A nonprofit association is a group of natural or legal persons who pursue a disinterested goal.
If you decide to create a non-profit organization, you cannot receive any material gain from it. This prohibition means that, as a member of a non-profit organization, you cannot receive any profits from the activities of the organization. This is an important difference from commercial companies whose purpose is to enrich their members.
However, this does not exclude that you may derive an indirect patrimonial benefit from the activities of the association, such as a saving, the loan of works of art or free access to organized exhibitions.
A non-profit association is distinct from a de facto association. The latter is an association created by an agreement between individuals. It has no legal personality and no specific legal regulations. The members may incur personal liability and invest their own assets. In other words, a de facto association is merely an agreement between individuals to create an association with a common social purpose.
The association has its own legal personality, independent of that of its members. Legal personality means that the association has rights and obligations. As a member, you have limited liability and in principle do not commit your own assets to the commitments of the association.
The aisbl also differs from the asbl. The aisbls have an international objective and are therefore subject to different regulations.
Contrary to other legal forms (sa, sprl…), the constitution of an asbl does not require the contribution of a starting capital.
Read: The non-profit organization, SPF JUSTICE.
Example : Fondation Magritte (“This is not a foundation” but a non-profit organization)
