Nine months ago we filed the paperwork to register the Finn Wardman World Explorer Fund as a charity in Bermuda. We worked with the Bermuda Community Foundation. They told us we'd be a good fit.
As our working relationship progressed and they understood more about what we actually do, they changed their minds. We were not a fit. We did not get the registration. We were, on the Bermuda side, on our own.
That is not a complaint. Bermuda is a small jurisdiction and the rules are what they are. But it left us in an awkward spot. We could keep operating the Fund and making grants. We could not solicit donations during the registration limbo. For most of nine months that's where we sat.
So yesterday we threw in the towel on the Bermuda registration and signed the agreement with a US services firm that will file our Form 1023 for IRS 501(c)(3) status. Two thousand five hundred US dollars, wired. The memo line read Finn Wardman World Explorer Fund, Form 1023.
We are now in the IRS queue. Eight to ten months for the formal determination letter, with a possible 45-day window where we can resume fund raising while the file works its way through Washington.
What changes for donors
If you want to give to the World Explorer Fund today, you cannot, but you will be able to in about 45 days. The Bermuda fund accepts wires from people who already know us. What you cannot do today is write the donation off on your US tax return. That changes with the 501(c)(3). Once the IRS letter lands, every donation from a US donor is deductible from federal income tax. The receipt does the work.
That matters more than it sounds. A lot of the people who would back what we do are American. Now this large donation market can donate and deduct from their US taxes. The 501(c)(3) opens that whole conversation.
It also opens up the donation platforms. Stripe, Apple Pay, the small-recurring-donation services that work on a phone, most of them need a US tax-exempt entity to plug into. Right now if you want to give us $25 from your phone, you can't. With the 501(c)(3) registered, you can.
What does NOT change
The grant programme. The criteria. The 18-to-26 age band. The "first time on a plane, first time in a foreign country, first silent retreat, first summer at the camp that changes the course of a life" application brief. The three of us reading every application and scoring it together. The conversation on the phone where we have to defend our score out loud.
Bermuda is still where the Fund is set up. We are, in the exact phrasing of our terms page, "an unincorporated private grant-making fund established in Bermuda." That doesn't change. The US 501(c)(3) becomes an affiliated entity, not a replacement.
Why we went US instead of trying another Bermuda angle
The US 501(c)(3) is a more developed market. The bar is clear. The timeline is known. The donor base is right there. The firm we signed with has filed a lot of these. They told us if the file is clean we can be back to soliciting donations in about 45 days, with the formal determination letter following in eight to ten months. That's a route I can plan around. The Bermuda one had become a route I couldn't.
What this looks like from here
Quiet for the next 45 days while the firm prepares the file and submits it. Then the IRS queue. While we wait, we keep doing what we already do. Read applications. Score them. Make grants from the Bermuda account to the people who fit our brief. Keep finnwardman.com current with new grant stories as they happen. When the IRS letter lands, we'll announce it here, and the donation page will turn on for US-deductible giving.
This week, in the middle of the paperwork, we had two grantee meetings with strong candidates we'll likely approve. We heard back from three past grantees on what their grants did for them. That is the actual work. It carries on whether the paperwork is sitting on an IRS desk or back in our hands.
Two years after we set up the Fund, we now have a real plan for the next ten.
If you want to know what the Fund is doing right now, the active grants and the applicant pipeline live here on the site. If you want to be notified when the 501(c)(3) is registered and US-deductible giving opens, simply sign up for our newsletter or email us at info@finnwardman.com and we'll add you to the list.