OUR EXPERIENCE
We serve nonprofits of all types and sizes, offering creative legal advice grounded in over 20 years of specialized experience in nonprofit law.
In addition to serving a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, our clients also include donors making significant or complex gifts, businesses forming foundations for cause-marketing campaigns, and nonprofit founders considering the best philanthropic vehicle to meet their needs.
RESOURCES
Free Guides for your Nonprofit Organization
How to Start a Nonprofit
State Registration
Nonprofit Legal Checklist
Taking minutes of nonprofit board meetings
How To Set the Compensation of Nonprofit Executives
How to Start a Nonprofit
Before you form a legal entity and apply for tax-exempt status, you need a strong, well-researched plan for your organization. Download our free guide to learn about the many elements needed to run a successful nonprofit organization, as well as how to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes.
State Registration
Most states require you to register your organization if you solicit donations from their residents. Many states also require registration if your organization collects substantial or ongoing donations from their residents, even if you aren’t specifically targeting donors in that state. Download our comprehensive list of each state’s requirements.
Nonprofit Legal Checklist
There are many legal issues specific to nonprofit organizations that can be easily prevented by taking certain steps early on in the life of the organization. For more established nonprofits, it’s a good idea to conduct a periodic review of your compliance documents, tax filings, and record keeping. We created this checklist to help you understand the items that a lawyer will assess when reviewing the overall legal health of your nonprofit organization.
Taking minutes of nonprofit board meetings
Meeting minutes are a necessary form of record-keeping for all nonprofit organizations, regardless of size. These records can be used as legal evidence by the courts, IRS, and other regulators, so it’s important to ensure minutes are properly completed and stored. But where do you start?
How To Set the Compensation of Nonprofit Executives
Executives from tax-exempt organizations can only be paid “reasonable compensation” for their services.
To avoid excise taxes, nonprofits should strongly consider increasing the time and attention they devote to investigating, deliberating, documenting, and reporting executive compensation.
CharityLawyer Blog offers plain language explanations of complex nonprofit law concepts, discussions of current events and links to valuable resources for nonprofits.
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FEATURED BLOG POSTS
- Why Unauthorized Donation Pages Are a Real Problem for Nonprofits
This month, 23 state Attorneys General and Secretaries of State sent a letter to GoFundMe expressing grave concerns about the platform’s creation of donation webpages for more than 1.4 million nonprofits without their prior knowledge or consent. Last week, Alaska Attorney General Stephen Cox announced lawsuits against six crowdfunding platforms over similar conduct. These developments
- Mission Control Command Center – Another Attempt to Target Nonprofits
The latest report that the FBI and IRS have created a new “mission control command center” to investigate nonprofits for possible ties to political violence or domestic terrorism should alarm the nonprofit sector. Not because nonprofits are above the law. They are not. But because this appears to be another step in a growing effort
- The SPONSOR Act Would Put Fiscal Sponsors in the Crosshairs
The headlines are doing what headlines do best: making an already anxious nonprofit sector even more anxious. This time, the focus is on S. 3942, the Stop Proxy Organizations Nurturing Subversive Operations and Riots Act, or the SPONSOR Act. Its core proposal is simple, and alarming. It would make 501(c)(3) fiscal sponsors bear criminal liability