Laws regarding donations and contributions?

Question

I'm trying to find out the legality of asking for donations and/or contributions. Do you have to to provide a reason for where the money will go? What if you say it's for one reason but the money is really going somewhere else? Does there have to be an organization officially setup (through the secretary of state or someone) in order to publicly and legally request donations/contributions on a large scale? Any and all information and thoughts would be helpful.

This is a for profit organization

Answer 1

Are you a 501c3 organization?

http://www.asaecenter.org/PublicationsResources/whitepaperdetail.cfm?ItemNumber=12202