Employment by an association in France?

Our association in France has expanded considerably since its inception in 2013 to the extent that we will need to look at employing at least one person in 2017, two people in 2018 and three people in 2019. Our conseil, however, has considerable concerns about the financial implications of this as our profits are donated to charitable associations in France. During the current year, this amounted to 16,000 euros.

The legal and financial implications in France could have serious and far-reaching effects on our viability as a donation-giving association and could threaten our entire existence if the worst happens. For example, if we employed someone on 10 euros per hour, my understanding is that we would have to put aside a further 70% for added costs (social charges etc.). For someone on 15 hours per week, this would mean 7,800 euros per annum plus 5,460 euros, making a total of 13,260 euros, almost the entire total we donated to charitable causes in 2016. Currently, all of the work is undertaken by volunteers but, with the considerable growth of the association, we simply have to look at paying people to help us in our work.

1. Are there alternatives to direct employment in France? For example, if someone were an auto-entrepreneur, would this absolve us of the 70% oncosts and many of the legal implications of direct employment?
2. Is using the cheque d’emploi a possibility?

I should be most grateful for some guidance. We are in a peculiar situation whereby we wish to expand (and all signs are that this will happen) with the associated rise in donations to charitable causes but are likely to be prevented from doing so because of the implications.