San Pedro High School Lady Boosters

IRS Form 1023-Application for Recognition of Exemption

Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code

The IRS and California Franchise Tax Board Approvals!

Lady Boosters received notification at the end of March, 2006, that our application for recognition of exemption, IRS Form 1023, was approved.  Effective August 10, 2005 the IRS considers San Pedro High School Lady Boosters to be a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.  As of that date, all donations to our group are tax-deductible.  A copy of the IRS 'Letter of Determination' can be downloaded below. 

Beginning after the close of tax year ending June 30, 2006 we were required file an annual Form 990 with the IRS and a Form 199 Annual Information Return with the State of California.  We have also posted here a copy of the federal Form 990 for information purposes. 

Lady Boosters also applied to the State of California, Franchise Tax Board, for a tax-exempt status, and received notification that we are considered to be tax exempt and a charitable organization as of July 24, 2006. A copy of the California Franchise Tax Board's 'Letter of Determination' can be downloaded below. We are NOT required to file a Form 199 Annual Information Return with the State of California each year. 

History

Lady Boosters was formed in 1974 by a small group of women who wanted to support the students and their activities at San Pedro High School, and who were categorically denied membership in the long-established San Pedro Pirate Booster Club organization. 

We don't know why the original Lady Boosters group never applied for exemption status, but suspect it may have been a matter of the fees involved.  At any rate, it was time for us to move on this issue, and move we did!

More Recent History

In July 2004, Marty Champion, Kim Blanks and Michele Burk visited the San Pedro branch of Washington Mutual bank in order to change signatories on our existing checking account.  Washington Mutual searched their files for a copy of our organization's 'organizing' document, the Articles of Incorporation, and could not find it.  At that time, they would not allow us to change the signatories on the existing account, so we opened a new checking account instead, figuring we would find our Articles of Incorporation to present to them as proof that we operate as a non-profit entity.  We still had access to the old 'existing' checking account so we just transferred funds as necessary to the new checking account. 

Meanwhile, we hunted for a copy of the Articles of Incorporation.  After due diligence in locating an existing Articles of Incorporation document (and not locating one), in February 2005, Michele drafted an Articles of Incorporation document and submitted it to the Lady Boosters membership, who approved it; it was later sent to the Secretary of State for California, along with the required filing fee. 

This first version was rejected by the Secretary of State and had to be revised and re-approved by the membership. These revised Articles of Incorporation (along with other documents like our By-Laws) were resubmitted with the appropriate filing fees and Lady Boosters was certified as a California non-profit corporation on August 30, 2005.  We then completed and filed a Registration form as a Charitable Trust with the Attorney General of the State of California, along with an annual filing fee.  Once again we approached Washington Mutual with our certified Articles of Incorporation documents and were able to close the two 'existing' checking accounts and open a new one as a non-profit organization, savings us hundreds of dollars each year in bank charges.

Thus we were prepared to begin the long process of applying for Exempt status as a non-profit organization through the Internal Revenue Service.

IRS Form 1023, all 28 pages of it, (some of which we were not required to complete) along with the a lengthy Word document that was created to support the information that we provided on their form, are available here for downloading and viewing.  This Form 1023 (all one pound 10 ounces of it!) was mailed to the IRS in Covington, KY on Friday, February 3, 2006 along with our check for their $500 processing fee (a one time fee) and was received by them on Monday, February 6, 2005. 

Now that the IRS and the State of California have granted approval of our applications, we are able advertise ourselves as a non-profit organization, and all membership dues and donations made to us are considered tax-deductible.  We will also file an annual three-page IRS Form 990-EZ (which we will also post on this website and is open to public inspection at the IRS) and an IRS Schedule A at the end of each our financial reporting periods (June 30) to report to the IRS about our organization and who it is benefiting. Special thanks go to Kim Blanks for her temendous efforts in constructing the financial statements necessary to complete this mammouth application!  And also, special thanks to Liz Schindler Johnson of Grand Vision Foundation for her help in revising our Articles of Incorporation so that the state would certify them for us!

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