Why Non-Profit?

Guide services have been offering climbing self rescue courses for years, yet very few friends of mine that guide have claimed to get consistent work teaching these courses.
 
My hypothesis on why guided rescue courses haven't been historically popular amongst the recreational public is multifaceted, primarily hinging on the two variables of cost and  interest.

Our decision to go through the additional steps of filing for tax exemption was made for the following reasons:

•  Becoming a non-profit grants us the opportunity to raise funds through tax deductible donations, which will then enable us to reduce the cost of our courses, while still being able to afford high quality instructors.
• Tax-Exemption will allow us to further reduce our operating costs.
• By shifting the perspective of rescue instruction as a business to rescue instruction as a charitable cause, hopefully we can increase public awareness, and provide a venue for the public to get involved.
• Rescue preparation is a responsibility. You may save your partners life with the skills learned through our courses.
• An educated public on rescue considerations will prevent many accidents, as well as reduce the strain on our land managers through less dependence on their rescue resources. Most Search and Rescue Operations are due to uneducated land users.
• As a non-profit, we can offer resources for fundraising to people who wish to take our courses and give back to the organization, but can't afford our requested donations to cover the operating costs. We are working on several ways to assist these individuals, but we will not withhold training to those that wish to learn, as long as we can still feed ourselves. 
• As climbers, we have a pool of knowledgeable rescuers and people with the aptitude to learn rescue very quickly. With this human resource and the right strategy, we could change the way rescues are done nationwide in various public safety applications.
• As a manager of rescue businesses in the for-profit sector, many clients that I had wished to teach (predominately fire departments and SAR groups) could not afford our courses. Their budgets prevented the disbursement of knowledge that my clients in the energy sects had access to. I would like to work together with the other businesses out there to gain access to grants so that we can more freely train those responsible for our public safety.