Norminn wrote:
And if Mike falls off the mower, cuts off his leg and bleeds to death,
what will his loved ones
do? Sue someone? Does paying him make him your employee?

If the idea is to use the money to pay Mike and maybe to pay others to do
various beneficial projects, it could get complicated.

For one thing, there are the questions above about "who" is paying Mike, is
he then an employee, is he covered by Workers Comp if he gets injured while
working, who is responsible if he damages something or injures someone else
while working, etc.

Then, there's the question of what happens if you keep it "informal" where
various people contribute? If two or more people get together, put up
money, and pay someone to do things, what they have created is a General
Partnership -- even though it is not registered anywhere as a partnership.
With a General Partnership, each and every one of the people who put up
money is 100% personally responsible for any and all debts or liabilities of
the partnership. That one act of contributing toward this informal group
that hires people to do things exposes each and every contributor to the
possibilty of being sued individually and having to pay for their own
individual defense in any lawsuit.

On the other hand, if you decide to have some type of civic organization or
group where people contribute money, and want to use that money toward doing
a public good and maybe paying people like Mike to do things, you should NOT
keep it informal. Just form a small nonprofit corporation. Then people can
pay dues or give money to the corporation and the CORPORATION, not the
individuals, can pay out money to Mike or whoever and pay to have things
planted, etc. Then, if something happens, it is the corporation, not the
individuals that will be exposed to whatever liability there may be.

It's a tad more complicated than that, but by and large, that's the way it
works.

You can buy a book through Nolo Press ( http://nolo.com ) called How to Form
a Nonprofit Corporation and get the whole low-down.