VeriCat Inc is a “Nonstock not-for-profit Corporation” registered with the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions and the IRS. Since we are not yet a 501(c)(3) charity, you will not be able to itemize your donation as a tax deduction.
List of VeriCat Inc’s upcoming activities that we are already funded for:
-Summer Internship Program ~$10,000
List of VeriCat Inc’s near term expenses which we are seeking donations to enable (presented more or less in order of priority):
-IRS 501(c)(3) tax exempt charity status ~$1,000
-Renew VeriCat.org website server, software licenses, domain fees, etc ~$600 per year
-Hire professional to upgrade VeriCat.org website to increase usability and cosmetics ~$9,000 (if one of our interns isn’t able to)
List of VeriCat Inc’s long term goals which we are seeking donations to enable (presented more or less in order of priority):
-Sporadically obtain imprimaturs (review and approval by bishop) for our highest rated or most controversial content ~$300 per article
-Catechist Competition and Awards, an ongoing contest to encourage content creation and forum activity wherein a handful of the most deserving VeriCat.org users will win large prizes (~$500) and dozens more will win consolation prizes (like rare catechisms, crucifixes, etc). ~$4,000
-Small gifts for donors (T-shirts, mugs, cards, etc), volunteers, and top users ~$2,000 ($20 per gift times 100 gifts shipped)
-Create Spanish version of website, and translate best materials in English into Spanish and eventually best Spanish content into English. ~$1,000-$40,000, depending on amount of translating.
-Publish hardcopy version of the “Best Material of the Year” and/or a systematic high school confirmation program and/or OCIA program, akin to other publishers’ programs ~$30,000
-Organize local and national meet up conferences for the sake of in-person inter-catechist networking ~$2,000 per event.
VeriCat Inc hopes to obtain tax exempt 501(c)(3) charity status with the IRS in the future, but how urgently we pursue that depends on user feedback (since it is a ~$1,000, 9 month, dozens of hours process that locks us into similar annual paperwork efforts). Please let us know if our not having 501(c)(3) charity status has affected your donations by responding to this two question survey.
VeriCat Inc was founded by a middle-class layman who fronted ~$10,000 and inordinate time to get VeriCat.org off the ground over a 4 year period. In addition to the above items, your donations of time or money help our founder spend less time grinding away and penny-pinching on VeriCat and more time fixing his supportive wife’s four-bedroom fixer-upper house, which is currently housing 5 kids 6 years & under. God graced our founder with a good engineering job and he has no desire of profiting financially from VeriCat and no plans to ever depart from our “totally free” model.
We believe we utilize our resources rather frugally and have relatively modest fundraising ambitions. We encourage you to do your own investigation as to the scope of VeriCat’s mission compared to the amount of money we hope to obtain through donations relative to other charities you may donate to. Every 501(c)(3) charity is required to publish some of their financial information with the IRS in the form of “Annual Reports”, which can be retrieved at the IRS’ website, which reveal income, expenses, and salaries. Use this tool https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/search-for-tax-exempt-organizations to search for various Catholic and secular organizations you’re aware of or donate to, and hopefully get the sense that Vericat is a very lean organization. VeriCat Inc strives to be as transparent as practical about how we are using donations.