Arizona recently amended its gambling laws to make it easier for political organizations, political clubs, booster clubs, and civic clubs to hold small raffles. The changes to the law actually give political organizations, political clubs, booster clubs, and civic clubs more leeway to conduct small raffles than most charitable organizations.
Current Law. Current law divides gambling [...]
Daily Dose of Nonprofit Law
Category Archives: Arizona Nonprofit Corporations
Arizona Law Change – New Small Raffle Exception
Nonprofit Bylaws: What to Include and What to Leave Out
Too often, nonprofits include provisions in their bylaws that are old-fashioned, unnecessary, redundant, or that complicate rather than streamline governance.
Nonprofit Bylaws: What to Include and What to Leave Out
It is important to take a thoughtful approach when drafting or revising bylaws. Boards and board committees sometimes spend months or even years trying to draft the perfect set of bylaws . Too often, they look to bylaws of other nonprofit organizations or samples gleaned from the Internet with no regard to whether the bylaws match the structure and style of the organization or comply with state and federal law. Unfortunately, this approach usually leads to confusion, delay, and conflict on the board. The better practice is to work with a knowledgeable attorney from the beginning, starting with a compliant template, and tailoring it to the needs of your organization.
Review of “Prepare Your Own 501(c)(3) Application” by Sandy Deja
Review of “Prepare Your Own 501(c)(3) Application” by Sandy Deja
Who Owns a Nonprofit Corporation?
Let’s be clear about one thing. No one owns a nonprofit corporation.[1]
While there is no outright ownership, there is control. One of the fundamental questions I ask when forming a new nonprofit corporation is how board members will be selected. This is a key question because those who hold the power to select board members retain the ultimate authority over the corporation.
The possibilities are limited by the nonprofit corporation statute in the state where the corporation is domiciled.
How to Start a Charter School in Arizona
Ellis Carter and Deanna Rader will be co-presenting a webinar on December 15th at 4:00 pm as part of the Arizona Charter School Association’s Charter Starter program. One of the first sessions that the program will offer is a webinar on the legal aspects of starting an Arizona charter school.
Caveat Emptor – Legal Document Preparers
In my practice representing nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, there are often themes that emerge. Over the last few weeks I have had a spate of calls from would be nonprofits that paid either a nonprofit start-up “consultant” or a document preparation company to form their nonprofit and handle their IRS filings. In each case, the work product that made it to my office required substantially more work to fix than it would have taken to do properly the first time around. You get what you pay for, and sometimes, you pay dearly for what you get. Before hiring someone to help you with the legal and tax aspects of starting a nonprofit, make sure they are licensed to provide the type of assistance they are offering, have specific experience representing nonprofits, and are in fact representing you rather than helping you to commit malpractice on yourself.
Arizona Corporation Commission Changes Impacting Nonprofit Corporations – Good News and Bad News
First, the Bad News Recent reductions in the Arizona Corporation Commission’s budget are impacting nonprofit corporations doing business in Arizona in the following ways:
Increased Turn-around Time. The turn-around time for filings will likely increase over the next six to twelve months, with regular filings taking as much as 250 days to be processed and expedited filings [...]
Part II: Starting a Nonprofit in Arizona – Forming the Entity
Once a non-profit founder has surveyed the non-profit landscape and found a legitimate need, recruited an initial board, created business and fundraising plans, and scraped together some start-up funding, he or she is ready to proceed. In Arizona, it usually makes the most sense to form the entity as an Arizona non-profit corporation. The steps required to form a nonprofit in Arizona are covered.
Part I: Starting a Nonprofit in Arizona – Laying the Groundwork
I receive several calls a week from people who want to start a new non-profit. Looking back on my legal career, I realize that many of the tax-exempt organizations I helped to create early on never got off the ground. Today, I consider it part of my responsibility to the potential new client and to the sector to educate would be founders on the realities of the marketplace. What follows is a walk through the typical discussion that I have with potential founders.
