About this time every year, the IRS issues a number of Revenue Procedures, which are official, formal pronouncements regarding the manner in which it will handle specific tax situations. Revenue Procedures don’t exactly make law (only Congress can do that…theoretically, anyway), but rather provides a written guideline regarding how the IRS will handle an issue. [...]
IRS Scrutiny of New Nonprofits on the Rise
Applying for tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) status has always been a formidable process for the uninitiated. From the planning to the paperwork to the IRS follow-up, it has never been a walk in the park. The Foundation Group has worked with nearly 13,000 nonprofit startup clients since our founding in 1995. Over the years, we have seen [...]
States Inflicting Form 990 Pain on Small Nonprofits
If you had told me three years ago that state-level compliance for nonprofits would someday become more of an issue than dealing with Uncle Sam, I would have been quite skeptical. If you had told me that it would happen by 2012, I might have laughed it off completely. More difficult than dealing with the [...]
Year-End To-Do List for Nonprofits
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 [...]
Six Ways to Really Scare Away Your Donors
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!
10 Business Essentials for Nonprofits
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 [...]
How to Start a Nonprofit
Helping people start nonprofit organizations is one of the most important things we do at Foundation Group. In fact, we have helped over 12,000 organizations get started since 1995. The following is really more of an overview than an exhaustive examination. Why Do You Want to Start a Nonprofit? Before we get into the “how” [...]
IRS To Publish Revocations of Tax Exemption
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 [...]
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. [...]
IRS Mishandling Some 501(c)(3) Applications
Posted on August 23, 2012 by Greg McRay in Commentary, Starting a nonprofit
Cincinnati, we’ve got a problem! Lately the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Division has begun to monkey around with the way it treats organizations applying for tax exempt status, particularly those nonprofits that have been around and operating for a number of years prior to filing. The situation has been confusing, contradictory and, frankly, at [...]