Non Profit Home Childcare

Just curious... Is it a good idea to become a non profit childcare provider. I currently provide licensed childcare services from my home. My set up is like a childcare center, and everything is seperate from the house. Any ideas if this is a smart move or can it be done?

[cheerfuldom]

How would you figure out how much to charge so you make a wage and your overhead is covered?

[Blackcat31]

Most providers are in it to support their families and run their daycares like any other small business. I no see no benefit to being non-profit for me.

[Ariana]

I'm not an expert but in order to be a non-profit you need government assistance don't you? I know that right now in my City the government is no longer accepting applications for non-profit daycare's because they cost a lot of money to run. That's why there are so few of them.

[Heidi]

In the US, in order to be considered a "non-profit" you must be a religious, trade, charity, or education association. You CAN be a non-profit and run a daycare, but I think it would be very difficult to do. Tom would know more, but I would think the whole time/space thing might fly out the window.

Being non-profit does not mean you can't make any money. You can pay yourself a reasonable salary (reasonable means comparible to other such positions in the market).

There is info on the IRS's website, but I think in most case, the hoops are not worth the benefits. The only real benefit I can think of is some tax savings on supplies, etc, and the fact that you could apply for certain grants.

[icaredaycare]

im' not an expert, but I have looked into this awhile ago. All you need to do is set up a non profit corporation (501 3c), the paperwork alone can cost roughly $2000. Then you need a board of directors, most of them are volunteers, to oversea the company. The owner, is called an executive director. Most of your income would come from gov't grants, or private grants, but you would have to apply to them.

There are pros and cons to both FOR PROFIT and NON PROFIT. for profit, you don't have to worry about grants, and you don't have to worry about a board looking over everything. you get to be your own boss. However, Non profit sectors, if you get a decent grant, you'll get a lump sum of money, you pay yourself, you pay your employees, and you get to work out the numbers of how many kids you can have.

I don't have all the details, but that's what I remember.