Black Monday

I got an email from Ken Taylor. He's my Habitat for Humanity contact for IRS forms and documentation of Proof Of Exemption status as a non-profit charitable organization. I need to get a copy of Habitat for Humanity's IRS Form 990 and IRS 501(c)3 Authorization Permit, in order to send in the grant applications for those grants we are targeting. I spent many hours researching of any grants that might be available to our organization. At first, it was a struggle and I was not turning-up anything in the way of potential funding for our project. There were so many of which we had missed the deadline, or we did not qualify for one reason or another. Then things began to take a turn for the better. I found 8 grants for which we qualified and deadlines were not an issue. In getting all the information together to begin the application process, I found that they required IRS proof of status as a charitable organization which is tax exempt. I discovered that HabiTech10 was not able to file under the schools Tax ID number and Status because we are not an established student organization (each 5th year class designs a different project and is independent as a student organization from previous classes).
Unfortunately, the email informed me that Ken has searched all documentation given to him by his predecessor, and there is no IRS Form 990 nor the IRS 501(c)3 Authorization Permit. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the forms had ever be filed by the Ruston chapter of Habitat for Humanity. I'm not sure has that can be, but none-the-less that's the status I've been given. He did inform me that he would take all steps toward finding out if the chapter would be considered under the International organizations exemption. No one ever filed a Form 990 or Tax Exemption 501(c)3. He said he would begin to file an IRS Form 990. He expressed that he assumed it would take several weeks to get a reply from the IRS.....GO FIGURE!
So, it's the waiting game until I hear back from Ken and hope dearly that we don't fail to meet the application deadlines due to this obstacle!