Minimizing legal exposure is important because volunteers’ acts are generally imputed to the nonprofit organization. Specific, written volunteer policies and procedures are critical. Important components of a good volunteer program include clear and forward-thinking volunteer policies, thorough volunteer applications, screening, and management.
The IRS recently issued Rev. Proc. 2013-12 which updates its Employee Plans Compliance Resolution System. As anticipated, the new EPCRS allows plan sponsors to retroactively correct the failure to adopt a written plan document for a 403(b) plan by December 31, 2009.
From time to time, charities are faced with what to do with a restricted gift when the terms of the donor’s restriction can no longer be fulfilled. The doctrine of cy pres permits the courts to modify the charitable purpose of a charitable trust to a purpose that reasonably approximates the designated purpose, where the designated charitable purpose becomes unlawful, impossible, or impracticable to carry out or where it becomes wasteful to apply all of the property to the designated purpose.
Hold Annual Meeting. Most corporate bylaws require that the directors meet at least annually. Many state nonprofit corporation statutes also require an annual meeting. The annual meeting is typically the meeting where the board (or voting members) fill vacancies on the board, appoint officers, approve budgets, circulate and sign conflict of interest disclosures, and ratify actions taken during the year.
Voting memberships are most useful when an organization wishes to be democratically controlled by its constituents. By way of example, voting membership structures are commonly
Self policing allows serious problems to fall through the cracks. The most significant failure of self-policing seems to be a knee-jerk desire to protect the organization rather than the purported victim. This results in a failure to report allegations of abuse to the authorities, and instead be willfully blind to crimes committed against children. Institutional behaviors of denial, irresponsibility, cover-ups and possible criminal behavior seem to thrive in a self-policing organization. Jerry Sandusky’s case is a clear example of this willful blindness. Tolerating or ignoring abuse to children under the care of charitable organizations that are supposed to nurture and protect them undermines the noble purpose of such entities and thus weakens the organization.
We applaud the ACC’s sensitivity to nonprofit and tax-exempt issues and we suspect these changes will lead to fewer filings with inappropriate tax provisions. However, the downside is that the free ACC forms are no longer appropriate for nonprofits who wish to qualify for tax-exempt status.
When Board members gather, what are ostensibly shared interests and goals may in fact consist of different or divergent underlying priorities making it difficult to
For years, taxpayers and their advisors have wondered whether contributions to charities’ single-member LLCs are deductible. The IRS has issued Notice 2012-52 advising taxpayers that
In the nonprofit realm, when conflict erupts it is usually in the form of disagreement with external stakeholders such as beneficiaries, funders, media and/or regulatory agencies.
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.
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.