It’s the beginning of another new year. And along with everything else that comes with a flip of the calendar, the IRS has several things up its sleeve for nonprofits in 2011. Let’s take a look two of the most crucial. Audits of nonprofits to increase. As if the IRS didn’t have enough to do [...]
Nonprofit Bylaws – The Dos and Don’ts
Bring up the subject of a nonprofit’s bylaws and you are sure to get an interesting response. For many nonprofit’s, their bylaws are just some forgotten document, full of legalese, gathering dust in a file cabinet somewhere. No one on the current board of directors knows who prepared them, nor what any of the provisions [...]
Of Nonprofits and Copyrights Part II
In our last post, we examined the hypothetical example of Jane Doe, Executive Director of Money University, a 501(c)(3) organization that teaches lower income people the principles of money management. To recap, Jane is a founder, board member and primary instructor. Jane is also an author who has written a number of books that Money [...]
Of Nonprofits and Copyrights Part I
The Foundation Group works with up to 1,000 nonprofit startups each year, so we get the opportunity to deal with many complex issues. Few are as complicated and confusing as copyright and royalty questions. My goal with this post is to give you some ideas of how best to deal with your intellectual property concerns. [...]
Questions Other Nonprofits Are Asking
If you are operating a nonprofit organization, chances are good that you have questions…lots of questions. And, it probably wouldn’t surprise you to know that your contemporaries in other nonprofits have lots of questions, too. Here at The Foundation Group, we get questions everyday. Many come from current or prospective clients who call or write. [...]
Common Myths Concerning Nonprofits
Just yesterday, I was interviewing a new student intern candidate in my office. During the course of our wide ranging discussion, the conversation turned to some of the interesting misconceptions we encounter with clients. I made the comment that we often feel like the crew of the Discovery Channel show, Mythbusters. There is a never-ending [...]
Update on IRS Tax Exemption Revocations
It’s been almost two months since most tax-exempt organizations were required to file their annual IRS Form 990. As we have discussed at great length on these pages, the due date for tax year 2009 was the doomsday date for many nonprofits which had not filed Form 990 for three consecutive years. Now the numbers [...]
One-Fourth of Nonprofits Set to Lose Tax Exemption
Doomsday is coming…May 18, 2010 to be exact. No, it has nothing to do with the Mayan calendar ending (that’s 2012!). May 18 is the day that nearly 1/4 of all US nonprofits find that the IRS has automatically revoked their tax exempt status. If you are doing the math, that is nearly 400,000 nonprofits. [...]
Questions You Must Answer Before Starting a Nonprofit
So…you want to start a nonprofit. Fantastic! That puts you in pretty good company. In any given year, as many as 75,000 applications for 501(c)(3) tax exemption are filed with the IRS. Less than half survive the process, but there is certainly no lack of interest in doing something charitable. But what does it really [...]
Why Marketing Is So Critical To Your Fundraising
Developing a proactive, comprehensive fundraising plan to make sure your organization is fully funded is just one part of a total plan for your organization. There is another plan you need to create – one that is just as important and could make your fundraising goals easier to reach. The plan I am referring to [...]
