It’s now official, Miracle League of Arizona is a government approved non-profit organization, properly incorporated in the State of Arizona and recognized by the Internal Revenue Service. We are still waiting to receive a letter identifying us as such, but a phone call was made to our Secretary by the IRS agent working on our application and the message was that the process was now complete and our application was approved.This chapter in our evolution goes back to the fall of 2004, when a small group of us met at Ken & Kathleen’s home, in front of the fireplace and talked about what Miracle League might do for handicapped kids in Arizona. Present were Mike McGuire, myself, Chris Hitt of Arizona Special Olympics, Kameron Puhler of East Valley Miracle League (now East Valley Miracle League) and a few others. I acted as a facilitator and we all stepped through the process ahead of us on a flip chart.
What we came away from the meeting with was rough outline of a board and that Ken and Mike would act as co-chair. Chris was interested, but as Executive Director of Special Olympic, his involvement would be minimal at best, he had other responsibilities.
Mike took on the task of having his attorneys create the paperwork and make sure it was properly submitted.
The State of Arizona incorporation was first and then the federal IRS filing. Things went along pretty well, but the IRS component seemed to take forever. Finally in February 2006, the IRS processed the application and had a few questions they needed clarification on.
We crafted our response and in early march, sent the reply to the IRS. A phone call from the agent assigned finally came the second week of March and said we had been approved – whew… it has seemed like quite a ride to get here…
Right away it seems that prospective donors needed / wanted to know what our status was and if we had our ID assigned; Ken contacted the agent and the Federal Employer Identification Number (EIN) that had been referenced in our correspondence actually is the number we need to give donors.
We are expecting our notification letter any day but it seems like a formality… the nonprofit Mriacle League is alive and well in Arizona.
