PORT TOWNSEND — Disability Awareness Starts Here — DASH for short — has acquired its federal nonprofit status.
For the past year, DASH project coordinator Lesa Barnes has worked on the arduous task of filling out mountains of application forms.
She reported this week that DASH was given the seal of approval by the Internal Revenue Service.
Until now, the seven-year-old DASH, the Jefferson County organization devoted to making the entire county accessible to people with disabilities, has been funded through state and federal grants.
But now as a tax-exempt, nonprofit organization, the majority of its budget will come from fund raising.
Some grants available
Barnes said some grants will still be available to DASH.
“We’ll now be self-supporting,” said Barnes. “We’ll have to rely on donations.”
With an annual budget of between $10,000 and $20,000, Barnes said the organization will have to come up with some fun and creative ways to raise funds.
But there have not been any planned yet.
Barnes said in the near future, a Web site will be set up for DASH, which had previously been apart of Olympic Area Agency on Aging.
DASH will continue on its mission to spread awareness about access for all county residents, and perhaps expand its mission, said Barnes.
