501c3.HELP

The work behind a working nonprofit

You run the mission. We run everything behind it.

A 501(c)(3) is not finished when the letter arrives. It needs a website, a compliance calendar that does not forget, texts somebody has to write, gifts that need receipting correctly, and filings that arrive on time every year. Below is that work, all of it, named.

We build and operate the infrastructure of a nonprofit. We do not perform its mission.

I have an invitation code

What this is

An operating service, not hours

Most founders discover the real work after the exemption arrives. Not one large task, but several hundred small ones that never stop arriving, most of which nobody warned them about, and any one of which can quietly cost the organization its status, its grant eligibility or its donors.

We take that layer. The organization keeps its mission, its decisions, its money and its voice. We keep the infrastructure underneath running, and we tell you every month exactly what was done.

Dima Bocha Founder, 501c3.HELP

The catalogue

Everything we run, named

Open any area to see the actual work inside it. This is the standard list. Some organizations need less of it and some need things that are not here at all, which is what the first conversation is for.

01 Foundation 47 steps

Organization intake

Everything downstream reads from one profile. A deadline that is computed from the wrong fiscal year is wrong every year after that, so this is the one place where being slow is cheaper than being fast.

  • Open a workspace for the organization and set the stage it is actually in
  • Record the legal identity: legal and public name, EIN, state entity number, state of incorporation, formation date and fiscal year
  • Record the addresses of record and the registered agent
  • Record the people: founder, directors, officers, and who is entitled to sign what
  • Collect the formation record: articles and certificate, the IRS application and determination letter, and every state registration
  • Index every document under one naming standard, so a filing never waits on a search
  • Build the organization timeline, every legal and organizational date in one place
  • Verify the exempt status is actually visible in the IRS public search, and that a bank account exists
  • Agree in writing who approves copy and how quickly, before the first draft exists

Mission knowledge

We do not invent a mission. We take what the founder already knows and put it in a form that a website, the organization's own applications and a Form 990 can all draw from without contradicting each other.

  • Write the mission in one line that works on the website, on Form 990 and everywhere the organization describes itself, and get it approved by the founder
  • Write the 25-word and 100-word descriptions once, and reuse them everywhere after that instead of rewriting them per page
  • Capture the story, the problem the organization exists for, and what it counts as a result
  • Define who is helped, where, and through which programs, current and planned, each with its stated goal
  • Capture the biographies of the founder and leadership, and the organization's stated values
  • Define the audiences separately: participants, partners, volunteers, the wider community. They do not read the same page
  • Record the approved terminology, and what may never be claimed in public
  • Check the name is actually free: domain, social handles, search results and registered trademarks
  • Assemble all of it into one knowledge profile that every later draft is written from
02 Compliance and governance 43 steps

Compliance calendar

Missing a filing is the one failure that cannot be repaired with more effort later. Three consecutive missed federal filings revoke the exempt status automatically, without a hearing and without a warning letter that arrives in time to help.

  • Work out every obligation that actually applies: federal, state corporate, charitable solicitation, and tax
  • Put every deadline into one calendar with the Form 990 series date, the state report and the charity renewal
  • Make the reminders arrive on their own, rather than waiting for somebody to open a folder
  • Attach to each filing the list of documents it needs and the officer who has to approve it
  • Assess whether registration is also required in other states, which online donations can trigger
  • Apply for state sales tax exemption where the state has one
  • Track what changes between filings: officers, directors, addresses, the registered agent and anything with an expiry date
  • Prepare the annual state report and the charity registration renewal each year
  • Set up how copies of Form 990 and the exemption application are handed over on request, which is a disclosure requirement, not a courtesy
  • Archive every past filing with its confirmation and receipt number, so proof exists before it is needed
  • Run the annual compliance checklist

Governance documents

We prepare and maintain the documents. We do not hold meetings or vote. A grantmaker that asks for the conflict of interest policy asks once, and the answer arrives that day or it does not.

