Student Activists Go Corporate For Funding, Status

After years of trying to beat corporations, Students United for a Responsible Global Environment is preparing to join them -- in a manner of speaking.

SURGE is working to become a corporation, but unlike usual sense of the term, the group seeks non-profit corporate status. Members say gaining this status could help the group receive more money and accomplish more of their goals.

First, non-profit status would allow SURGE to receive tax-deductible donations and grants.

"They would be able to go to major donors," Student Legal Services Director Dorothy Bernholz said. "Someone only wants to make a contribution to someone who is a legal charity."

Bernholz said she has helped several other student groups become non-profit corporations, including The Daily Tar Heel and the Yackety Yack. She said incorporation is a good idea for SURGE because this status would protect the group's members in lawsuits and would help them acquire more money.

Sophomore Kate Witchger, co-coordinator of SURGE, said she thinks non-profit status would help the group in other ways as well.

"We'll also get official recognition and the group can grow," she said.

At a lengthy June 27 meeting, SURGE outlined its bylaws in a legal document.

"It took a lot of work to decide exactly what to say," said SURGE member Andrew Tompkins, a senior from Chapel Hill.

Tompkins said Bernholz is now reviewing the bylaws, which she will submit in proposals to the state government and then to the Internal Revenue Service.

"(The process) is lengthy," Bernholz said. "And you have to say all the magic words."

In addition to working on non-profit status this summer, SURGE has been organizing its annual "Glocal Conference," scheduled for Oct. 26 to 28.

Members say they anticipate this year's conference will be successful.

"It's a weekend-long conference full of workshops, discussions, movies and other things," Witchger said.

Tompkins said the group expects hundreds of people, including some from other countries. "It's really great for getting groups together," he said.

SURGE has been an active group at UNC for three years, and in that time has become a national organization. Witchger said that SURGE's main goal is "nonviolently working toward social, economic, political and environmental justice."

SURGE has been involved with many global campaigns, including the protest against the School of the Americas and the fight to end sanctions against Iraq.

Witchger said gaining a non-profit status could allow the group to become more involved in these campaigns and others.

She said SURGE maintains a network of between 300 and 400 people on its listserv and has many national connections.

"We connect with at least 250 student and community organizations and schools," Witchger said.

Tompkins said these connections are crucial to SURGE's impact.

"The real, fundamental idea behind SURGE is helping different causes with common goals -- bringing together different groups and networking," he said.

Becoming a non-profit corporation could change SURGE, but Witchger said its mission will remain the same.

"We basically have a strong ideology behind what we do, and we'll stick to that," she said. "(Incorporation) will help our mission even more."

 

Emma Merritt can be reached

at ecmerrit@email.unc.edu.