We incorporated Spielbound as a non-profit in the fall of 2012 with the State of Nebraska and have been operating as such since then. We filed for our 501(c)3 tax exemption status in the spring of 2013 and the IRS has not yet started to review our application.
There are many reasons why we chose to be non-profit, but first and foremost are our unique missions and goals. Instead of repeating them all, I invite you to read them here. It's actually because of them that we felt creating a board game cafe was the best way to achieve our mission as we wrote in our website FAQ here.
We have many projects in the works for improving our community, but for now let me ask you a simple question: How many memorable moments do you have from watching TV with your family? Now how many do you have from playing games with them? I don't expect you to have the same answers and experiences as I had, but for several I have asked, it's lopsided in favor of games especially considering how much more TV exposure they had. And for those who didn't, often it was because they didn't play games or had lousy games to play (which are memorable in their own way ;-) ).
In a world where we spend so much time interacting with a screen, board games provide a valuable way to interact with others. And to repeat our mission, "We believe games inspire, motivate, entertain, and help us grow. In this positive space, we seek to provide all people the challenge, art, and fun unique to the world of board games."
We don't expect everyone to know the science and reasoning behind why we're promoting board games, but we do hope to simply bring more people together to play more games!