Pay to do Charitable Activities That Will Make Your Familia Proud!

Antonio Mendieta,9/8/2020

Pay to do Charitable Activities That Will Make Your Familia Proud!

Comida For Familias, Inc. is a 509(a)(2), 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and this article explains why this is important when you do activities with us.

The most common questions that is asked by new volunteers when registering for Comida For Familias, Inc. are, “why do I have to pay $270 to join the organization?” (with the additional comment of, “I never had to pay to volunteer at [enter-charity-name-here]”) and “shouldn’t you be paying me for my services and expertise?”

First and foremost, if the volunteer is being payed for their services or expertise, then they are not considered a volunteer. Being paid for work and services is the definition of an employee.

Secondly, the reason why volunteers are asked to pay a fee to join Comida For Familias, Inc. is because it is a 509(a)(2) organization . Which legally means that it is an nonprofit organization that receives

“one-third of its support in each taxable year from any combination of gifts, grants, contributions, or membership fees, and gross receipts from admissions, sales of merchandise, performance of services, or furnishing of facilities.”

The real questions that should be asked and answered before joining Comida For Familias, Inc. (CFF, Inc.) is,

“Why do I want to volunteer with Comida For Familias, Inc? Do I agree with their purpose, mission, and vision?”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTKrkjh1lWw&feature=emb_imp_woyt

Comida For Familias, Inc. Channel Trailer

Reasons Why People Join

There are a number of reasons why people join the organization. The most common one is that they want to make an impact in the world. The impact we make is that we make improvements in technology to make food distribution more efficient. We also use technology to make impacts in other ways, like creating an application to inform people of locations with high-populations (during 2020), a volunteer-based delivery app for people who don’t have easy access to food, and a more efficient volunteer manager and on boarding application made for nonprofits. Click here to see them all.

Other reasons include: improving their skills, connecting with like-minded individuals, traveling for charity, receiving tax-deductions, being strongly-affiliated with us, and doing activities they like to do while benefiting the public.

A lot of them are connected together, so I will go over a few of them with you.

Traveling for Charity

Under the law, strongly-affiliated volunteers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMsJA9yMwD8

“may receive reasonable meals, lodging, transportation, and incidental expenses or nominal nonmonetary awards without losing volunteer status if, in the entire context of the situation, those benefits and payments are not a substitute form of compensation for work performed.”

CFF, Inc.’s volunteers may also have potential tax deductions when they contribute monetary value to their service and remember to itemize on their taxes. Examples include:

Transportation costs
Parking fees
Tolls
Uniforms
Meals

( Remember to keep receipts and records of these contributions. )

Doing Activities You Like To Do

Along with being able to travel and possibly receiving deductions, volunteers could also do activities that they want to do within the IRS Activity Codes .

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

Like to build applications? Build an app in the name organization for a hackathon and publish it in the Apple Store and Google Playstore. CFF provides developers with an Apple & Android Developer account (Activity code U41).
Like to create videos? Film and edit a movie to compete in an online video contest and have it published on the organization’s Youtube channel for all to see (activity code A31).
Like to cook and/or grow your own food? Have cooking lessons and teach others on how to make healthy meals with the organization (activity code K40/K50)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYyId98FgHc

Most importantly, do you like to distribute food at a low cost? Watch the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmk093ClhQU&t=372s

Supervision, recognition, and Resources

Some people may want to volunteer to complete hours for their school, college, program, for OPT status, or even just to say that they did so-and-so hours at a nonprofit for their resume. ALL are valid reasons for wanting to volunteer with an organization. The question that we propose for potential volunteers to ask themselves is, “Is this the right organization for me?” If you wish to receive supervision and recognition for volunteering with us for any reason, you have to ask yourself, “Is $270 worth volunteering at CFF for 2 hours?”

Microvolunteering is a term that has been going around since 2008 (search it up, it’s a thing).

At CFF, we encourage “Macrovolunteering” in the sense that we suggest that individuals should start a charitable activity and see it to completion and in return they gain recognition and satisfaction for their accomplishment. It may sound intimidating, but our organization supports strongly affiliated volunteers throughout the project with supplying them with the resources they need to succeed. Here are resources that we provide access to:

CFF Professional Figma Account ( Designers )
Access to UserTesting.com ( UX ) (Access is dependent on the project)
Access to a Udemy library of more than 60 courses
Access to developer accounts (as mentioned before)
and more.

Resources to each volunteer vary by the activity that they are participating in. For example, CFF wouldn’t grant access to UserTesting.com to a photographer or brand ambassador, but we would provide access to Adobe Creative Cloud or other photo editing software so they can effectively accomplish their activity.

Also important is that you would have direct contact with the CEO of the organization if you have any difficulty or have any questions in completing the activity. So now let’s ask the question, “Is $270 worth accomplishing a charitable activity at CFF for more than two hours?”

Are you interested in joining now?

“Yes, but I can’t afford it.”

That’s fine. A suggestion that I tell applicants that can’t afford to volunteer is that they can raise funds through fundraising programs such as Kickstarter or Gofundme.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vO4cxKIoZyA

The best way I suggest to fund raise is through Paypal Here, because there are no fees and the funds go directly to the organization.

Before fundraising, contact info@comidaforfamilias.com or SMS 707–704–7574. You will be asked to complete the following agreement after contacting the organization.

If you cannot afford to pay the volunteering fee or if you cannot find any sort of financial support from your community then support us by connection with us on Facebook , Instagram , LinkedIn , YouTube , and Twitter . You can also come any of our events that we may have in your area and be a loosely affiliated volunteer.