Are there any of you out there who have a complex management structure, with more than one organization controlling activities?

We have a structure where one organization, a self governing fund, owns the buildings, and has the insurance and responsibility to operate trains, and the other organization owns the rolling stock and has a membership and democratic leadership.

Comments?

If I understand it, the Cumbres & Toltec has such a setup.

From the wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canberra_Railway_Museum

"Since May 2018, Canberra Railway Museum has been the trading name of a not-for-profit company, Capital Region Heritage Rail Limited, established to run the museum, while ACT Heritage Rail Holdings Limited is the company responsible for safeguarding the heritage assets of the museum."

The wiki entry details the history of the original and current organisations and why there are now two distinct entities. Set up this way to stop heritage assets being sold off and lost in future.

Yes and no. But it is an interesting two or three entity operation.

The physical property is owned by a two-State joint commission. After years of have a concessionaire operate the railroad, the commission set up its own corporation (I understand that the commission is the board of directors of the corporation) to operate the railroad.

The Friends of the C&TS was organized about 1980 -- about 10 years after the commission took ownership. This is the volunteer support organization doing and funding various restoration and upkeep projects; providing narrative docents onboard the trains, etc. All of this in conjunction with the commission and the operating company.

At the other end of the spectrum, we are a 501(c)(3) non profit Alaskan corporation which owns the locomotive, tools, and support equipment. The membership is the 10-member board of directors. Supporters are donors but not members. All fund raising is done by in-house volunteers. Even though they don't have a vote, supporters are welcome at meetings, and as can be seen from the posts here, we are very transparent in our operations.

However, for a bit over the first year of our existence, a community foundation served as our "fiscal sponsor." This was necessary to allow donors' contributions to be tax deductible before we had received our 501(c)(3). It was basically a contractual arrangement in which the non profit community foundation set up a donor fund to accept contributions in our name and disburse funds for specific expenditures. Contributors gave to the foundation and specified that the donation was to be designated for our fund. We prepared any grant requests and did all of the fund raising work but grants were actually submitted by the community foundation. Until we were able to directly solicit funds all purchases were either paid for or reimbursed by the fund. Our organization didn't have any money or a bank account of it's own for over a year. Advantages: It allowed donors to contribute to a recognized 501(c)(3). It was a requirement of a foundation which gave a major grant when the organization was formed. Disadvantage: 6% of the contributions, including of large grants, was taken off the top as a processing fee. The services provided were was primarily comprised of them accepting and disbursing funds, providing monthly reports, putting a cover letter on grant requests that we prepared, and allowing fund raising to be done under the umbrella of their 501(c)(3).

At the time we begin operations, new agreements will be established between our organization, the host railroad, and possibly others.

I don't know if it's bifurcated or something else, but the Oregon Rail Heritage Foundation (ORHF) seems complex. I haven't been a member in years so things may have changed. ORHF operates the Oregon Rail Heritage Center (ORHC). ORHF exists, among other things, to care for the three locomotives owned by the City of Portland and has numerous member organizations.

This sounds like "vertical separation" as practiced in Japan on numerous regional railroads. Usually the prefecture or a major town on line owns the right of way, track, and buildings, while the equipment is owned and operated by a separate RR company. This strategy is frequently adopted as a way of avoiding abandonment of non profitable segments of the national railway system.

Germany, too, uses a variant of this arrangement in that the fixed plant of Deutsche Bahn is owned by the German government, while many different entities may own and operate equipment on these lines.

The WW&F in Maine has a vertical separation similar to what Sammy describes. The operating entity is the Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, but much of the right of way including the Sheepscot yard and museum grounds is still held by the original for-profit Wiscasset & Quebec Railroad Company chartered in 1854, which leases it to the museum.

This arrangement was intended by the museum's founder Harry Percival (who also controlled the W&Q) as a kind of insurance against the failure of either party. The two entities work closely with one another but have entirely separate boards of directors.

-Philip Marshall

The Cuyahoga Valley Scenic is a non-profit organization with paid senior staff and president, but a volunteer BoD; some paid operating personnel, but heavily dependent on volunteers for most on-board positions and T&E personnel. The RoW from Akron Howard St. north is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, and from Howard St. to Canton is owned by Akron MetroRTA. Is that jumbled enough for you?

RR Museum of PA is set up similarly to C&TS, except there is one State involved.

The Museum and its artifacts are owned by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The Friends of the Railroad Museum (FRM) is the nonprofit 501(c)(3) that performs the functions a nonprofit can do and gives interested people an organisation and membership.

"Administered by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, With the Active Support of the Nonprofit Friends of the Railroad Museum of Pennsylvania"

Phil Mulligan

https://www.rrmuseumpa.org/

The Strasburg Rail Road is a separate for-profit company operating the Nation's oldest Short Line.