A Tough Road for Dorcas

 

According to GuideStar, there are several nonprofit organizations failed to file the 990 Form this year in Edmond, Okla. Dorcas Community Ministries & Resources is one of them.

 

Dorcas Community Ministries & Resources is an educational organization nonprofit organization, which provides rehabilitation services for the offenders both in and out of prison. Rhonda Mitchell is the director, and her husband Jeffery L Mitchell is the chief executive officer of Dorcas. He founded it in 2008.

 

“We want to make a difference,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “We know that we have a high incarceration rate in Oklahoma and we want to do our part.”

 

As a nonprofit organization, forming the 990 Form can help the donors to get a tax-exemption. The 990 Form provides the public with financial information of a given organization. Dorcas filed the 990 Form every year but stopped in 2012, there are some stories behind.

 

“We failed to file the 990 because we did not have any income,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “Everything was just donated, like the food and transportation. We will have to get an accountant to do that [file 990]. We have no income that is why we failed to form the 990. ”

 

However, not only the financial struggle made Dorcas fail to form the 990 Form, some pop up family issues made their situation worse.

 

“I have been working on it, but I have to stop,” said Rhonda Mitchell. “I have been taking care of my dad. He was diagnosed with cancer, so I was taking care of him for several months, and he passed away about 5 months ago.”

 

The loss of father has not only been difficult for Rhonda Mitchell personally, but also has become a great loss for Dorcas.

 

“My dad’s additional [to the organization was that]…he was a great mentor to children of incarcerated parents or single moms.” Rhonda Mitchell said.

 

Further more, before Rhonda Mitchell lost her father, Dorcas faced another big challenge.

 

“I had [a] problem with my family, but before that my accountant passed away,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “She became ill and she died as well. Primarily, it [was] the accountant was actually doing multiple [jobs]. After she passed away, it’s just lack of time and understanding of the 990 process [for me].”

 

After talking about the struggles Dorcas had before, Rhonda Mitchell mentioned the problem she is facing now.

 

“We need to get an accountant to file the 990, but that is not working right now,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “That is what I want all right now. Because we lost our 501(c)(3)1, we can still function as a nonprofit [organization], but we are temporarily dependent on the 501(c)(3).”

 

Rhonda Mitchell then talked her plan about fixing things back to the good order.

 

“I need to get my 990 first filed,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “I got to go back to them [IRS2] and see what steps I need to take to get my 501(c)(3) reinstated so that if we raise money, [donors will] be able to write it off on their taxes.”

 

Failed to file the 990 Form is not a signal that Dorcas will stop the rehabilitation services they are providing now. Despite all these struggles they have gone through, Rhonda Mitchell shows the passion to expand Dorcas.

 

“We are intending to expand,” Rhonda Mitchell said. “Not only expand, [also] could do more than just offer resources for medicine. We are going to do some behavioral things as well, and some community resources for housing. There are other things we are interested in expanding too – insurance, housing and probably work readiness and therapy classes as well.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

1. 501(c)(3) Form is a form used to by nonprofit organizations to apply for tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service in the US.

 

2. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service of the United States federal government.