Normally we share a story and build to a point. Today let’s mix it up and work this post backwards. GREAT NEWS! We can accept online donations as an approved 501(C)3 tax exempt organization! Here is the link: https://www.paypal.com/ncp/payment/4HGFM7GKTA9Q4 (I will also attach a QR code to the picture if scanning it with a mobile device is easier.) To be honest, everything that we are doing costs us money. This is a full-time job for us and as we all know, life is expensive. We see that God has given us an amazing opportunity to help in so many avenues because of Hannah’s Story. Her passing was not just a tragedy; it was the beginning of something beautiful. Remember, on the day she ate the brownie, her prayer request was, “I want God to use my life in a unique and meaningful way.” He is doing that, through our efforts, and we are thankful to Him for the life and legacy of our amazing daughter. Yes, Hannah Helps!
This big next step of accepting donations has been waiting in the wings for a while now. We had to wait to set up “online giving” with PayPal and Venmo because we weren’t able to finalize our accounts as “charitable.” The only thing that we were missing was the IRS approval of our application that we submitted back in July. Way back then we worked with a CPA and filed our 1023EZ form for our 501C3 exempt status with the federal government the only way possible, on their website. We were told that we would have to wait two months before we would get a letter of determination. We waited ten weeks, then I called the IRS to check on our status. The woman that I spoke with said that we were under review with an agent and I was even given a number to call to find out more direct details about our status. I was excited to at least be under review, but when I called the number, it wasn’t a valid number. So, I had to call the main number again, and then wait on hold… This time I was able to speak with a gentleman who put me on hold three times as he dug deeply into why I had not received our determination letter yet. His conclusion was that first of all, the previous person was mistaken (and he apologized for that), and secondly he found out that during the checkout process back in July, using the IRS site, our application had somehow changed from the one and a half page 1023EZ form, into the full 1023 form that is forty pages long, and requires a whole different review process and a lot more time.
In fact, I learned that they were only reviewing forms submitted before January 6, 2025 at that point, and we did not submit ours until the later part of July. So, that implied at least a six-month wait before our application would even be assigned to an agent. BUT after being assigned, we learned that it would take another 191 days before they could actually be fully reviewed. BUT that was the best-case scenario because, with the current state of our government, a government shutdown would likely substantially delay the process even further. This meant that we weren’t going to get approval until sometime around the Christmas of 2026 assuming there was no shutdown and our application was not rejected. (Since we did not actually file a complete 1023, we only filed the EZ version.) The advice that we were given was to go back to our CPA and get them to try to intervene. Intervening meant that we had to file another form with the IRS that made our CPA the power of attorney in our organization so that they could actually speak to the IRS on our behalf. We submitted the form and then we had to wait about a week and a half for the processing to take place. It was incredibly frustrating to say the least! BUT mysteriously, this past Monday, a letter showed up in our mailbox from the IRS. Inside we found our determination letter of approval! We have no way of knowing what happened, but apparently two days after my calls to the IRS, our application was approved. Possibly the first woman was correct, possibly the man that I spoke with had sympathy for us and took it upon himself to get this done, or possibly it was just an act of God! Well, I guess surviving this process has been an act of God, so one way of another, that’s what happened. Regardless of how He did it, we did in fact get our approval letter this week. Then we were able to set up our charitable accounts with PayPal and Venmo, which is who our bank advised us to use for doing this because they are widely accepted, secure, and they have the best rates for charities.
I can’t really express adequately the time, effort, and stress that accomplishing these things puts on us. Janean and I have remarked several times lately that for one reason or another, we don’t think that we have had more than five or six full nights of sleep since we lost Hannah almost a year ago now.
Speaking of investing our time, today we spent about four hours with a “film crew” from Versiti. We are working on a video for organ donation that shares Hannah’s Story. It was a very nice time and another amazing opportunity. We are looking forward to seeing the final copy in the next few months after it’s completed. When it is, we will share it with you! We are also working on something else, but that will have to wait for another day. Hey, if you made it this far in the post, please pat yourself on the back. We really do appreciate the support that we have received from so many people, and it is also something special for us to know that people read these posts in their entirety. It’s actually a bit of an initial challenge sometimes when talking to people because so many know so much about all that’s happening in our lives, but others know so little because they don’t take the time to read these.
Thank you very much!
We are blessed
Hannah Helps 