Hello, and welcome to the second thrilling episode in our quest to establish this foundation for medical research and education! On our journey, we have expanded our cast of characters, who have helped us figure out what we are doing, and where we are going. One such character was a wizened lawyer (see below), whom we employed to tell us what was legal, and what was not.
Actually the lawyer looked nothing like the man above. Kindly and patient, he explained things so that even mere biology majors could comprehend. Dad likes him because, "Unlike other attorneys, he rarely tells me to abandon my ideas."
After two lengthy meetings and more than a few furrowed eyebrows, we needed to:
1) decide our organization's purpose (research, education and philanthropy)
2) figure out who would support said organization (the donors)
3) name the organization.
Julia
The first two tasks would be relatively simple. We will start by obtaining a "corporate charter" through the NC Secretary of State and creating a set of bylaws. Since Anna and I are not professional bylaw-writers, we were intimidated by this challenge. Luckily, our lawyer sent us a boilerplate set, on which we will base ours.
This brings us to the second objective: defining support. Once the nonprofit is established, we need to make sure that we have clear, unwavering financial support: tax-deductible donations. We will need to demonstrate to the IRS that we do everything in a legal and straightforward way.
Finally, before filing the foundation's paperwork with the NC Secretary of State to make it "official," we must give this baby a name! Though this task may sound easy, it is actually quite frustrating. We have to invent an original title that doesn't step on any other organizations' toes. Our dad's main concern is that the acronym for the foundation not spell any inappropriate words. You'd be surprised at how difficult that is!
Anna
This is where our audience comes in: we need your help to pick a name for this foundation. It needs to be descriptive, but not limiting. The ideas we have come up with so far are included in the poll immediately below this post. Please select your favorite, or comment additional name ideas directly on this post. We appreciate your input more than you could imagine!
Dr. Kihm
We welcome your encouragement/feedback/comments! Our mission: to form a foundation which willl improve the lives of patients and physicians. This foundation will be just that--a foundation for improving medicine by supporting research, education and dissemination of optimal practice models. Additionally, this foundation will be the philanthropic nidus for like-minded physicians to send a collective message that we care about charity. Thanks, and let us know what you think, by posting a comment!