Founding Documents
Berkshire Community Land Trust
Berkshire Community Land Trust, Inc. was founded in February 2015. We received our IRS designation letter in October 2015. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public charity, donations to Berkshire Community Land Trust are tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Our founding documents include our Bylaws and our Articles of Incorporation, both available here as Microsoft Word documents and PDF files:
IRS Nonprofit designation letter
Bylaws PDF BCLT-Bylaws 2015
Bylaws Microsoft Word BCLT-Bylaws 2015
Articles PDF BCLT-ArticlesOfIncorporation 2015
Articles Microsoft Word BCLT-ArticlesOfIncorporation 2015
Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires
The Community Land Trust in the Southern Berkshires was founded in 1980, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, by Robert Swann and Susan Witt, who also founded the Schumacher Center for a New Economics. Originally organized as a simple nonprofit (not a public charity), in 2017 CLTSB applied for 501c2 status as a title-holding corporation for the BCLT. BCLT has the ability to accept land and gifts of land for purposes that include workforce housing, productive farmland, retail sites, appropriately scaled manufacturing sites, historic sites, and property that maintains the character of our Main Streets. It then turns the land over to its sister title-holding company to lease to year round residents at an affordable rate. Working together these sister organizations help facilitate citizen involvement in shaping the Berkshire economy. Today, CLTSB owns 49 acres of land in three sites and leases the land to 24 leaseholders for homes, farm, and office building.
Bylaws PDF CLTSB Bylaws
Bylaws Microsoft Word CLTSB Bylaws
Note that these Articles of Incorporation are in a dated format and do not include all of the technical language that is required today:
Articles PDF CLTSB Articles of Incorporation
Articles Microsoft Word CLTSB Articles of Incorporation
Model Residential Lease PDF CLTSB Model Residential Lease
Model Residential Lease Microsoft Word CLTSB Model Residential Lease
