Keeping Your Nonprofit’s 501c3 Status

What it is

Very little in this book concerns wrongdoing. It concerns obligations that arrive without notice, are missed by competent people, and become expensive at a moment chosen by someone else.

Charitable solicitation registration, which few organizations complete correctly. Operating in a second state, which is rarely a decision: a volunteer moves, a partner opens a site, and the obligation follows. Insurance, and the coverage most small organizations lack while paying for coverage they do not need. And the agreements you will sign in the first five years, against the small number you will read.

Then lobbying and advocacy, where the belief that a charity cannot lobby has cost the sector more than the rule itself. The single prohibition with no permitted side. Unrelated business income. Conflicts of interest in practice, and the tax that attaches to them. The two policies organizations write only once they are needed. The personal information you hold, which is more sensitive than most businesses of comparable size hold and is usually stored without protection. Government funding and its conditions. Fiscal sponsorship in both directions. And the four situations in which counsel is not optional.