By NEO Law Group
Advocacy is a broad term that covers a range of activities that seek to bring about change. One form of advocacy is lobbying, defined as activities that attempt to influence specific legislation. Charities are permitted to engage in lobbying activities, so long as those activities represent an “insubstantial” part of their overall activities. Another form […]
Advocacy is a powerful tool underutilized by public charities to advance their mission. And although the terms advocacy and lobbying are often used interchangeably, as lobbying is a form of advocacy, there are federal law limitations related to lobbying activities that do not extend to non-lobbying advocacy activities. Lobbying is defined as activities that attempt […]
The IRS recently proposed Form 1023-EZ, a simplified version of Form 1023 for recognition of federal exemption under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The new form converts Form 1023’s 25-pages into merely 3, creating a less burdensome exemption process for certain qualifying organizations. The goal of the streamlined application is to help small charities […]
I started the past week at the BoardSource Leadership Forum and ended it at the CalNonprofits Convention. And Monday was Veterans Day. Have a listen to Lee Greenwood's God Bless the U.S.A. while perusing this week's tweets: on nonprofits, philanthropy, governance and social enterprises: National Council of Nonprofits: Bad actors may divert assets from missions. […]
A San Francisco group, United Libations, recently announced that it was looking to create the city’s first nonprofit bar. It sounds like such a great idea – who wouldn’t want a portion of the price of their cocktail going to a charitable cause? But before you rush out to form a nonprofit bar yourself, there […]
On June 17, 2013, the CEOs of GuideStar, Charity Navigator, and BBB Wise Giving Alliance signed a letter to the Donors of America denouncing the “overhead ratio” as a valid indicator of nonprofit performance. Leading commentators applauded the move even while some noted that charity ratings organizations, like some of the signatories to the […]
It would have been difficult to avoid the onslaught of news and related commentary over the last couple of months regarding the IRS scandal involving the criteria used to identify tax-exemption applications for review. But it now looks like the IRS is taking steps to overhaul its internal review process and to repair its […]
Highlights from the morning sessions of Day Two of the 2013 Private Foundation National Conference in Seattle below. BREAKING NEWS: Greg Colvin's Committee housed within Public Citizen drafted a proposal on clarifying IRS rules on political intervention. See Bright Lines Project (just published yesterday). Direct Charitable Activities – Jody Blazek and Jane Searing A […]
Dan Pallotta blew the roof off at TED 2013 with his talk about why The Way We Think About Charity is Dead Wrong (over 850,000 views and counting). Dan spoke passionately about the inability of the nonprofit sector to solve some of the society's greatest problems (e.g., poverty has been stuck at 12% for the last […]
Here are our top 10 events of 2012 affecting the nonprofit sector (listed in chronological order): Hull House Closure Komen for the Cure-Planned Parenthood Controversy Facebook Goes Public Reinstatement of University of Virginia’s President Affordable Care Act Degrees in Philanthropic Studies Lance Armstrong Stripped of Cycling Medals U.S. Presidential Election Shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary […]