How can I establish a non-profit charitable fund?
There's a pretty good set of bylaws and articles of incorporation for nonprofits at this Google Answers page: http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=189724 Worth a look for anyone needing to see examples of how it's done.
How do I start a NONprofit charity and become incorporated?
To start a charity, first you have to have a charitable purposes, I am assuming you have that. Second, Get some board members, volunteers who will serve as chair, secretary, treasurer, who are willing to help carry out the mission. States usually have rules governing the minimum you need for your board, check with the local secretary of state's office. You will also need to write your bylaws - A legal document outlining the self-imposed rules that will regulate an organization's own actions. You usually need these before you can file for incorporation. Its things like what your mission is, how many times a year your board meets, etc. Then, file articles of incorporation. How you do this depends on what state you are in - you should talk to your state's Secretary of State office and they should be able to help. Check here http://www.irs.gov/charities/article/0,,id=129028,00.html Once you are incorporated, you can file for tax exempt status, you can find lots about this at the IRS website http://www.irs.ustreas.gov/charities/index.html Googling "How do I start a nonprofit" will actually give you some pretty good results if you want more details. For government grants, your first stop should be http://www.grants.gov/ But not all nonprofits can find grants that apply to them. You can also seek out grant funding from private & community foundations. Check out the Foundation Center's website - they are a great source of info for grant seekers http://foundationcenter.org/