Polish Home Foundation Opened for Business!

May, 2002

The organization period of the Polish Home Foundation (PHF) has ended and the Foundation has opened for regular business. As you might recall, since June 2000 we were taking steps to create a foundation affiliated to the Polish Home Association (PHA), one that would feature an appropriate tax status. After a long waiting and some correspondence with the IRS, in March 2002 the IRS assigned the 501(c)(3) tax exemption status to the Polish Home Foundation till December 31, 2004. Although affiliated to PHA, the Foundation is a separate organization registered with the Secretary of State for the State of Washington.

What are the goals and advantages of the Foundation? The Foundation has been created to make it possible for the PHA to receive donations that can be classified as 501(c)(3) charitable donations. The classification has the following advantages: donors can itemize donations to lower their taxes; donation value can be doubled for a charity by a “matching gift” programs that companies like Microsoft or Boeing have for their employees; the charities classified as 501(c)(3) exempt have easier access to grants from public funds or from big charitable foundations.

From now on, the donations intended for the Polish Home can be directed to the Foundation. The Foundation will also be involved in other fundraisers important to the Polish-American community of the Puget Sound area. We hope that the Foundation will help to improve the financial situation of our community.

Who’s who in the Foundation? On May 7, the Members of the Foundation held their first annual meeting. The gathering adopted the Bylaws of the Foundation and elected the Board of Directors for the first regular term. The following Directors have been elected: Ms Elzbieta Filipczuk, Mr. Roman Golubiec, Mr. Ryszard Kott, Mr. Andrew Okinczyc and Mr. Piotr Pawluskiewicz. The Board appointed the following executive committee: Mr. Ryszard Kott as President, Mr. Marian Strutynski as Treasurer and Mr. Roman Golubiec as Secretary.

The mailing address for the foundation is as follows:

            Polish Home Foundation

            1714 18th Ave

            Seattle, WA 98122

Contact to the president: email RysiekKott@msn.com