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In When the Revenue Agent Comes Calling, we explained that the Enron and Worldcom scandals in the early 2000’s had a profound effect on charity regul…
In this fourth part of a series arising out of the recently exposed travails of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, we consider the argument rais…
Around the nation, state legislatures are jumping on the bandwagon to authorize a new kind of for-profit corporate model for socially conscious entrep…
Back in June 2021, Giving USA, a “public service initiative of the Giving USA Foundation,” released the most current of 66 consecutive annual reports…
Many charities conduct their own fundraising campaigns; some have in-house development directors and staff. As we mentioned in “Taking Fundraising Out…
There’s an opportunity in the next few months for the nonprofit community to have a say on the modernization and reform of an important piece of civil…
There’s a new opportunity right now for interested members of the public to submit comments on proposed regulations affecting the nonprofit sector. R…
In Secrets and Lies at Silicon Valley Community Foundation and Scandal Erupts at Silicon Valley Community Foundation, we began a multi-part series on…
Since the enactment of California’s Assembly Bill 5 (“AB5”), many employers have struggled with classifying their workforce. AB5, which codifies the f…
In “Lessons for Charity Governance From Sweet Briar and San Diego Opera,” we highlighted two instances in which, under the prior leadership just ouste…
“A scandal at the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (SVCF) has roiled the world of philanthropy,” wrote philanthropy expert and consultant Alan Cant…
In just over ten years, a new community foundation in Silicon Valley – the result of a merger of two existing organizations – grew into one of the nat…
“The IRS is not the only sheriff in town.” That’s a key point made in last summer’s edition of the Nonprofit Quarterly magazine on the “New Nonprofit…
Philanthropy in the United States is at a crossroads. After many decades of fairly static models of charitable giving, there is considerable innovatio…
In “a year like no other,” there’s a new “commons” platform dedicated to providing nonprofits free information and advice about financial management a…
It was a scene likely played out countless times around the nation in the early days of the summer just ended. The nonprofit executive, who had wearil…
The clock was ticking. The final regulations for IRC section 4960, the excise tax on the “excess compensation” of nonprofit executives, made it into…
Donor-advised funds (DAFs) have been available for decades, but it’s only in recent years that DAFs have surged in popularity in the United States to…
“The question now – at the beginning of 2022 – is whether the nonprofit community is any closer to a consensus … or to any action at all.” That was o…
Now that the hustle and bustle of the holidays are over, it’s time to start making resolutions for the New Year. As a small business or nonprofit org…
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was enacted at the end of December 2017. It was a rushed effort, with little or none of the usual thoughtful drafting…
In 2016, the world-renowned MacArthur Foundation took a huge leap of faith when it announced its bold 100&Change contest. The challenge for applicants…
California’s landmark crowdfunding law, AB 488, is set to go into effect on New Year’s Day 2023, some fifteen months after the measure was signed into…
“Making sure that tax-exempt hospitals abide by their community benefit standards is a very important issue for me,” wrote Senate Finance Committee Ch…
A Limited Liability Company (or “LLC”) is the easiest and most straightforward separate business entity to establish, and is also often times the next…
The tax-exempt status of certain high-profile private museums have become the target of an inquiry by the Senate Finance Committee. The issue is wheth…
Since the early 2000s, federal and state charity regulators around the nation – spooked by the high-profile corporate scandals of Enron and Worldcom –…
Until recently, if you asked random Americans if they recognize the acronym “GDPR,” you’d get blank stares and glazed eyes in response. It’s short for…
For the past 15 years or so, government regulators have taken a keen interest in preventing – and a hard-line stance on exposing and penalizing – fina…
Back in the early 2000’s, business scandals including Enron and Worldcom rocked the corporate world. Although that wrongdoing involved huge for-profi…
We posed a question in “Sweet Briar College: Saved – At Least for Now”: Does the board of directors have the final say in closing down an organization…
The revenue agent who comes knocking at the door of a public charity will have at hand IRS Form 14114, Governance Check Sheet. Issued in 2009, it’s a…
The board of directors of a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt organization plays a critical role in guiding it along the path to achieving its mission. Good gover…
There’s no one-size-fits-all for an accounting set-up for nonprofits. Needs and best practices may vary widely depending on the organization’s size, f…
Washington, D.C. in the summer months is ordinarily hot, humid – and empty. Among those fleeing for several weeks are all 545 members of the U.S. Cong…
“Big problems require bold solutions.” That’s how, five years ago, the prestigious MacArthur Foundation introduced its “groundbreaking global competi…
In 2020, amid the chaos and disruption of the global COVID-19 pandemic, a tragic incident involving one man on the streets of Minneapolis triggered si…
Starting this month, For Purpose Law Group will select and feature one of our clients… a nonprofit organization or social enterprise doing great work,…
The events of November 8, 2016, were – not to put too fine a point on it – unexpected. The sudden reality of a GOP-controlled Congress and White House…
It sounds like it could be the title of a 1960’s-era teen mystery novel, and it’s no wonder the story went viral. It had everything: schoolgirls excit…
The simmering donor-disclosure, “dark-money,” battle is set to heat up considerably in the next few months. There were two specific developments in Ja…
An IRS revenue agent knocking at the door of a 501(c)(3), tax-exempt, organization will have in hand that agency’s Form 14114, Governance Check Sheet…
Each year, officials at the Internal Revenue Service release a road map for the upcoming fiscal year. On September 28, 2017, the agency released its T…
California has been in the forefront of the recent movement to facilitate establishment of social enterprises: for-profit corporations that are author…
In the face of a problem or failure, too many charitable organizations duck and cover: hiding serious dysfunction, glossing over a disappointing resul…
Back in 2015, we featured two stories about troubled nonprofit institutions on opposite coasts. The common thread in each tale was a stakeholder revol…
As nonprofit attorneys, we often get asked by clients for guidance on governance and resources for nonprofit boards of directors to utilize. “Great bo…
One of the signature accomplishments of the Obama Administration was the 2009 passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. So, back in January 2016, o…
The Internal Revenue Service has been tinkering around with the rules about substantiating charitable donations of more than $250. The agency wants to…
“The annual state budget is – next to the State Constitution – the most important document in California government.” That’s how Senate writers in Sac…