Advertising on a Community Resource Web-directory

Very sorry this didn't get a response earlier!

If you are a nonprofit, government agency or other mission-based organization, I don't believe you should have any advertisements on your web site. Your web site needs to be focused on your organization, not anyone else's, so that people stay on your web site. Also, it dilutes your message - it looks like you are endorsing those organizations on your web site. Lastly, you could get in trouble in terms of "unrelated earned income". More about that:

www.nonprofitlawblog.com/.../nonprofit-radio-earned-income-unrelated-business-income-tax.html

An excerpt:

"For a charity, a related business is one that advances the organization’s charitable purposes without considering where the profits go. It’s the activities themselves that contribute importantly to advancing the mission, regardless of whether any money is generated. An unrelated business is one where the activities have nothing to do with advancing the mission. Generally, it is carried out to generate revenues that will be used to advance the mission. Revenues generated by unrelated businesses may be subject to unrelated business income tax."

Are there ways around all of the above? Sure:

-- a local animal shelter creating an online directory of dog trainers and pet food stores, and charging any company or independent consultant that wants to be featured on that directory

-- an arts organization creating an online directory of restaurants and bars near the organization's performance space, that want to cater to those that attend arts events, and charging any restaurant or bar that wants to be featured on that directory

In either case, a contract is easy - its an advertising contract, and it just needs everyone's name and addresses, the time the company or consultant wants to be listed on the site, and how much they paid the company for that listing. Pretty easy to find these with a Google or Bing search.

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Advertising on a Community Resource Web-directory

Advertising on a Community Resource Web-directory

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