Hello,

I live in VA and work for a Non Profit for last 3 years and am a green
card holder. I want to establish a non profit 501 (C) (3) to help
brilliant college ready students in India. There are many students who
are very brilliant but are unable to attend college due non
availability of funds to pay for college fees and some of them have
committed suicide.

My questions are:

Will I get a exempt status even though the organization will be
helping students overseas. I would be soliciting donations from family
& friends to begin with apart from own money. The goal is to provide
fees for 15 students in the 1st year/30-2nd year/45-3rd year/60-4th
year as the colleges like medical & engineering are 4 year.

What is the process to go through to be able to establish the non profit..?
I went ahead and registered a domain name of
financialhelp4education.org (and other tlds like .com & .net)

The total budget for this will be about $5000/ 1st year, 10k- 2nd
year, 15k- 3rd year & 20k-4th year with over 95% actually going
towards scholarships and only 3-5% in admin expenses.

To keep the expenses low, I want to start this from my home- where I
already have a LLC registered doing business of renting real estate.
Is that a problem..?

How effective are how to books like NOLO etc. 

Is it advisable to do the process on my own or I must hire an
attorney/consultant..?

What are the common pitfalls...dos & donts..?

Which is better a corporation or a trust..? 

And anything else that I should be aware of to accomplish this goal..?
Thanks much