Tax reasons, and liability shield. 
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I've done taxes for a lot of doomsday cults.  *They never listen.*  The ones that succeed, do so because they **work for their own cause, not the IRS**.  

Remember Y2K?  Wound up being a big nothingburger because the end-of-the-world cult insisted on a general partnership (which is to say refused to use any corporate structure at all).  Aside from wasting money paying taxes at the 28-35% **personal rates** and being **unable to take deductions**,  there were several lawsuits where every cult member was held **personally liable with no limits** - they lost their houses, which were built directly on the ley line intersections.  Ugh!  Basements full of carefully aligned crystals, all wrecked when the plaintiff prepared the houses for resale. 

 A proper corporate structure could have delayed the creditors and IRS until *after* January 1, 2000, when it wouldn't have mattered.

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Contrast with The Global Warming Initiative LLC. Operative word LLC.   It's just crazy.  Aside from the tax situation really working well,  the real eye-opener was that nobody questioned what they were doing.  People  just assumed *if a corporate entity does it, it can't be pure evil*. (and yet they own a cell phone.   How can this be?) 

Yes, there were lawsuits against individual Members. And some of them won.  But the LLC was *manager* managed, so all they could get was *charging orders*, which means they take profits ahead of Members *if the Manager ever chooses to distribute profits*, which of course he never did.  The LLC went bust, but not before all the coal plants and freon factories were built.  Mission accomplished.  

**Bottom line, a good corporate structure is the difference between success and failure**.  Be like the Lower Manhattan Beautification Committee, not like the Branch Davidians.