We’ve done that before and we learned our lesson. Joe Andrieu founded the Internet Developers Association back in 1995, where he learned the hard way that governance structure drives politics and politics can make or break non-profit volunteer collaborations. The IDA merged with two other peer nonprofits to form the Association of Internet Professionals, which we naively thought would be better able to serve the marketplace since we could stop competing with each other and all support essentially the same member base. The reality was a new board that did not have a coherent vision and we struggled to align the motivations of three times as many volunteer leaders as each group had before the merger. It was extremely challenging to get anything done with the structure we created. The organization suffered as a result.

Complicating the Digital Fiduciary opportunity, we have a weird order-of-operations challenge with the grant. Because the organization doesn’t exist yet—and there was no way to create it AND get non-profit status in time for a proposal—we (Legendary Requirements) applied as a small business, putting us on the hook for the deliverables in the proposal, if we get the grant.

However, once the governance of the association is set, the DFA will have its own, independent authority. Necessarily. [The initiative fails if we don’t create an autonomous organization run by its members.] This independent authority could decide NOT to go in the direction of the grant proposal, leaving Legendary Requirements in a tough spot in our relationship with the National Science Foundation.

So… we have framed the effort in two phases: an Initiative that will gather the right people and resources to figure out how to set up this organization with the best chance of success. Then, once we’re confident we have an approach that will work, we’ll set up the Association with proper governance and file for 501(c)6 tax-exempt status with the IRS.