Starting your own charitable cause is going to be a lot of hard work, no doubt about it. But, like they say, "Nothing worth doing is ever easy...and you’re going to want folks to be able to make tax deductible donations to you..." We’re not positive they say that last part, just FYI.

But regardless of the hard work ahead, here is a realistic list of first  steps you can take to start making your nonprofit a reality. And having incorporated a non-profit ourselves recently, we felt like we could share some of that experience here.