Hi CPP -
What your proposing certainly could work. The trick is that you'd be getting into a level of short-term and longer-term complication that's a bit greater than the typical 501c3 process. It's very easy to establish and maintain the 501c3 for one typical PTO. We have step-by-steps on that that have worked for tons of groups/laypeople.
But the umbrella is a differnet application that we don't advise on. I'd recommend a lawyer with some basic non-profit experience for that one. Further, down the road -- each group remains tied to the others for your status. Will you have a system in place for each group to report well? etc. That's more complicated than the average group, too.
I can definitely see the upside but -- unless your groupsa re going to truly collaborate for the long-term -- this may not be the way to go.
Tim
- Rockne
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