  • Store the bylaws and the minutes of the first board meeting, and check what is missing from the governance record
  • Prepare the policies a grantmaker will ask for: conflict of interest signed by the board, document retention, whistleblower
  • Prepare the templates the board will keep needing: minutes, resolutions, written consent, conflict disclosure
  • Keep a directory of directors and officers, and a single folder every board document goes into
  • Version the policy library, so it is always clear which text is the current one
  • Track board terms and raise the renewal before a seat quietly expires
  • Run the governance review once a year
03 Brand and technical identity 36 steps

Brand foundation

Not a logo exercise. It is the set of decisions that stops every later page, post and document from being argued about again from scratch.

  • Audit whatever is already in use, and settle one public spelling of the name and one tagline
  • Produce the logo in the forms that are actually needed: horizontal, square, favicon in every size, and the link preview image
  • Fix the colors and the typography, so nothing has to be re-decided per page
  • Write down the visual language, the tone of voice and the writing rules
  • Set how photographs are chosen, and what is used where the organization has none of its own
  • Collect the usable visual material, including written permission to photograph people
  • Assemble it into one brand sheet short enough that somebody will actually read it

Domain, email and access

Every account is created in the organization's name and access is granted to us. Nothing here is ever ours, which is why the organization can leave with all of it intact.

  • Secure the domain, verify ownership, turn on auto-renewal and whois privacy, and put the expiry date in the calendar
  • Configure DNS, HTTPS across the whole site, and the redirects that stop the same page existing at four addresses
  • Put email on the organization's own domain, with the inboxes it actually needs
  • Authenticate that mail with SPF, DKIM and DMARC, so receipts and replies do not land in spam
  • Give site forms their own sending setup, and test that the mail actually arrives
  • Keep one inventory of every account and access, each one owned by the organization
  • Agree in writing, at the start, how everything is handed back if the engagement ends
04 Website 77 steps

Website planning

Decided before anything is designed. A site whose purpose is settled after the pages are built ends up being a brochure with a donate button bolted on.

  • Settle what the site is for, and what the one action is that a visitor should take
  • Build the sitemap, the navigation and the footer before a single page is designed
  • Plan the pages that explain the organization: homepage, About, Mission, Team, Contact, FAQ
  • Plan a page per program. These are the landing pages advertising sends people to, not a description of ourselves
  • Plan the pages that invite action: volunteer, partner, and the place impact will go
  • Plan the news and stories section, each article at its own address
  • Plan the transparency page: determination letter, past Form 990s and the board, in one place people can print
  • Plan the required pages: privacy, terms, and the solicitation disclosures the states oblige
  • Plan the two pages nobody plans: a 404 that leads back into the site, and the thank-you page that doubles as the conversion goal

Website copy

We draft, the founder approves, and nothing is published before that. Every text is written once from the knowledge profile, which is why the About page and the organization's own materials never contradict each other.

  • Write the homepage: headline, introduction, the problem the organization exists for, and what it does about it
  • Write the founder story and the About page
  • Write the mission page, each program description, and who each program helps
  • Write the pages that invite action: volunteer and partnership
  • Write the FAQ and the contact page
  • Write five to ten launch articles, so the site is not empty on the day it opens
  • Write the meta title and description for every page, and alt text for every image
  • Check every text against the claims that may not be made, then send it to the founder. Nothing is published without approval

Website build

This is the group that shows what "we made you a website" is actually made of. None of it is optional, and a site that skips the last third of it fails an Ad Grants review or a phone.

  • Create the project, configure hosting and deployment, and connect the domain
  • Build the frame every page sits in: header, navigation, footer
  • Build the pages: homepage, About, each program, Team, Volunteer, Contact
  • Build the article template and index, so publishing a story later is not a development job
  • Build the legal and disclosure pages
  • Build the phone and tablet layouts, and confirm nothing overflows at 390 pixels wide
  • Make it accessible: contrast to WCAG AA, keyboard navigation, visible focus
  • Make it fast: optimized images with explicit dimensions, fonts served from the site's own domain, measured on a phone
  • Wire up the forms, their notifications and spam protection
  • Test every link, every form, a real phone, the major browsers, and the link preview on a live address
  • Build the printable transparency page, because funders print it
  • Confirm the site carries no third-party advertising or affiliate links
  • Publish
05 Search, ads and measurement 57 steps

Analytics and measurement

Installed before launch, not after. Conversion tracking that starts three months late cannot tell you what the launch did, and without it a Google Ad Grants account does not stay alive.

