Frequently Asked Questions about our Decision to Incorporate

Why incorporate at all?

We wanted to provide reassurance to our visitors that we were a stable and ongoing presence on the internet—a resource you could rely on. A hobby site can vanish on a whim. A corporation is a separate legal entity which exists independent of its directors or members. The legal steps involved in dissolving a corporation are more trouble than simply keeping on through a rough patch.

Why incorporate as a nonprofit?

By incorporating as a nonprofit public benefit corporation, we can register with the various states so we can solicit funds from our visitors to help defray the costs of running this site. And once we receive our advance determination letter from the IRS, our generous donors will be able to take the contribution as a tax deduction.

A nonprofit corporation is not organized for the private gain of any person. Any money you donate can be used only for the stated purposes of our corporation. The federal tax code prohibits us from paying dividends or profits to anyone. If we dissolve, we must distribute our assets to another tax-exempt nonprofit group.

Don't you want to make money off all this work?

Our founder adores the internet and having information about everything you could imagine freely available 24/7. VintageSewing.info is her way of adding to the pool of information. When pressed, she claims to find the whole process of converting books to html and maintaining this web site to be "therapeutic."

Really, what do you get out of incorporating?

Aside from a lot of paperwork and bookkeeping? We get a formalized structure and an official legal status. We get to offer our visitors more ways to support this effort. We have room to grow so we can rescue more primary source material from obscurity and share it with anyone who searches for it. Should we ever be sued, our directors are protected from personal liability.