I have a plan formulating in my head about balsa models, the youths, aviation education/excitement building and such. I am not even kidding. It is probably something Delta should get behind. When you brought up vintage liveries a few weeks ago that tie in pinged my noggin. When it is a fully-formed concept and I figure out how to lose my ass on the transaction I will send you a message on the DM's.
If you're going to do it make it dirt cheap with absolutely everything required to build and fly it (including simple instructions). I hope this is a charitable endeavor and any profits will go towards letting kids sit by the fence at the airport and bringing them in. KVNY actually does a good job regarding inspiring kids with a dedicated public observation area on the NE end of the field. Look it up.
Your thoughts are tracking. As far as business form - I have not really decided. I say this as someone with close to 30years of non-profit experience (not as employee, Board and donated honoraria, etc) - but the biz form is just a tax/capital formation question to me. Newman's Own being an example of a for profit company devoted to charitable endeavours. A key piece in an idea that could grow is sources of income, their relationship to the non-profits stated mission, and if that violates whatever subsection of 501 you are organized under. With a for-profit you don't have to worry about those types of things and can be more nimble.
Or you could just manufacture them in your garage and quietly give them away for free. Newmans Own stopped being a non profit a long time ago. Did you know it all started from him BBQing in the pits for his fellow sportsman racer?
I sent a LOT of Estes rockets off in the horizontal launch configuration,
I think one of the keys is to get kids building them themselves. Anything that is not a screen or done on a couch. And what better way to learn airplanes than building the models. Didn't know that about Newman.
You can build a model sitting on a couch if you have the right coffee table. The main lesson about building a rubber powered balsa model is finishing and flying it. Firsthand experience doing something that seems complicated and seeing it through to the end is the invaluable part, unless the kid lives in a gymnasium they're going to have to go outside to see if it'll fly. When it crashes they've already done it once and with a bit of mentorship the task doesn't seem as impossible as it once did so they'll try again. I built a few models and some of them actually flew, not all of them though (many were just overly heavy because I'm sloppy and more is always better). The point is teaching perseverance, that's a character trait I find lacking these days in some younger people.
Sorry to quote my own post but anything that comes in a box thicker than 1/2" and uses styrofoam need not apply to this conversation. I also was a fan of Estes rockets, especially the engines, I built the Colossus and launched it once. And then I put the rest of the engines in the back of my buddies GI Joe F-14 and launched it down the street. His mom made sure we weren't friends anymore. Live and learn, some folks just don't know how to have fun.
“Sometimes curiosity necessarily involves things that go boom”