  • Install analytics and confirm pages are actually being counted
  • Track the things that matter rather than traffic: form submissions, volunteer sign-ups, email clicks, outbound links
  • Connect Search Console, submit the sitemap, and keep checking that pages are indexed rather than assuming it
  • Record the baseline on day one, so later numbers mean something
  • Export the figures into our own store, so the monthly report assembles itself from real activity
  • Back up the site and the contact list

Search foundation

A nonprofit competes for attention with organizations that have paid staff for it. Search is the one channel where a small organization can win a specific question outright and keep winning it for years.

  • Research what people actually search: the organization's own name, its mission, each program, and the local phrasings
  • Map the queries onto pages, one page per group, so two pages never compete with each other
  • Set the title, description and heading structure on every page
  • Handle the technical layer: canonical tags, robots.txt, XML sitemap
  • Add structured data for the organization, with EIN and address, and for its articles
  • Build the topic map and the article backlog, so the next six months of writing is already decided
  • Maintain internal links between articles and programs as the site grows
  • Create profiles on the nonprofit directories, with identical name, address, phone and EIN everywhere. Mismatches do damage
  • Pursue links from partners, schools, congregations, local press and community organizations
  • Pull positions and queries every month, and act on what moved

Google Ad Grants

This is advertising, not cash, and the account is deactivated if nobody touches it. Most of the work is not the setup, it is the monthly maintenance that keeps it alive and keeps the traffic worth having.

  • Check the organization is technically ready, set up the required accounts, and complete the status verification
  • Review the website against the program's own requirements, and fix what fails before applying
  • Define what counts as a meaningful result and configure the tracking. Without it the account does not survive
  • Research the search themes, build the keyword groups, and build the landing pages the ads need
  • Write the ads and build the account structure, then launch once it is approved
  • Enter the account every month and make real changes, because an untouched account is deactivated
  • Keep the traffic worth having: negatives, general queries removed, click-through rate above the threshold, every ad pointing at the organization's own domain
  • Watch for policy problems, optimize, and complete the annual compliance review
  • Apply to the other nonprofit programs the organization qualifies for
06 Content and social 52 steps

Social presence

We build the presence and produce the material. We do not live in the comments on the organization's behalf unless that is agreed separately and in writing.

  • Find what already exists, standardize the handles, and put permissions on the organization rather than on somebody's personal profile
  • Dress every profile the same: avatar, banner, short and long bio, link, and one call to action
  • Define the handful of recurring themes and formats, so nobody is inventing a post from nothing each week
  • Build the post templates and the reusable keyword library
  • Write the opening set: founder introduction, mission, each program, volunteers, and one written for partners
  • Keep the calendar filled from articles already written, rather than producing content twice
  • Agree in writing who answers messages and comments, before the first one arrives

Material intake

The mission happens without us, and that is by design. This is how what happened in the real world reaches the website, the newsletter and the annual report, from a phone, in one message, without a meeting.

  • Give the organization one route to send photographs and video from a phone, without a meeting
  • Ask the few questions that turn photographs into a usable record: date, place, what happened, how many people, what came of it
  • Capture quotes and testimonials while they still exist, rather than reconstructing them a year later for a report
  • Record what each photograph may be used for, and where permission was not given
  • Classify and tag the material to the program, person or event it belongs to, and describe it
  • Come back with what it can become: a story on the site, posts, a line in the annual report, material for a partner

Content engine

One piece of work becomes an article, a set of posts and a newsletter section. That is the whole economics of it, and it is why the calendar keeps filling without the founder writing anything.

