@sustainable_stability Glad to help. Nonprofits were my concentration for my Master of Public Administration work and I spent a year on a research project on a local nonprofit sector. I’d be able to give more directed answers if I had some of my NPM books with me (they’re all in storage right now).
1. You rent the duplex, not own? Or do you mean rent out? If you do not own the space, you may want to be very careful in starting anything resembling a program/organization, especially since my understanding is that your goal is a residential program. Talk things over with your landlord/lady, but don’t be surprised if they refuse. Regardless of whether you own or rent, make sure that you take out liability insurance and generally protect your own interests first.
2. Have you done some research on other similar programs? I did a quick Google search of “residential program bipolar” that have come up with some interesting models that all have a quite high fee-for-service. CooperRiis is one in North Carolina that came up. You are talking about a very resource-intensive project that is going to need more funding than grants can support in the long run, so I think that fee-for-service would be your only feasible option (supported in part by donations for scholarships, capital projects, etc. but donations would not be your primary source of revenue). You’ll need counselors/clinical social workers and to make sure that the ratio of staff to residents remains low, which is very expensive. If you want to see some approximate financial figures, register for free on Guidestar This is an example of the 990 forms you can read on there from orgs. So, not to discourage you, but the CooperRiis organization is a $5 million/year organization with $15 million in net assets (I haven’t been able to find them on CharityNavigator).
3. I think the nonprofit boot camp will be essential for you to understand the scope of what you are talking about undertaking and good for you for investigating that option already.
4. What is your professional background? Social work? Entrepreneurship? Just passion for the issue? Each background has its pros and cons for starting a nonprofit. You need skills, financial savvy, public relations, management knowledge, and passion to run an organization. Most people don’t have all of these skills, which is why you need to form a diverse BoD that is well networked in the community and complements each others’ skills and weaknesses.
5. While many people feel like they want the autonomy of their own organization, if you can be a program under an umbrella organization, you can focus more on meeting the needs of your target population and less on the managerial nightmare that starting/running an organization can be if that’s not what you want to be doing.