The River Alliance of Wisconsin asked river and watershed groups to share accounting and financial reporting questions. This document provides responses, prepared by a CPA, for these four issues:

• Reporting income tax for WI Nonstock Corporations that are not tax-exempt
• Operating as tax-exempt without filing a federal application
• Accepting contributions while your tax-exempt status is pending
• Reporting raffle income

Drafting your organization’s bylaws is a very important step in creating a successful river or watershed group. When writing bylaws, you will be forced to consider your organization’s mission and purpose. You’ll also decide important elements of how your group will be organized, led, and run. Your bylaws are the rule book of your organization. They give your organization structure, help prevent potential conflicts, and protect against the misuse of funds.

An active, well-informed, well-trained Board of Directors is absolutely essential to the success of an organization. Board members have accepted the responsibility for building and managing an organization, and this requires skill, good will, patience and commitment. Most board directors willingly make this tremendous investment expecting that, in exchange, they will have a rewarding experience and gain back respect, recognition for their efforts and opportunities to build relationships. As you read the following tips, remember that there is no single model of board size, or composition, and no framework that works for all organizations all the time. Although Board members and their responsibilities are fundamentally the same for all organizations, how they fulfill these will vary.

Because it’s not possible to have a one-size-fits-all approach to running effective meetings that accounts for each meeting’s uniqueness, this tool instead lays out some tips, tricks, and words of wisdom to break down meeting organization in a way that can be helpful to your group in particular.