  • Keep a six-month content plan tied to the keyword map, not to whatever occurs to somebody that week
  • Brief, draft and fact-check each article against the organization's own knowledge profile
  • Optimize it for search, prepare its image, add internal links and the right call to action
  • Send it to the founder, and publish only after approval
  • Turn the same piece into the social version and the newsletter section, instead of producing content three times
  • Track what each article did, and go back and refresh the ones worth refreshing
07 Email, education and volunteers 45 steps

Email infrastructure

The one audience the organization owns outright. A social platform can change its rules overnight; a list of people who asked to hear from you cannot be taken away.

  • Choose the platform, authenticate the sending domain, and build the signup form
  • Separate the list from the start: volunteers, partners, participants, supporters. They do not get the same letter
  • Write the welcome email and the sequence behind it, so a new subscriber is not met with silence
  • Build the templates that get reused all year: newsletter, program update, volunteer call, event recap
  • Record consent with every address, and make unsubscribing work properly
  • Assemble and send the newsletter, and track delivery, opens and clicks

Educational materials

We can build the course, the deck, the script and the worksheet. We do not teach the class or host the webinar. That line does not move.

  • Take the topics the organization already explains to people, and turn them into an outline
  • Produce the material people can take away: guides, checklists, FAQ resources, worksheets
  • Produce the presentation deck, and the webinar materials and script. The founder presents; we do not
  • Write the video scripts
  • Structure a course into modules with the lesson materials written
  • Publish the resource page, with lead capture where the material is worth an email address

Volunteer infrastructure

We build the recruiting and onboarding machinery. We do not manage volunteers in the field, and we do not stand in for the organization at anything in person.

  • Turn the roles the organization needs filled into descriptions somebody would actually answer
  • Build the landing page, the application form and the FAQ
  • Make an application get an answer the same minute, instead of a week later or never
  • Write what a new volunteer receives: welcome guide, orientation materials, code of conduct
  • Keep the applications in one place, as a segment that can be written to
  • Build the follow-up templates, so nobody who volunteered is simply forgotten
08 Records and credibility 33 steps

Donation receipts and records

The organization runs its own fundraising. When a gift arrives, it needs a correct receipt and a record, without somebody having to remember. A receipt missing the required wording is a problem for the donor, not for us, which is exactly why it has to be right.

  • Build the automatic receipt, carrying the wording a receipt is required to carry: organization name, EIN, amount, date and the statement about goods or services
  • Add the separate wording for larger gifts and for non-cash gifts, which do not use the same receipt
  • Keep the record of every gift received, so receipts and year-end statements can be issued

Credibility package

Before anyone agrees to work with the organization, it has to survive being looked up. A partner, a school or a donor checks first and asks second, and there is usually no second chance to be checked.

  • Produce the one-pager, the overview deck and a one-pager per program
  • Build the transparency page, with the exempt status stated correctly and the documents the organization chose to publish
  • Build the leadership section, so the people behind the organization are visible and checkable
  • Complete the profile on the main public nonprofit directory, to the level where it reads as a real organization
  • Prepare the places that fill up later: impact summary, financial information, testimonials, partners, press
  • Write the press release about the status and the launch, and the letter to local press and subject communities

Impact reporting

We do not create impact and we do not claim any. We build the way it gets recorded while it is still fresh, so that a year later the annual report is assembled rather than remembered.

  • Agree with the founder which figures are worth collecting, and collect only those
  • Build the forms that capture an activity, an event or a program update in a couple of minutes
  • Attach the photographic evidence to the record it belongs to, and make testimonials easy to hand in
  • Keep it all in one structured record rather than in a folder of photographs
  • Produce the monthly summary, and the one-page annual report from the same record
  • Turn what was recorded into website stories, program updates and partner materials, without inventing a single figure
09 Ongoing operations 21 steps

Ongoing operations

This is what the engagement actually is after the first few months. Everything above gets built once; this runs every week, and it is the part an organization cannot keep doing on its own.

