Hey,
My name is Matt Viscelli and I am a former chef and HVAC specialist. My wife Rita and I recently relocated from Atlanta, GA to Grand Bay, Alabama. This move has been a major transition in our lives leaving us to ponder what is most important in life. Since moving here we have observed an obvious and critical need for stray animal care in our community. It is our aim to stop talking about it and do something about it. That is why we are forming Save Farm Rescue. We are no longer going to sit by and watch these poor animals die alone on the side of the road. This blog will serve as an update process to how the non-profit is progressing. I’m not perfect but I just want to help so that is what I’m going to do.
February 24, 2025
I’ve spent all day working on the non-profit and finally feel like I am getting somewhere. At this point I have applied for incorporation federally and locally and have applied for my Federal tax ID number. Currently I am in the process of building our website something I have never done before so it is quite daunting, but I seem to be figuring it out bit by bit. Tonight we have our first official Board meeting for the official formation of the non-profit. I’ll update everyone with the next steps in the process after this first board meeting. Stay with me on this journey of saving animals.
Matt Viscelli
February 25, 2025
We had our first board meeting last night with just the top three directors: myself, Michelle Landery, and Megan Moudy. Our agenda was to go through our by-laws and establish the non-profit. The meeting was an overall success. The chemistry between the team feels great. We also went over the next steps that need to be taken in establishing the non-profit. I got the Facebook page up this morning so now I’m sort of in limbo waiting for the incorporation to be completed. Once that comes back in a few days we can apply for our 501c3 status. I’ll update again once I am able to move on in the process. Until then keep your eyes open for animals in need!
Matt Viscelli
February 26, 2025
Great news came in. We are officially incorporated as Save Farm Rescue in Alabama. Now we are just waiting for our FEIN to come in and we can continue with everything else we need to do to establish the non-profit and get our 501c3 status. In retrospect I should have just gone through the IRS for our FEIN as they issue immediately but I thought it made sense to just add it to our Northwestern Agent package. For those wondering that is the company I have used to establish this non-profit. Today is going to be my first day volunteering at the SPCA. I’m excited to get to work with animals and learn more about shelters. I’ll update again soon with how it went and any new progress. As always keep your eyes open for animals in need!
Matt Viscelli
February 27, 2025
Lots of great news and progress to report today. Late last night I finally received our FEIN which is what I needed to complete the rest of the steps to get the non-profit established. Now that I have the FEIN I was able to go ahead and apply for our 501c3 status with the federal government. I was also able to file for an Alabama tax ID and for Alabama charitable status. Once all of these things have been approved we will be fully established. All that is left to do is to open a bank account for Save Farm. I am hopefully going to get to that today or tomorrow. Things are really speeding along and I’m proud of the progress were making. Watch the road for strays, I’ll post again when I have more progress to share.
Matt Viscelli
February 28, 2025
Some new progress to report as well as some setback. Now that we have applied for 501c3 status we are well on our way but there is still so much to do. I thought that I had applied for charitable status in Alabama but I was informed I applied for the wrong application. It turns out I will have to wait until the 501c3 status comes back before I can apply for that so we can start accepting donations. I was able to go ahead and get our bank account setup with little pushback. After that I was able to make a PayPal account with a donation page so we will be ready to accept donations immediately upon receiving our status. Exciting things on the horizon I can’t wait to continue sharing this journey with you of building a shelter from nothing.
Matt Viscelli
March 3, 2025
Well it is a new week and there’s lot of things to do. Even though we are still waiting on our 501c3 status to come back I am trying to make sure all our ducks are in a row so we can hit the ground running. This morning I was informed that our Facebook page has been suspended for some unknown community guidelines. Another setback… I am really not sure if its going to be permanently banned because the suspension is unclear. It is going to be unfortunate if we have to start a new one without the right name. I’ve been working on bios for our board and am just waiting on 2 more pictures and that page will be complete. I already have our donation page setup but we cannot set it live until we get our charitable status. Until next time be sure to help animals in need around you.
Matt Viscelli
March 4, 2025
Great news to report this morning. Our Facebook page has been officially re-activated. This was really troublesome as we had no idea why it had been suspended in the first place. If they had decided to uphold the suspension we would have lost use to the Save Farm Rescue name so thankfully that didn’t happen. In other news I have been researching free payroll software to be able to pay employees with. They are all a bit difficult to use but I decided to go with payroll4free.com. It’s going to take a lot to set it up but I have plenty of time since we don’t have any money yet! Next step to work on is going to be finding a CPA in town that works with non-profits. As always I’ll keep you all posted and take care of those fur babies!
Matt Viscelli
March 5, 2025
Another day another setback. I woke up this morning to Paypal having disconnected our bank account. This is a major deal because Paypal is going to be our main source for donations. I’ve spent an hour on the phone with them to no avail at this point they are saying to wait 72hrs and just try to re-activate it. Other than that today I’ll be working on getting our linkedin setup, as well as getting our payroll process documentation rolling. I had no idea how much paperwork would be involved just to pay one employee. I know everyone is sad about poor Chance so give your fur babies some extra love today. Until next time..
Matt Viscelli
March 6, 2025
Well even though I feel like I got a lot done yesterday sometimes it just feels like its one step forward two steps back. I spent some time on the phone with Paypal and we have hopefully got the bank account re-linked, won’t know for a day or two. Next I spent time getting our Linkedin setup. It was fairly easy although I’m not really sure what to do with that account. Afterwards I spent hours putting together the documents the payroll service needs to get us setup. They informed me this morning they need more documentation and a lot of the tax stuff they are talking about I don’t understand at all. Sometimes I just feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Hopefully all this work will lead somewhere but I definitely have my doubts some days. Can I actually create a shelter from nothing? Sounds daunting and is daunting but it’s what I want to do and it’s what I’m going to keep working towards. until next time..
Matt Viscelli
March 7, 2025
Finally a day with no set backs to mention. I was able to get our bank account officially reconnected to our Paypal so we will be able accept donations when the time comes. Apparently I had originally entered the wrong routing number I guess sometimes we just make mistakes. I deal with so many numbers on a daily basis it gets confusing sometimes. I think I’ve got everything setup with the payroll people for now. Since we don’t have any money yet we can only get setup with their free services for now. Hopefully that will work for us. Recently there have been so many dogs in need in Grand Bay and its breaking our hearts we can’t help them all. That is why this shelter is so important. The waiting is the worst part. As soon as we get our 501c3 status we can really get things rolling so hopefully that comes back soon. Until next time..
Matt Viscelli
March 10, 2025
New week new setbacks. Our Facebook account was suspended again without any reason. Hopefully the appeal is able to reinstate it again. Still waiting on Alabama tax ID. Their website says it only takes 3 business days but it has been much longer than that. I wonder if Mardi Gras is the reason it is taking so long to come back. Without the tax id I cannot finish setting up payroll. We are also still waiting on our 501c3 status to come back. The waiting is the hardest part. There is only so much I can do until we get these back. I just have to keep finding new things to work on until we are official. The more I can get done now the easier it will be to hit the ground running when the time comes. Until next time..
Matt Viscelli
March 12, 2025
Well I feel like I am starting to sound like a broken record. Fix one thing and another one breaks. I got the Facebook verified again after a second suspension for no reason. I thought I was all setup with the payroll company except for the Alabama tax ID I’m still waiting on, but now they are saying they can’t verify my bank account. So it looks like I’m going to have to go up to the bank and get something indisputable from them to get it verified. Not something I was hoping to have to do. Hopefully will start having more wins then set backs soon because its bringing down my morale. Until next time..
Matt Viscelli