By NEO Law Group
An engaged board can be one of the most important organizational assets of a nonprofit. But nonprofit boards are often underutilized and are not always effective in significantly advancing an organization’s mission. Educating boards and executives about their legal duties, practical steps to take to effectively meet those duties, and best practices in mitigating exposure to organizational and personal liability/harm is key to establishing board engagement and effectiveness.
The secretary of a nonprofit corporation is typically a required officer position under state laws. The post on the Duties of the Secretary of a Nonprofit Corporation written by my colleague Michele Berger wrote in 2017 remains one of the most read on our blog. This post expands on...
Nonprofit board members and managers rely on delegating their responsibilities to others. Of course, the size of the organization will dictate the options, persons, groups, and contractors involved. This post is aimed principally at nonprofit corporations with at least a few employees holding management-level responsibilities and will not discuss...
As readers of this blog may be aware, I’m a big fan of the governance model known as Purpose-Driven Board Leadership (PDBL). If you’re not familiar with PDBL, it follows four basic principles: PDBL in Context It’s important to understand that PDBL does not fully inform the roles and...
The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and National Association of State Charities Officials (NASCO) held their 2024 Charities Conference on October 8-10. This conference is the sole annual event at which charity regulators and nonprofit organizations and their attorneys, accountants, fundraisers, and advisers can meet, learn about, and...
Many nonprofits do not distinguish between the two types of legal committees under the California Nonprofit Corporation Law: board committees and committees that are not board committees (“other committees”). Sometimes, there may be no issues raised by conflating these two different bodies within a nonprofit corporation. But other times,...
We have previously written about prudent investment rules that apply to charities with respect to their institutional funds (including endowment funds) under the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA), including here. One of the important factors in selecting and managing investments is the amount that is intended...
Charitable nonprofits organizations (“charities”) are subject to state prudent investment laws as we have previously written about here. The most important of these laws is the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) applicable in 49 states (all except Pennsylvania) and DC. UPMIFA and Management and Investment Factors...
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...
The question of a nonprofit’s future needs and impact raises a couple of related concepts: intergenerational equity and longtermism. Of course, all planning involves thinking about the future – whether it be in designing programs, fundraising, marketing, budgeting, investing, advocating, collaborating, or engaging in myriad things that are necessary...
Nonprofits exist to advance their mission. That seems simple enough. As does the corresponding statement: the mission is the reason for a nonprofit’s existence. The public expression of the mission is typically a short, pithy phrase that is part of the leadership’s elevator pitch. Below are a few examples...