- A charitable foundation must be organized as a nonprofit corporation. This prevents it from being taxed on donations. As with any corporation, officers and possibly a board of directors will need to be appointed.
- The next step in setting up a charitable foundation is management--setting up the various departments, such as human resources and volunteer programs; developing accounting standards; establishing volunteer programs; addressing compensation, technology and insurance questions.
- Much nonprofit work is regulated by government agencies on the federal, state, regional or local level. Even when not regulated by government, charitable work invariably comes under scrutiny of nongovernmental watchdogs or the media.
- There are many organizations the world over that exist to help nonprofits, such as the Entertainment AIDS Alliance, which raises money each year for disbursement to various nonprofits involved in the fight against AIDS, and the Weingart Foundation, which offers support to Los Angeles-area social service nonprofits that provide food, shelter and health care to the city's poor.
- Development is the business of raising money. Fund-raising requires a healthy amount of homework, including identifying potential donors, and salesmanship--building a relationship with these donors and convincing them to donate. A growing number of charities are using a new technology known as predictive modeling to pinpoint likely donors.
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