If you need to find more “purpose” in retirement, start up a 501c3 not for profit for under $1000

Many people who retire start missing the structure of work and are struggling to find “purpose”.

I know when I retired from my corporate career a couple years ago, having the freedom to now golf or hike whenever I wanted to was not as much fun when I wasn’t planning these activities around a hectic work schedule. I knew I did not want to go back to my 80 hour work week, but I also knew I needed something to do that provided me with more of a purpose in life.

I looked into starting up a non profit, and was initially under the impression that I would need to hire an expensive attorney for thousands of dollars to help me do this. But after a couple hours of internet searching, I stumbeled across an organization called “Non Profit Elite”. They helped me set up Kristi’s Klimbers Foundation, a 501c3 non profit that supports womens causes and the cancer community, for about $800 and I had to pay another $275 to the IRS to apply for a 501c3 tax exempt status.

Kristi’s Klimbers Foundation has been up and running for over a year and we have hosted a few free mammogram events for uninsured women, and have provided free recovery wear items to cancer patients thanks to receiving a handful of corporate grants and generous individual donations.

We are an “all volunteer” nonprofit so a majority of our proceeds go to our beneficiaries except for the cost of stamps and some simple marketing materials.

I love my “retired” life now as wrting grants and partnering with members of our community on events to help others provides me with the structure I need. I also enjoy my hobbies more now and feel very fulfilled spending my days focusing on Kristis Klimbers activities when “I feel like it”.

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