and FCC is very open about its process via this forum, GitHub, Medium and Twitter. Quincy has been a guest on several podcasts and YouTube channels, so once you start googling information abounds.
IMHO I don’t think it matters if it’s a not for profit. Quincy has put a lot of his time and energy into giving us a wonderful resource for free. What would be the harm in people giving him a few dollars in gratitude? I heard state side people give bar servers 50c every time they take a beer out of the fridge 
Sure he deserves a salary! This is a great website. Most non profs CEOs get pretty good salaries.
At one point I asked about FCC’s legal nonprofit status just because I was hoping to get my employer to donate.
To me it doesn’t change how much FCC deserves support, but the tax deductible thing is information some people need to keep track of.
For me I like to know what % of the donations goes do admin and salary costs vs actual benefits for the clientele.
As you know, there are some non profs where the salaries take up most of the receipts.
For me I like to know what % of the donations goes do admin and salary costs vs actual benefits for the clientele.
Again, that is information that will be in any NPO’s 990 tax returns. After FFC files it’s first 990, that information will be available directly from the IRS.
This is a programming forum, not an NPO fiscal responsibility forum.
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