United Service Corps is Official

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Welcome to non-profit land United Service Corps! We received the letter of acceptance of our 501c3 application in early June. I felt like I was opening a college acceptance letter. The envelope was thick! That was a good sign!

Inside the letter stated the most beautiful opening phrase I could have seen, “We are pleased to inform you….” I don’t think I really read the rest. I was caught a little off guard. I wasn’t expecting to hear any news until the end of the year at the earliest, despite being 9 months in already.

According to the IRS website they were reviewing applications from May 2013 and we filed in October 2013. So the past few weeks have been a flurry of to-do’s and informing people of our new and improved fancy 501c3 charitable organization status. I love it! AND we can officially ask for donations publicly, something that is not allowed until you are approved. So. Very. Cool!

On top of that great news, our first fundraiser was a GLOWING success. The Glow Run over Memorial Day weekend ended up drawing over 2700 participants and we raised enough money to get our pilot volunteer programs going for next year and start a scholarship fund for volunteers. We learned a lot from our first event. Next year we plan to do it again with some changes to make it even better.

Glow Run 2014 -2

The 2014 Glow Run Erie Starting Line

Erie Gives 2014

Erie Gives August 12, 2014 www.eriegives.org

On August 12th we are participating in Erie Gives. It’s a daylong giving event coordinated by the Erie Community Foundation. Local Erie, PA non-profits are allowed to participate and any donations made on Erie Gives Day are partially matched by generous gifts from the Erie Community Foundation, Erie Insurance and GE. We hope that you have a chance to participate, even if you aren’t from Erie. You can go here to make your donation on August 12th.