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.
In our earlier post on the Duty of Loyalty – Part 1, we discussed conflicts of interest, self-dealing (under California law), and excess benefit transactions. In this post, we’ll examine other aspects of the duty of loyalty: confidentiality and corporate opportunities. This post continues to address these fiduciary issues from the perspective of a...
The ABCs of Nonprofits, now in its second edition, is an excellent resource for nonprofits, their leaders, and their advisors on many of the legal issues affecting nonprofits. Author and highly respected nonprofit organizations attorney Lisa Runquist has just made this valuable book available in Spanish. Here’s what Lisa...
A Treasurer is typically charged with overseeing the management and reporting of an organization’s finances. Generally, as with other officer positions, the specific duties of the Treasurer are stated in an organization’s bylaws. Since an organization’s financial management is directly tied to the Treasurer’s responsibilities, the Treasurer’s execution of...
Section 5233 of the California Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation Law defines and prohibits self-dealing transactions. A self-dealing transaction is defined as “a transaction to which the corporation is a party and in which one or more of its directors has a material financial interest and which does not meet the requirements of...
The secretary of a nonprofit organization plays a critical role in fostering communication and ensuring proper management and utilization of important organizational records. Generally, an organization’s bylaws will set the duties of the secretary, however, duties may change from time to time as may be assigned by the board....
Advocacy is an essential board responsibility. That’s the new message being espoused by BoardSource in connection with the release of the third edition of Ten Basic Responsibilities of Nonprofit Boards. I’ve long asserted that board members should consider whether advocacy (and in some cases lobbying) would...
Who’s in charge? This is a commonly asked question when structuring the governance and management of a nonprofit corporation. Is it the president or chair of the board? Do nonprofits need to maintain both of these positions? And how does an executive director fit into this equation? Directors vs....
Erin will be on Nonprofit Radio this Friday at 10 am PT / 1 pm ET discussing 2017 Legal Tips with host Tony Martignetti. Catch them live on Talking Alternative or a few days later on iTunes. The New Year means a close look in the corners. We’ve got the legal issues you need to fine tune. Related Resources...
Kevin Durant announced he was signing with the Golden State Warriors after nine years with the Oklahoma Thunder. Weeks ago, the Warriors beat the Thunder 4-3 in the NBA Western Conference Finals after trailing 3-1. But the Warriors could not repeat as two-time NBA champions after falling to the...
All too often, whether a nonprofit corporation is legally compliant in its operations receives attention only after a conflict or issue arises. Instead, a nonprofit corporation can better prevent such conflicts and protect itself through regular legal audits of its corporate governance, federal and state tax exemption, other federal...