How to Start a Nonprofit in Minnesota

Minnesota is perhaps best known for its largest metropolitan area, the “Twin Cities” of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Built around the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix Rivers, the Twin Cities is home to the Mall of America, the birthplace of the late, great artist Prince, and serve as the headquarters for many Fortune 500 companies, including Target, Best Buy, and General Mills (Mental Floss).These Fortune 500 companies aren’t the only corporations stimulating Minnesota's economy, though. The Land of 10,000 Lakes also has a robust nonprofit sector, consisting of over 31,000 organizations, employing 301,000 people and generating $66 B in annual revenues (Independent Sector).If you’re a Minnesota resident looking to contribute to the state’s nonprofit sector by starting your own organization, the first step you must take to do so is incorporating your nonprofit as a Domestic Nonprofit Corporation with the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office. The cost of incorporating a nonprofit is $70 for in-person or mail filings or $90 for online filings. However, before the incorporation process can begin, you must have the following information about your nonprofit:

1. Name: The name of your nonprofit cannot currently be in use by another Minnesota-based business entity. To ensure that the name you’d like to use for your nonprofit has not already been taken, you can perform a name search on the Secretary of State’s website. You must create an online account on the Secretary of State’s website in order to perform a name search.
2. Registered Agent: A registered agent is a resident of the state in which your organization is formed (in this case, Minnesota) who serves as the liaison of communication between the organization and state/ federal entities. This person will be notified about all business filings and legal matters related to the nonprofit. A nonprofit’s registered agent can be one of its own board members, an attorney, or any adult who is a resident of the state. You must also list a physical address for the registered agent’s office, which cannot be a P.O. Box.
3. Incorporators: The incorporator(s) of a nonprofit is a person (people) who prepare the nonprofit’s incorporation paperwork. These are typically one or more members of the Board of Directors, but do not have to be. Names and addresses of at least one incorporator must be included in the application.
4. Email address: Provide an email address for which the Secretary of State can forward official notices required by law pertaining to your nonprofit.

Once you have all of this information, you’ll be ready for incorporating your nonprofit, which is the first of three steps towards becoming a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation. The other steps towards starting your Minnesota-based nonprofit include:

1. Obtain an EIN
2. Apply for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status with the IRS

*Before applying for 501(c)(3) status, make sure that you have at least three dedicated board members (and their addresses) to serve on the board of your nonprofit. Nonprofit boards are the governing body of a nonprofit and handle all decision-making related to the nonprofit’s activities and finances. You should also have a brief mission statement for your nonprofit that will be included in the application. For a full list of requirements for your nonprofit’s application to become tax-exempt, click here.

A Faster, Easy Way to Start Your Nonprofit in Minnesota

Now you have your Minnesota nonprofit corporation, you can use your state information and federal EIN to open a bank account for your nonprofit. However, setting up your nonprofit in Minnesota is just part of the process of becoming a formal tax-exempt organization. The next step is to file for a federal tax exemption using either IRS form 1023 or 1023-EZ.The average nonprofit takes 100+ hours of time and often several thousand dollars in professional fees to create. In the past, you were faced with locating, understanding, and filing the forms yourself or hiring an expensive attorney who likely doesn’t specialize in nonprofits.ExemptMeNow is the only secure, fully automated, online platform for creating your Minnesota Nonprofit Corporation.