As a company, the Foundation Group team works with over 1,000 new, startup nonprofits each year. One of the biggest and most frequent challenges we face when working with clients is conflict-of-interest concerns. New 501(c)(3) organizations are particularly vulnerable to…
Once you know the purpose of your nonprofit organization and have an understanding of your desired ownership and controls mechanism, it is time for you to choose the type of 501(c)(3) that best represents your organization’s planned operational structure. There…
For a visionary individual who wants to start a nonprofit, the concept of ownership can be a tricky one. You’re a founder on a mission, with big ideas to help solve problems in your communities, and you want to retain…
Five months ago, three-year-old Raelee Parris passed away. I never had the pleasure of meeting Raelee, but I know people who did. It's very clear from the stories I've heard, I'm the one who missed out! He was a Super…
In a fantastic piece today in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Tim Delaney, chief executive of the National Council of Nonprofits, exposes multiple examples of currently proposed state legislation aimed at the nonprofit community. Mr. Delaney explains how, in each example,…
The Internal Revenue Service issued its annual compilation of agency data yesterday. In what was a surprise to many, the number of approved applications for 501(c)(3) status actually dropped in 2015 from 2014's numbers. The 2015 fiscal year, which ended September…
By Karl Zinmeister, The Philanthropy Roundtable This article is adapted from a talk delivered on January 29, 2016, at Hillsdale College's Allan P. Kirby, Jr. Center for Constitutional Studies and Citizenship in Washington, D.C. It is a long piece, but…
Well, that was fast. At least the IRS made the right decision on this. Just to update you, the IRS recently proposed allowing charities to (optionally) collect the Social Security numbers of donors and report the detailed donor/donation information to…
It looks like Lois Lerner, the scandal-scarred former head of the IRS Tax Exemption Unit, can finally relax and enjoy her forced retirement. Last week, the Obama Justice Department announced that they were declining to prosecute her for misusing her…
An article published yesterday by the online newspaper, ProPublica (which claims to focus on stories with "moral force"), is getting a lot of attention. In the essay entitled, The Wall Street Takeover of Charity, writer Jesse Eisinger goes to great…
