By NEO Law Group
What is a joint venture? Broadly defined, a joint venture is a relationship which arises from an express or implied agreement between two or more parties to undertake some common objective for their mutual benefit. More narrowly defined, a joint venture is a separate legal entity formed by two...
According to Social Venture Partners, venture philanthropy means "funding organizations that support enterprising nonprofits and social entrepreneurs with not only financial resources, but also management and technical support as well. This support is focused on enabling nonprofits to build greater organizational capacity and infrastructure via long term, engaged relationships...
The Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA), a 501(c)(3) membership organization devoted exclusively to building sustainable nonprofits through earned income strategies, defines social enterprise as: an organization or venture that advances its social mission through entrepreneurial, earned income strategies. San Francisco-based REDF, a 501(c)(3) organization formerly known as The Roberts Enterprise...
GuideStar recently published an interview it conducted with Amit Sharma, Treasury’s senior advisor to the assistant secretary for terrorist financing, focusing on the topic of charities and antiterrorism. Among Sharma’s responses were the following comments: "… the threat is very real, and it is ongoing." "Designated terrorist groups around...
On September 21, 2006, All Saints Episcopal Church declared that it will refuse to comply with an investigation by the Internal Revenue Service for possible violation of tax laws prohibiting charitable organizations described under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code from engaging in political campaign activities. The investigation...
The U.S. Department of the Treasury released a revised version of its Anti-Terrorist Financing Guidelines: Best Practices for U.S.-based Charities (the "Guidelines") on September 29, 2006. According to the accompanying Treasury press release, this latest version takes into consideration "the comments and suggestions provided by the public to assist...
The Internal Revenue Service recently published a notice "Where is My Exemption Application?" in response to the delay caused by a backlog of exemption applications. The notice details the manner in which applications are processed: The Process: Upon receipt, exemption applications accompanied by the required user fee are initially...
Taxpayers 70½ years of age and older can make tax-free "qualified charitable distributions" of up to $100,000 annually from their IRAs (including Roth IRAs) in 2006 and 2007. A qualified charitable distribution is any distribution from an IRA directly by the IRA trustee to a public charity (or other...
The recent CAN Conference featured a program on Internal Controls, Risk & Fraud prepared by Tana Davis of Davis & Dash. The program defined "Internal Control" using the following definition provided by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations (COSO) of the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting: "a process, effected...
Here are some highlights from Flo Green’s presentation on Accountability and Integrity for Nonprofits at the recent CAN Conference: The political environment is changing: More accountability. More investigations. More penalties. Public trust is declining: Charities waste a great deal or fair amount of money – 66%. Charities do a...