Once you submit all your paperwork to the IRS...you wait. And wait. We submitted in late July, and by mid October we received a letter...which said we were assigned to an agent. Our application required more information...which could be resolved by a simple phone call. Or maybe not. While we waited to be contacted further, our groups assured us this was the status quo.

We were grateful for the assistance of the legal team working with us through the generous gift of the Ralph and Virginia Mullin Foundation, since they helped us navigate through the maze of questions. For example, we were asked to provide details of our contract with PayPal...but we weren't going to have that contract until we became 501(c)3. We had to reiterate that we had never, and would never, accept payment for our services to our groups.

But eventually, it all worked out, and in March, 2010, we received our determination letter from the IRS.

Which now meant that we needed to establish things we hadn't worried about before: a bank account, a debit card, on line banking, checks, a PO Box, getting established with Guidestar, registering with JustGive, and getting set up with PayPal.

And I thought dealing with the IRS was difficult...!