PHLUSH looks towards the future as nationally recognized nonprofit

It’s official. PHLUSH has earned recognition as a nonprofit by the IRS. We are thrilled to announce that our growing organization is moving forward as a 501(c)3.

PHLUSH started out as a small community group responding to a lack of toilets in downtown Portland. We drafted design principles that influenced the construction of the Portland Loo and eventually expanded our work to cover ecological sanitation and disaster sanitation answering the calls of people and organizations across the nation. PHLUSH volunteers have contributed thousands of hours working on these issues.

Now we are thinking about the future. PHLUSH fills an important gap in North American sanitation needs, and incorporation allows us to expand our original mission to meet these needs as well as ensure to the sustainability of our organization.

PHLUSH Board President Hayley Smith  (left), Co-founder Carol McCreary (center), and guest, Port Townsend Planning Commissioner Rick Jahnke (right), cut the blue ribbon on a new era.

Carol McCreary, who with five neighbors founded PHLUSH in 2005, reached out to long-term PHLUSH volunteers for help developing a business plan. Our by-laws, articles of incorporation, and business plan were submitted to Wayfind to set the incorporation process in motion. They provided an attorney to assist us with the legal process, and PHLUSH was matched with attorney Zainab Hussain of Seattle-based Foundry Law. We finalized legal documentation and held a small ceremony celebrating our new beginning in Port Townsend on World Toilet Day, November 19, 2016. It was a perfect night to bring out the twin bucket system and cut a blue ribbon.

We are looking forward to the future. Plans for upcoming projects include an update of our Public Toilet Advocacy Toolkit, ongoing support to communities seeking to increase restroom availability, and training modules on waterless sanitation for emergency management professionals and volunteers.

For more information or to join us as a volunteer, please contact info@phlush.org. We always need help with research and analysis, disaster sanitation outreach in the Cascadia Subduction Zone, and on Facebook and Twitter. We hope to hear from you soon!