Over the years we have worked with organizations in many different states and have had the chance to form some opinions about choice of domicile for nonprofits. Some of the factors that have influenced our thoughts on this matter include states requiring mandatory audits, multiple agencies overseeing nonprofits, unclear statutes governing nonprofit corporations, and aggressive regulation.
Many founders feel guilty accepting reasonable compensation from the nonprofit they have nurtured but if they continue to forgo a reasonable salary, they risk erecting a house of cards that will fall apart as soon as they burn out.
The state form does not include the tax provisions that the IRS requires tax-exempt organizations to have. Would be founders that file using the state’s form Articles of Incorporation without including an attachment with the appropriate tax provisions will end up with a taxable nonprofit – a result almost no one intends.
We are used to hearing lots of folks – including yours truly – complain about the “nonprofit birth control” problem in this country. While it is true that too many nonprofits are formed for the wrong reasons – there are also many good reasons to form a new nonprofit. The trick is to learn to tell the difference.
For an increasing number of nonprofit organizations, the sale of naming rights have become a significant source of funding. The assets that can be named are limited only by a nonprofit’s imagination. Nonprofits commonly sell naming rights to programs, scholarship funds, endowed chairs, sections of a building, an entire facility, and even the name of the entity itself.
Remember that unpaid internship you were so lucky to snag in college? Well, according to both a federal judge in Manhattan and the US Department of Labor (DOL) that coffee-delivering-foot-in-the-door opportunity may have violated the Fair Labor Standards Act and entitle you to compensation. But what if you worked for a nonprofit?
To better coordinate their philanthropy, many companies choose to create corporate foundations to organize, focus, track, and publicize their philanthropic efforts.
A major advantage nonprofit corporations have over other forms of charitable entities is if a nonprofit corporation is properly managed and operated, it can provide a greater degree of personal liability protection to its directors and officers.
Many nonprofits outsource payroll processing as a cost effective way to handle their payroll compliance and human resource functions. We have seen several cases where unscrupulous payroll service organizations have taken advantage of nonprofits so the advice below is timely for our clients.
From time to time we see nonprofit clients adding employees in states in which they haven’t operated before. Often it is just one employee, perhaps a development person working from their home or a shared workspace. Although hiring an employee in another state may not seem like a significant event, many businesses don’t realize that it triggers several compliance obligations.
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.