Re:Ask HN: I plan to leave my job to start a non-profit Uber...
by dragonwriter on Wednesday May 20, 2015 @01:27PM
(#9577801)
> Non-profit is an misleadingly named corporate structure that really means non-stock.
No, its not. Most states allow non-profit corporations, some allow non-profit non-corporations (associations, trusts, etc.) Some kinds of non-profits may have members in much the same way that an LLC does, however, a non-profit is not structured to return profits to those members (or anyone else, hence the name.)
There are a wide variety of rules for federal and state tax exemption and other treatment for various forms of non-profits, of which the the 501(c)(3) charity provisions making the entities own revenues tax exempt and contributions tax deductible to the contributor are the best known, but hardly the only significant ones.
Generally speaking in the United States:
Non-profit is an misleadingly named corporate structure that really means non-stock. Delaware reasonably calls this structure a non-stock company.
Charity is a tax structure for the subset of non-stock corporations that are legally bound to use their resources for specific ostensibly purposes under 501(c3) of the tax code.