Foundation Group » Managing a Nonprofit

Nonprofits: Is Your Tax Preparer Registered With The IRS?

Greg McRay — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 00:30:28 +0000

It is an unfortunate reality: many self-described tax professionals are not professionals at all. They are more than willing to take a customer’s money for “professional” work that often results in a nightmare situation for the taxpayer. This includes those who advertise services to help nonprofits with IRS Form 1023, the application for 501(c)(3) status [...]

Year-End To-Do List for Nonprofits

Greg McRay — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:46:20 +0000

Well, we are pretty much down to it. There are only a few weeks left in 2011…and during much of that time, most of us will be preoccupied with all things Christmas. But in all the hustle and bustle, there are a few things regarding your nonprofit that require your attention. The following is a [...]

What Is Your Conflict-Of-Interest Score?

Greg McRay — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:47:42 +0000

A Self-Assessment Having worked with thousands of nonprofits over the years, we have seen just about every possible scenario you could think of. At least it seems that way! One of the most common issues we encounter, especially with startups, is conflict-of-interest. It is usually of the innocent variety, meaning that the people involved didn’t [...]

Six Ways to Really Scare Away Your Donors

Greg McRay — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:41:47 +0000

Halloween is upon us...and there is no more appropriate topic that we could cover than how to effectively scare away donors. In the, um, spirit of the season, let's look at six ways to guarantee donors will want nothing to do with you!

501(c)(3) University is Now Enrolling

Greg McRay — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 16:59:47 +0000

We’ve been giving you teasers all summer long, but the waiting is over. 501(c)(3) University ( www.501c3university.com ) is finally live and enrolling eager learners. What is it? 501(c)(3) University is Foundation Group’s new online learning portal for nonprofits. We have assembled over 25 of the best and brightest professionals in the nonprofit community who [...]

IRS Releases Guidance for Tax Exemption Reinstatement

Greg McRay — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 14:01:55 +0000

As you are likely aware, the IRS finally released its long-delayed Nonfiler Revocation List last week. On it were the names of 275,000 nonprofits that had their 501(c) status revoked (see previous post). There has been some confusion and some mistakes, as would be expected with anything that impacts up to 20% of all tax-exempt [...]

275,000 Nonprofits Lose Tax Exempt Status

Greg McRay — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 05:08:09 +0000

Well, it’s official. We’ve known this day was coming since the Pension Protection Act was passed into law in almost 5 years ago. On the afternoon of June 8, 2011, the IRS released the initial list of nonprofits that have automatically lost 501(c) tax exemption due to non-filing of Form 990 for 3 consecutive years, [...]

Why People Hate Nonprofit Board Service

Greg McRay — Thu, 05 May 2011 15:12:41 +0000

Tonight, the stakeholders (parents) of my daughter’s school will be voting to approve the list of new board members to replace those who are rolling off at the end of the school year. I am on the new member list, so I thought I would take this occasion to address board service and why it [...]

10 Business Essentials for Nonprofits

Greg McRay — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 12:00:13 +0000

It often seems that when otherwise business-savvy individuals become involved in a nonprofit organization, they set aside all they ever learned in business and proceed to operate their nonprofit as if business rules do not matter. As most soon find out, they matter a lot. In this post, let’s take a look (in no particular [...]

IRS To Publish Revocations of Tax Exemption

Greg McRay — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 04:21:26 +0000

The day some nonprofits have dreaded is coming soon. The IRS announced on February 24, 2011 that it will soon publish the list of 501(c) nonprofit organizations that had their tax exemption automatically revoked for nonfiling of Form 990 information returns. This list, officially called the Nonfiler Revocation List, will be updated monthly once it [...]