By NEO Law Group
I’ve been writing and speaking on the responsibilities of virtually all nonprofits and their leaders to consider climate change (and pollution) in planning and decision-making. See, for example, What’s Your Nonprofit Doing to Fight Climate Change? Expectedly, I’ve received some push back from attorneys and others about the requirement...
Social movements are collective efforts, some organized, some impromptu, with a goal to bring about some change important to movement participants. Well-known movements that have resulted in beneficial changes include those for civil rights, women’s rights, children’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, worker rights, immigrant rights, environmental rights, animal rights, democracy,...
Independent Sector commissioned research to fill a 20-year gap in data around nonprofit advocacy and civic engagement (i.e., nonpartisan voter engagement) activities through a nationally representative quantitative survey and complementary qualitative interviews of nonprofit institutions. The research, was presented in a workshop at Upswell 2023. Workshop/Report Highlights Nonprofits today...
I recently spoke with Tony Martignetti, host of Nonprofit Radio, about election year issues for charities in 2024. You can join the 13,000 weekly listeners and catch the Nonprofit Radio podcast here. Tony and I have previously spoken about election year advocacy for charities. It’s important at the outset to...
The Council on Foundations (CoF) and Independent Sector (IS) announced on December 13, 2023 that they had filed a joint amicus brief in support of the Fearless Foundation with respect to a lawsuit claiming that the Foundation’s grant program is in violation of Section 1981 of the Civil Rights...
The deadline for responses to the Ways and Means Committee request for information regarding nonprofit political activities, inappropriate use of charitable funds, and rise in foreign sources of funding has been extended from Labor Day to Friday, September 8, 2023. We previously wrote on the politically biased request for...
Two Republican leaders of the Ways and Means Committee have recently become concerned about nonprofit political campaign intervention activities and, on August 14, 2023, published an open letter requesting information from 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) organizations regarding their political activities. From a political perspective, this is an interesting twist as...
Here are some of the highlights from 2 of the subcommittee meetings at the ABA Exempt Organizations Committee meeting held in San Diego on February 10, 2023 as part of the ABA 2023 Midyear Tax Meeting. Private Foundations & Unrelated Business Income Taxes & International Philanthropy Political and Lobbying;...
CalNonprofits held its annual Policy Symposium on December 7, 2022. This year, the event was a half-day accelerated and virtual version featuring a keynote from CA Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes. The theme this year was Our Moment for Action. California nonprofits are at a turning point. Over...
This is part three of a three-part list of highlights from the Exempt Organizations Symposium held by the American Bar Association Tax Section’s Exempt Organizations Committee on September 8, 2022. Also see Part 1 (Political and Lobbying Activities, News from IRS/Treasury/Hill) and Part 2 (DAOs, Illegality). Charities and the First Amendment:...