How to Start a Nonprofit in Alaska

Alaska is home to Mt. McKinley, the Northern Lights, and over 7,000 nonprofit organizations. If you claim The Land of the Midnight Sun as your home and aspire to contribute to its growing charitable landscape, here are some quick tips on how to incorporating your own nonprofit.Incorporation is the first step to starting a nonprofit, regardless of the state in which you live. In Alaska, you can file to incorporate a domestic nonprofit corporation (a nonprofit based in Alaska) with the state’s Department of Commerce, Community, and Economic Development, Division of Corporations, Business, and Professional Licensing. Filing for incorporation can be completed either online or by mailing in a hard copy of the incorporation application to the state’s Corporation Section. As of February 2018, the cost of incorporating a nonprofit in Alaska is $50.00.In order to complete the incorporation process, your organization must have a board of directors with at least three members who are 19 years of age or older, a mission statement, a physical address, and a NAICS code, which is used to classify the type of nonprofit you have. (A complete list of NAICS codes can be found here). You will also need to select a Registered Agent for your organization, which could be any person located in Alaska. The Registered Agent is responsible for all business filings at the state level and generally serves as a representative to the organization.

A Faster, Easy Way to Start Your Nonprofit in Alaska

Now you have your Alaska nonprofit corporation, you can use your state information and federal EIN to open a bank account for your nonprofit. However, setting up your nonprofit in Alaska is just part of the process of becoming a formal tax-exempt organization. The next step is to file for a federal tax exemption using either IRS form 1023 or 1023EZ.The average nonprofit takes 100+ hours of time and often several thousand dollars in professional fees to create. In the past, you were faced with locating, understanding, and filing the forms yourself or hiring an expensive attorney who likely doesn’t specialize in nonprofits.ExemptMeNow is the only secure, fully automated, online platform for creating your Alaska Nonprofit Corporation.