OUR EXPERIENCE
We serve nonprofits of all types and sizes, offering creative legal advice grounded in over 20 years of specialized experience in nonprofit law.
In addition to serving a wide variety of nonprofit organizations, our clients also include donors making significant or complex gifts, businesses forming foundations for cause-marketing campaigns, and nonprofit founders considering the best philanthropic vehicle to meet their needs.
RESOURCES
Free Guides for your Nonprofit Organization
How to Start a Nonprofit
State Registration
Nonprofit Legal Checklist
Taking minutes of nonprofit board meetings
How To Set the Compensation of Nonprofit Executives
How to Start a Nonprofit
Before you form a legal entity and apply for tax-exempt status, you need a strong, well-researched plan for your organization. Download our free guide to learn about the many elements needed to run a successful nonprofit organization, as well as how to avoid common pitfalls and mistakes.
State Registration
Most states require you to register your organization if you solicit donations from their residents. Many states also require registration if your organization collects substantial or ongoing donations from their residents, even if you aren’t specifically targeting donors in that state. Download our comprehensive list of each state’s requirements.
Nonprofit Legal Checklist
There are many legal issues specific to nonprofit organizations that can be easily prevented by taking certain steps early on in the life of the organization. For more established nonprofits, it’s a good idea to conduct a periodic review of your compliance documents, tax filings, and record keeping. We created this checklist to help you understand the items that a lawyer will assess when reviewing the overall legal health of your nonprofit organization.
Taking minutes of nonprofit board meetings
Meeting minutes are a necessary form of record-keeping for all nonprofit organizations, regardless of size. These records can be used as legal evidence by the courts, IRS, and other regulators, so it’s important to ensure minutes are properly completed and stored. But where do you start?
How To Set the Compensation of Nonprofit Executives
Executives from tax-exempt organizations can only be paid “reasonable compensation” for their services.
To avoid excise taxes, nonprofits should strongly consider increasing the time and attention they devote to investigating, deliberating, documenting, and reporting executive compensation.
CharityLawyer Blog offers plain language explanations of complex nonprofit law concepts, discussions of current events and links to valuable resources for nonprofits.
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FEATURED BLOG POSTS
- The Legal Tools Used Against Nonprofits Are Not New
Political scientists who study what's often called "closing civic space" have documented a remarkably consistent set of tools used across very different regimes. Russia's 2012 "foreign agents" law required NGOs receiving foreign funding and engaging in loosely defined "political activity" to register under that label, submit to intensive audits, and carry the designation on all public materials; Human Rights Watch has tracked similar foreign agent laws spreading to dozens of other countries since, describing them as a standard item in the authoritarian playbook. Hungary's 2017 "Lex NGO" imposed similar transparency and registration burdens targeted at organizations critical of the government, while allowing ideologically aligned groups to operate without the same scrutiny. Egypt's 2017 NGO law restricted foreign funding and political advocacy outright, backed by criminal penalties. Between 2014 and 2016 alone, researchers tracked more than sixty countries imposing new restrictions on civil society funding and assembly.
- The New Federal Tax Credit for School Scholarships
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act created a federal tax credit for donations to K-12 scholarship organizations. The provision is codified at 26 U.S.C. § 25F, added by Section 70411 of Public Law 119-21, signed in July 2025. It takes effect for the 2027 tax year. Arizona has run its own version of this since
- HR 9721: What the Proposed Fiscal Sponsorship Transparency Act Means for Sponsors and Sponsored Projects
The Fiscal Sponsorship Transparency Act, a new federal bill, would impose reporting requirements on fiscal sponsors for the first time, and it has already moved further than most nonprofit legislation gets. Representative Lloyd Smucker introduced the Fiscal Sponsorship Transparency Act of 2026 (HR 9721) on July 16, 2026, and the House Ways and Means Committee