resources

Curated by purpose, most-useful-first. You only need a few of these for any one task. Start at the top of each section.

① Find a local nonprofit to visit (Bloomington / Monroe County)

This is your starting point for the Rail A site visit.

• IU Service-Learning Program: community partners: Bloomington-area agencies that already host IU students through service-learning courses, each with an IU student liaison working on site. Start here.
  • Email the liaison first. Open an agency’s card to see its liaison, listed as the ACE (Advocate for Community Engagement), and their email address. ACEs are IU undergraduates who work part time at the agency and connect it with IU courses. Introduce yourself as a V221 student arranging one visit for a class assignment (not a service-learning placement), and ask which staff member you should talk to. If the liaison doesn’t reply, write to the agency through its website.
  • 9 of the 23 cards won’t work for Rail A. The Bloomington Housing Authority, the three City of Bloomington cards, Hilltop Garden & Nature Center, Monroe County Public Library, and the three Monroe County School Corporation cards are public agencies or IU units, which file no Form 990. The other 14 are nonprofits that file a full 990.
• City of Bloomington Volunteer Network: organization directory: browse 300+ local organizations, filter by cause or county, and open profiles with contact details. Use it when no IU partner fits.
• United Way of South Central Indiana: 2026 grant partners: 18 regional nonprofits, with a program summary and organization link for each.
• Community Foundation of Bloomington & Monroe County: recent grant recipients: the foundation has supported 400 nonprofit organizations since 1992; this page names and describes recent recipients.

② Look up any nonprofit’s real data

For the 990 work in both rails (the A3 comparison, the B2 verifications), your site-visit report, and grounding your startup plan.

• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer: free IRS Form 990s; the primary source you’ll use most. Start here for all 990 work.
• IRS Tax-Exempt Organization Search: check tax-exempt status, contribution eligibility, determination letters, and filings; the page includes search tips and opens the IRS tool.
• Candid / GuideStar: search organization profiles by name, EIN, or keyword; detailed profiles require free registration or login.
• Charity Navigator: charity ratings built from IRS, partner, and organization-supplied data.
• Cause IQ: browse free nonprofit lists by NTEE category and location; its paid tools add deeper research and benchmarking.

③ Sector data & statistics

• Indiana Nonprofits Project: IU reports on Indiana nonprofits, recent employment studies, and an interactive 2017 survey tool. Its Bloomington profile uses a 2002 survey, so do not treat that profile as current local data.
• Urban Institute / NCCS: a national dashboard, downloadable IRS datasets, and a guide to the NTEE codes used to classify peer organizations.
• Giving USA and Independent Sector “Value of Volunteer Time”: annual giving and volunteer-labor benchmarks.

④ Test or start a nonprofit or social enterprise

Rail B still asks you to design a nonprofit. Use the business-incubator entries to test the social-enterprise or hybrid alternative before you defend why a nonprofit fits. This is not a how-to-incorporate course.

Local nonprofit routes

• Nonprofit Central at Monroe County Public Library: Candid grant databases and learning resources on governance, management, and fundraising, plus free consultations for nonprofit board members, staff, and volunteers.
• Center for Sustainable Living: become a project: a Bloomington example of starting under an existing nonprofit instead of forming a new one. Mission-driven community projects that fit its broad sustainability mission can apply for fiscal sponsorship, administrative support, and financial oversight.
• IU Maurer Non-Profit Legal Clinic: works with selected Indiana nonprofit clients on entity formation, basic tax questions, contracts, governance, and compliance. Client selection and semester capacity mean help is not guaranteed.
• Nonprofit Alliance of Monroe County: follow its newsletter, local events, and monthly gatherings to learn from nonprofit staff and key volunteers already doing the work.

Incubators and business routes

• IU Innovates: IU’s startup-incubation hub, open to student founders from any school or major. Its Bloomington center connects aspiring founders with peers, mentors, and the next useful campus resource.
• Amplify Bloomington at The Mill: startup coaching, office hours, mentor connections, founder events, and programs that range from student idea-building to later-stage acceleration. Check each program’s eligibility.
• South Central Indiana SBDC: the Bloomington office provides business advisers and links to startup training. Use it to test a business or earned-revenue path; it does not replace nonprofit tax or legal advice.

Formation guides

• National Council of Nonprofits: How to Start a Nonprofit: read the “should you / are there alternatives like fiscal sponsorship” framing.
• Indiana INBiz (Secretary of State) + IRS: applying for tax-exempt status: register an Indiana entity through the state portal, then apply separately for federal tax-exempt recognition.
• Candid Learning: How do I start a nonprofit?: a six-step guide that begins with readiness and alternatives, then covers formation and ongoing compliance.

If you can’t arrange an in-person visit: the fallback ladder

No one is ever stranded. If an on-site visit can’t be scheduled in time:

1. a virtual visit or video call with the org (contact info required for verification);
2. a phone interview with a staff member (same);
3. joining another student’s visit to their org; the work you submit stays your own.

Flag a stuck visit in your weekly progress check-in so we can sort it out before the deadline.