I've been toying with the idea of creating a group of fellow Ags and sympathizers of smaller livestock shows.

It would be a group of people who would pool their money together to buy at smaller livestock shows. Selfishly, the first one would be our local show as the first trial. Then we would begin expanding.

My idea was to create a non-profit that would maybe leverage the tax system to allow it to be a charitable giving, but I am having a hard time justifying it as charitable.

Does anyone on here have experience with setting up non-profits that might be similar to this?

The point behind it is to bring in fresh money to these small shows. So many of them depend on the same people year after year and eventually I think it runs out. Plus, it could give some people a connection to small towns they either may be from or have a relation too.

Just got done helping setup a NFP this past summer. Different purpose, but a similar structure (pooled together monies to donate to cancer survivors).

I'd suggest you take a look at all the requirements, both state and federal, that setting up a NFP involve. For example, you'll need to formally have a board of directors and/or officers. Do you have people lined up willing to spot those duties?

A handful of other requirements - applying for 501c3 status with the IRS, drafting by-laws and charter (will cost you some legal $$ unless you can find someone to do it all pro bono), setting up bank accounts, etc.

Will probably be more work than you anticipate to set it up (it was for us), but if it's for a great cause like this, I'm sure its well worth the effort.

I've had a similar idea, but more on the front end - numbers of participants in stockshows have been dwindling, and I am sure cost of entry plays a part. I have wondered about a nonprofit that funds purchasing the animal, feed, etc. for kids who apply for a scholarship or something similar. I am not sure you would have as much of a hiccup considering that charitable.

That's not a bad approach as well.

If I can get some traction maybe this is another leg we can add to to activities.

Do you think if it is setup with the goal stated above, could donations be considered tax deductions for the giver?

Spoony Love said:

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Do you think if it is setup with the goal stated above, could donations be considered tax deductions for the giver?

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I think only if they get their 501(c)(3) status from the IRS.

Correct - would need to get 501(c)3 status in order for the donations to officially be tax-deductible. Ideally you'd give them some sort of receipt/thank you letter for their donation that they could use for tax purposes later.

I bet this would work, especially if your focus was on kids. You could put in your mission that it is for encouraging youth education through ranching work or something like that. You do need to be careful that you aren't doing something weird with how you dole out the money. Like, you couldn't take a donation from person x, so that you could buy x kid's project. Have to have a good guideline for separation of money in and money out.

We formed a non profit about 8 years ago for giving out Aggie scholarships and it was great. There is also a lot of benefits out there for non profits that people don't even realize. But it is a decent amount of work to do it right. Almost like having a small part time job or just being heavily involved in another volunteer organization.

Very good points to consider. Trying to decide how to disperse the money is definitely a problem. My assumption is that is what the board will help decide.

We will set a budget for each show, and determine how many projects to purchase or if we want to purchase the bottom three in a category, etc. I'm not sure how this works, but I'm really interested in seeing some of these smaller shows grow a little more and reconnect them with people and places outside of the small community.

For reference, we show at the Normangee Jr LS, and it's great. Lots of support from the community and it's always a good time. I would like to see that show grow a little more and reconnect with some of the other communities around it. I think bringing in a group of buyers from outside the community would be a big start.

I'm having trouble understanding what the charitable activity is and who gets the benefits. It sounds like the seller of the livestock would get the benefit, which is an aggressive position.

When we set these things up, we will sometimes put a taxable corporate entity underneath the charitable organization to run all the taxable activities through. That seems like more complexity and more work than you want though.