Practice Areas
Charities & Private Foundations
Certification & Accreditation Bodies
Some issues are common across the nonprofit world. We assist all clients with:
- initial and amended incorporation filings
- applications to conduct business as foreign corporations
- bylaws
- conflict of interest policies
- mergers and dissolutions
- applications for exemption from federal and state taxes
- office leases
- contracts for conventions and meetings
- service contracts, such as website development, software licenses, graphic design, accounting, and fundraising
- copyright transfers
- copyright registrations
- intellectual property infringement and theft
- employment-related issues such as employee terminations, overtime, personnel manuals, and negotiating arrangements with executive staff
- working with outside legal counsel on matters that fall outside our normal range of services, such as trademark registrations and litigation
Charities & Private Foundations
Section 501(c)(3) organizations must comply with many tax rules in order to maintain exempt status.
For those clients classified as “public charities” by the IRS, we assist with:
- governance structures for chapters and local sections
- affiliated (c)(4) and (c)(6) organizations
- lobbying activities
- publication of professional journals, books, and other educational materials
- licensing of trademarks and other intellectual property
- charitable solicitation registration
- sweepstakes and raffles
- Federal grant and cooperative agreement compliance
- public support calculation
- fiscal sponsor agreements
For those clients classified as “private foundations” by the IRS, we assist with:
- structuring grant programs
- expenditure responsibility
- disqualified person analysis
- qualifying distributions
- jeopardizing investments
- taxable expenditures
Section 501(c)(4) organizations include professional associations and other groups organized for improvement of general social welfare. When compared with 501(c)(3) organizations, these groups have greater freedom to engage in lobbying and other political activities. For these clients, we assist with:
- affiliated (c)(3) and (c)(6) organizations
- lobbying and political activities
Membership Societies, Trade Associations, and Certification & Accreditation Bodies
Most trade associations and certification and accreditation bodies (as well as some membership societies) fall under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code (business leagues). For these clients, we assist with:
- Membership regulation
- legal defensibility of the scope of certification
- testing company and other service provider contracts
- eligibility standards for certification and recertification
- state advertising restrictions
- the proper relationship between certification bodies and professional membership organizations
- antitrust and tax issues
- protection of test items and other intellectual property
- examination irregularities and grievances
- applications for accreditation of the client’s program by the American National Standards Institute (“ANSI”) and the National Organization for Competency Assurance (“NOCA”)