Every legal entity organized in California must comply with certain reporting rules. Compliance with reporting rules is important for a variety of reasons. In the nonprofit realm, compliance can [...]
A nonprofit that plans to do political work—lobbying, proposing legislation, and so on—can receive tax-exempt status from the IRS and state tax authorities as a social welfare organization. At [...]
Every nonprofit needs to adopt policies and procedures to ensure that its managers, employees, and volunteers have a clear plan for handling important parts of the organization’s operations. A [...]
Whether through forgetfulness, sloppiness, or conscious disregard, a nonprofit’s management can easily make mistakes that violate the requirements of its governing documents. Such mistakes, once [...]
Large gifts to nonprofits sometimes come with strings attached. When a large donor conditions a gift upon also having a voice in management, perhaps with a seat on the board or other meaningful [...]
Nonprofit groups of all kinds, especially churches, often begin their existence as unincorporated associations and only later decide that forming a nonprofit corporation is the right choice for [...]
It’s hard to overstate the importance of reputation to a nonprofit. Donors want to feel good about the organizations they give to. Volunteers prefer to work for organizations they trust and can [...]
Complying with formal notice requirements is an important piece of any organization’s governance. In businesses where legal formalities are given little or no consideration, It can be easy to [...]
When a person with extensive corporate board experience joins a nonprofit’s board the differences can come as a surprise. Many of the rules governing for-profit directors also apply to nonprofit [...]
Social welfare nonprofits are often established to provide a tax-exempt vehicle for organizing around a specific political topic. Under Section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, social [...]