River District reaches milestone – federal tax-exempt status

501c3. That mix of numbers and letters means a lot to nonprofit groups – the seal of authenticity, you might say.
Catawba River District, after several years of work, recently received its official designation from the IRS as a tax-exempt nonprofit organization, effective June 2012 (the IRS took a while). The Catawba River District was recognized as a North Carolina non-profit for the last 5 years.
Having the federal tax-exempt status makes our work much easier for finding funding, since most foundations and government grant-givers require that status. Nonprofit status also means that donors may not have to pay income tax on charitable donations to us.
Several people have put in a lot of time on this effort, including our executive director, Edna Chirico; her husband, John Huber, who handles much of the River District’s paperwork; and attorney Dan Hansen of the law firm Shumaker, Loop & Kendrick, who has provided extensive pro bono legal service to our group.
We also appreciate the support of Vicki Bott and others at Centralina Council of Governments, which has acted as our fiscal agent while we worked to get nonprofit designation from the IRS.
"We truly could not have been as successful as we have been with our programs and initiatives without their support," Edna says.