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Governance before growth
A functioning board with defined roles, bylaws, and conflict-of-interest policy is what makes every later decision defensible.
Service Engagement
Build the Foundation
Before You Build the Work.
New organizations fail for structural reasons far more often than for lack of commitment. CAMPBELL builds the governance, financial, operational, and compliance foundation a nonprofit needs to launch credibly and survive its first three years.
The Basics
The Core Concepts.
A start-up engagement is not paperwork. It is the deliberate construction of the structures that let an organization accept money, make decisions, and be accountable for both.
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Financial infrastructure
Chart of accounts, internal controls, and clear separation of duties determine whether your first audit or funder review goes well.
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Compliance as a system
Registration, filings, and reporting obligations are recurring, not one-time. They need an owner and a calendar.
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Fundable from the start
Funders assess organizational capacity alongside program merit. Structure built early is structure you do not retrofit under deadline.
Problems We Solve.
Start-up engagements address the structural gaps that stall new organizations before their mission ever reaches the community.
Insufficient operating structure
Decisions depend on whoever is available rather than on defined roles and authority.
Incomplete governance
Bylaws, board roles, and required policies are missing or were adopted without being understood.
Compliance exposure
Registration, filing, and reporting obligations are unclear, missed, or tracked in someone's head.
Insufficient financial controls
The chart of accounts, approval thresholds, and separation of duties fall short of what a funder or auditor expects.
Limited grant readiness
The organization cannot produce the documents a funder requires at the moment of application.
Founder dependency
Every function routes through one person, and nothing is documented.
The Workflow
How the Engagement Runs.
Six phases, worked in the order the law actually requires: strategy before structure, structure before formation, formation before exemption, exemption before fundraising. Every phase produces documents your organization owns outright.
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Discovery and scoping
We confirm a 501(c)(3) is the right vehicle before anything is filed. If fiscal sponsorship or a different structure would serve you better, you hear it here rather than after an application.
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Foundation and structural readiness
Charitable purpose, program design, entity structure, name clearance, board architecture, and a written screen for private benefit and inurement risk.
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Legal formation
Articles of incorporation carrying the purpose and dissolution clauses the IRS requires, EIN, custom bylaws, conflict-of-interest policy, and the organizational board meeting.
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Federal tax exemption
Application path selection, the narrative of activities, required schedules, filing, and IRS correspondence managed on your behalf through final determination.
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State and operational compliance
Charitable solicitation registration, state tax exemptions, fiscal policies and internal controls, and a board governance handbook.
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Launch and handoff
Annual compliance calendar, Form 990 series determination, donor acknowledgment templates, live board training, and your complete corporate record book.
Built to Run in Parallel
Phases four and five overlap. While your exemption application sits with the IRS, we build your policy suite and state registrations, so the waiting period is productive rather than dead time.
The Benefits
What You Gain.
A launch-ready organization with the documentation, structure, and operating discipline funders and regulators expect.
A functioning governance structure
Board roles, bylaws, required policies, and a meeting and decision cadence that works.
Financial and operational systems
Chart of accounts, internal controls, fiscal policies, and the procedures that keep them current.
A compliance calendar
Every filing and reporting obligation identified, scheduled, and assigned to an owner.
Funding readiness
The organizational documentation and capacity narrative a grant application requires.
Beyond Formation
What a Fully Designed Nonprofit Requires.
The Start-Up Engagement builds the legal, governance, and compliance foundation. It does not, on its own, design the organization. For a nonprofit that is properly built rather than merely registered, we recommend pairing it with three further engagements.
Strategic Planning
Formation tells you what your organization is allowed to do. Strategic planning decides what it will actually do, for whom, and in what order, with goals a board can hold leadership to.
Learn More →Program Development
A charitable purpose on paper is not a program. Program design turns intent into a defined model with activities, participants, staffing, and outcomes you can describe to a funder.
Learn More →Performance Measurement
Funders and boards ask what changed, not what was delivered. Measurement defines the indicators, data, and reporting cadence that answer that question credibly.
Learn More →Our Recommendation
Organizations that complete formation alone are registered. Organizations that pair it with strategy, program design, and measurement are operational, and materially better positioned for their first serious funding conversation.
Next Steps
How to Get Started.
Every engagement begins the same way, with a conversation. There is no cost and no obligation to schedule one.
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Schedule a consultation
Tell us where you are: an idea, an application in progress, or a new determination letter.
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Complete the fit and scope assessment
We identify what exists, what is missing, and what your funding timeline requires.
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Confirm the scope of work
Governance, finance, compliance, operations, and readiness, scoped to your stage.
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Finalize the agreement and schedule kickoff
Scope, schedule, and norms are confirmed, and the build begins.
What We Need From You
Access to your founding documents, board members, and any filings already completed. Final scope is confirmed through discovery.
Schedule a Consultation
Let’s talk about what your organization needs.
A consultation is a conversation, not a sales call. We will discuss where you are, what you are trying to resolve, and whether this engagement is the right fit.
Schedule a ConsultationExplore Our Services
See the full range of CAMPBELL engagements.
Strategy, program design, performance measurement, grants, operations, and more, delivered virtually to organizations across all 50 states.
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