Incorporatng your Abide in Love Affiliate
Resources for launching responsibly, protecting volunteers, and building a durable local practice of accompaniment and care.
Disclaimer (please read): We are not attorneys or accountants, and this page is not legal or tax advice. Nonprofit law varies by state. We strongly recommend consulting a qualified nonprofit attorney (and/or CPA) in your state before filing or fundraising.
How to operate informally before you start taking donations
We understand the temptation to jump straight into penpalling and direct aid. But penpalling costs money (communication fees, commissary fees, care package items, etc.), and we do not want affiliates subsidizing the work out of personal wallets. That’s not sustainable—and it can quietly create resentment, burnout, and inequity.
What you can do informally (without fundraising and without personal spending)
These are strong, meaningful ways to begin that don’t require handling money:
1) Relationship-building and volunteer formation
Host an interest meeting (in a living room, church hall, library room).
Train volunteers on confidentiality, boundaries, and trauma-informed communication.
Build a small “care team” culture: mutual support and shared responsibility.
2) Research and local coordination
Learn which facilities hold immigrants in your region and what their mail rules are.
Identify local partners (churches, immigrant support orgs, legal aid groups).
Draft your affiliate’s internal procedures (how you match pen pals, how you track letters, what you do if someone stops responding, etc.).
3) Advocacy and education
Offer a community info session on detention realities and accompaniment.
Build a local resource list for detainees’ families (food, school support, translation, transportation, legal aid).
What we ask you not to do informally
To protect volunteers and the integrity of the work:
Do not run affiliate expenses through a personal bank account (even “temporarily”).
Do not begin a pen pal program that depends on volunteers paying for communication fees, commissary, care package items, etc. as your standard operating model.
Do not accept donations (cash, checks, Venmo/PayPal) until you have a compliant structure.
If you feel urgent pressure to start penpalling now
If there is a real pastoral/ethical urgency, use one of these two options instead of personal spending:
Option A: Wait to launch pen pals until your structure is ready
Use the informal phase to build volunteers, processes, and partnerships so that when you do launch, you can sustain it without burning people out.
Option B: Find a local fiscal sponsor
This is not Abide in Love’s central 501(c)(3). It’s a separate local nonprofit (often a church, community foundation, or immigrant-support org) that agrees in writing to:
receive donations on your behalf,
track and report funds,
and disburse funds for your affiliate’s program expenses.
(If you choose this, you’ll want legal guidance and a clear written agreement.)