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Mary E. Costello is the Founder & CEO of MoreFor4, Inc., a new national nonprofit serving the Stage IV cancer community.

More than 200 million Americans are covered by private health insurance. But data from state and federal regulators shows that insurers reject about 1 in 7 claims for treatment. Many people, faced with fighting insurance companies, simply give up: One study found that Americans file formal appeals on only 0.1% of claims denied by insurers under the Affordable Care Act.

I would never go as far as to suggest that you not pursue grant funding as a brand new organization or that an agency in fiscal trouble is necessarily doomed in grants competition. But there is a window involved where you are apt to have more promising outcomes.

For the purposes of this article — I will assume you are a new Founder, have limited experience in the non-profit sector (at least in terms of how to start a new organization or lead/grow one), and seek information about where you should begin with this new endeavor. (Otherwise, you probably wouldn’t have clicked on this article.) And so, that is where we will focus for today; our first set of stepping stones when establishing a new 501(c)(3).

Having had the experience of founding an organization many moons ago, I deeply relate to the personal struggles of someone creating their “baby.”  In particular, we work tireless hours to develop a new human services program, and somehow or another we hope for assurance that it will remain “ours.”