  • Review the site regularly for the problems nobody reports: broken links, forms that stopped sending, pages that got slow
  • Plan, write and publish the next content cycle, and produce the social material from it
  • Process whatever material came in from the organization, update the impact record, and turn it into stories on the site
  • Assemble the newsletter and keep the program updates going
  • Keep the partnership and community outreach queue moving
  • Maintain the advertising account every month, because an untouched one is switched off
  • Review the analytics, find the pages that are underperforming, and go back and fix them
  • Check the compliance calendar for what is approaching, prepare the filings, archive the confirmations
  • Send a written report assembled from the activity log, so it says what was actually done
  • Review and correct the plan each quarter, on a call with the founder
  • Produce the annual review: what grew, what did not work, and what happens next

The line

What we do not do

This is the part that makes the rest of the list believable. The line is fixed and we do not move it case by case.

  • We do not perform the mission. If the organization teaches children, we can build the program page, the application form, the volunteer guide, the course materials, the email sequence and the report. We do not run the class.
  • We do not attend events, run webinars, meet beneficiaries or represent the organization in person.
  • We do not give legal or tax advice, and we are not a law firm or a CPA firm.
  • We do not do bookkeeping or file the organization's tax returns.
  • We do not sign anything on the organization's behalf, and we do not hold its bank account or its money.
  • We do not publish anything the founder has not approved.
  • We do not promise that the IRS, a state, a grantmaker or Google will approve anything, or when.
  • We do not own the organization's accounts. Every account is created in the organization's name and access is granted to us, never the other way round.
  • We do not run fundraising. We do not research donors, funders or sponsors, write grant applications or appeals, or plan campaigns to raise money. The organization raises its own money and is the one who asks for it.

Yours

What stays with the founder

Named in the first conversation, because a list delivered in month three reads as an excuse.

  • Decisions and signatures on any document.
  • The bank account and everything touching the organization's money.
  • Identification details of the responsible officer.
  • Approval of every text before it is published.
  • The budget for paid advertising, where it is used.
  • Raw material from the real world: photographs, stories, facts and figures of the work actually done.
  • First contacts among donors, partners and local communities.
  • The bookkeeper, and the organization's tax filings.
  • Replies to people who write in, unless we have agreed otherwise in writing.

How it runs

Almost no meetings, by design

01

You send things as they happen

Photographs from an event, a letter from the state, a decision the board took, a question. One message, from a phone, whenever it happens. No agenda and no call to schedule.

02

It turns into work on its own

Photographs from an event become a story on the site, posts, a line in the annual report and material a partner can be shown. A letter from the state becomes a deadline with the filing already prepared.

03

You approve, you do not manage

Nothing is published, sent or filed without you. What reaches you is a finished thing to approve or correct, not a list of tasks to assign and chase.

04

You get a written report

Assembled from what was actually done, not from memory: completed, in progress, waiting on you, and next. Whether you read it or not, it is the record.

Every organization is run by a named operations manager we certified, working inside this system. What the certification covers, and what a manager never does

Scope

Three levels of the same service

The difference is how much infrastructure is running, not how many hours anybody spends. An organization moves up when there is genuinely more to operate, and what that costs is settled in the conversation, against what it would actually cover.

Foundation

Everything an organization has to have and keep having: the compliance calendar and its filings, the documents, the domain and authenticated email, the website, and the reporting. The floor, held steady.

Active

Foundation, plus the organization is visible and producing: search, content, social, the email list, volunteers, donation receipts and the record of what the work actually achieved.

Growth

Active, plus the growth work: credibility materials, Google Ad Grants, partnership and community outreach, and campaigns for programs and volunteers, all running continuously.

Start with a conversation about your organization

Tell us where the organization is now and what is already falling behind. We will tell you what the first ninety days would actually contain, and what it would cost. Nothing is owed for that.

I have an invitation code

Not a law firm or a CPA firm. We prepare structure and drafts for professional review.