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What Does It Mean To Be An Official Volunteer with CFF

Antonio Mendieta,

What does it mean to be an Official Volunteer?

Comida For Familias, Inc. uses the term “official volunteers” to describe volunteers that have a strong ties with the organization.

The reason why Comida For Familias, Inc. (CFF) has the option for individuals to have strong ties with the organization is due to how the IRS views taxpayers volunteering with the organization. Before we go more into detail about why it is important how the IRS views people, let’s identify what it means to be a volunteer with CFF.

Volunteering

The legal definition of a volunteer can be found in 29 CFR § 553.101 :

An individual who performs hours of service for a public agency  for civic, charitable, or humanitarian reasons, without promise, expectation or receipt of compensation for services rendered, is considered to be a volunteer during such hours.

Individuals shall be considered volunteers only where their services are offered freely and without pressure or coercion, direct or implied, from an employer.

With that knowledge, CFF is a 501(c)(3) scientific research organization and as such we are organized  and operate  exclusively to accomplish exempt purposes  (which includes charitable activities). When someone new wants to volunteer for the organization we, the supervisors of the organization, want to assure that their reasons match the legal definition of a volunteer. What this implies is that we do not allow volunteers who want to participate simply to fulfill their “personal reasons”. If you desire personal training or work experience, then volunteering may not be suitable for you. In any case, we do provide training sessions for individuals here .

Activities

When most people join the organization, they already have the role that they want to do in mind. Some of the many roles and positions we welcome to the organization are app and web developers/designers, marketing coordinators, nutritionists, and brand ambassadors. We encourage volunteers to partake in other activities  that further the organization’s exempt purposes and can be found in the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities (NTEE) . There are over 680+ activity codes to choose from, so we are sure there is more than one activity that you will enjoy.

Examples

Our organization’s mission is to utilize technology to efficiently distribute food and resources. Thus, this may raise the following question: “why does the organization mention all of these other roles and activities that volunteers could participate in?”

“Why encourage activities that don’t seem related to technology or food?“

Being an organization that has to accomplish exempt purposes with each one of its activities, we see it as part of our responsibility to accomplish as many charitable purposes as possible while accomplishing our own mission. This includes, but is not limited to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u91K0PaoOc 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0eswqfwPGA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnWTzd0L5MU&feature=emb_imp_woyt 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohgcb2-yfrA 

List of IRS activity codes .

Importance of the Strength of Affiliation

Now we come to the part as to why strength of affiliation is important when it comes to volunteering with a 501(c)(3) organization.

In the revenue ruling of Van Dusen v. Commissioner , the court was determining if Van Dusen’s unreimbursed, out-of-pocket expenses were to be considered as “charitable contributions”.

In determining whether a taxpayer has provided services to a particular organization, courts consider the strength of the taxpayer’s affiliation with the organization, the organization’s ability to initiate or request services from the taxpayer, the organization’s supervision over the taxpayer’s work, and the taxpayer’s accountability to the organization.

They then used two other rulings in making this decision.

*Smith v. Commissioner, supra at 993–995, held that church members could deduct evangelism travel expenses even though their church never initiated, controlled, supervised, or assisted with the trips. The church encouraged missionary work in general; and before the taxpayers embarked on a trip, the church gave them letters of commendation, which evidenced the church’s approval and served as introductions to intrafaith groups during the trip. Id. at 993. Additionally, after each trip the church members reported back to the church, which then publicized their efforts and accomplishments to other congregations. Id. By contrast, in Saltzman v. Commissioner, supra, the taxpayer’s activities had much looser ties to the charitable organization. The taxpayer was the leader of the Harvard-Radcliffe Hillel Folk Dance Group. Id. at 722. Without the organization’s asking him, he traveled alone to Europe and Pittsburgh to attend folk dance festivals that were not sponsored by the organization. Id. at 723. We held that the taxpayer had not provided services to the organization, partly because the organization had not directed or encouraged him to attend the festivals. Id. at 724.*

In conclusion, volunteers may be eligible to deduct unreimbursed expenses that they incur when doing activities for CFF, as long as they are able to prove their strength of affiliation with the organization.

Travel for Charity

With COVID vaccines coming out, there may be more of an interest for people to travel for charity. Official volunteers may be able to deduct these expenses while volunteering:

For more details about traveling for charity, click here .

Payment of expenses, benefits, or fees

We have been talking a lot about how strong-affiliation with the organization may provide taxpayers with tax deductions, but what else makes CFF different from other organizations? Well, we provide our volunteers and trainees with tools they may need in order to succeed with the activities they do in the name of the organization. According to 29 CFR § 553.106 

“Volunteers may be paid expenses, reasonable benefits, a nominal fee, or any combination thereof, for their service without losing their status as volunteers.”

Thus, some of the reasonable resources that we provide to our official volunteers are:

strong_affiliate_sweater.jpeg

Strong-affiliate wearing a Comida For Familias sweater

Oh and we also provide an official Comida For Familias uniform. Not for sale, only acquired through completion of a project or strength of affiliation.

Join CFF!

If you are coming from our website then at the bottom of the home page you will find a link with the text “fill the form”. ****Click there to be redirected to an online form to register to become an official volunteer with Comida For Familias, Inc.

If this is your first time hearing about becoming an official volunteer with Comida For Familias, Inc. then you should know that there is an annual volunteer fee of $270 for strong-affiliation.

“Do I have to pay to volunteer? ”

Is a common question we get when presenting this piece of information. The answer is no, you don’t have to pay. You also don’t have to volunteer with us.

An Alternative for Strong Affiliation

If a potential volunteer doesn’t have the funds to become an official volunteer, but really wants to be strongly-affiliated with the organization, then they can collect funds in the name of the organization to cover the $270 registration fee. This could take any form of fundraising.

Contact info@comidaforfamilias.com for permission to use CFF’s name in your fundraiser and to complete a collections agreement form before you start fundraising.

Strength of Supervision

Volunteers with stronger affiliation can expect supervision by the organization’s officials. We write about this in another article called Pay to do charitable activities to make your familia proud!  under the sub-header of Supervision, Recognition, and Resources. Essentially, if you are asking for supervision for any amount of community service hours for school, work, or any other program, this will only be logged for official volunteers. Same goes for those asking for recommendations.

Of course, for recommendations we also have to consider the performance of the activity you are doing and if you are able to complete the project.

Special Occasions of Fee Being Waived

There are very few cases where the fee may be waived. These include:

Is Comida For Familias, Inc. a nonprofit organization?

It’s ok to want proof, we understand.

If you go to https://businesssearch.sos.ca.gov/  (the Secretary of State’s website for California) and search Comida For Familias, Inc. with the search criteria “Corporate name”, you will find our corporate filing documents.

That is our corporate docs though. What is more important is that you find proof of our 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status.

Go to https://apps.irs.gov/app/eos/  (the IRS website), and search Comida For Familias, Inc. (make sure you search by organization name). You will find that we have all of our documents filed.

tax_exempt_organization_search.png

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