Caritas Law Group regularly serves as outside general counsel to tax-exempt and nonprofit organizations. We also represent donors with respect to significant gifts, and socially responsible companies with respect to cause-marketing arrangements and corporate giving strategies. Specifically, we provide nonprofit legal services with respect to the following:
- Public charity rules and regulations
- Private foundation rules and regulations
- Governance
- Commercial and entrepreneurial activities
- Risk management
- Fundraising counsel
- Nonprofit organizational relationships
- Charter Schools
- International philanthropy
- Annual reporting
- Social enterprise
- Contract drafting and review
- Compensation
- Available for presentations as well as staff and board trainings
Each service is described in more detail as follows:
Public charity rules and regulations
- Formation as well as obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status
- Public charity support tests and qualification
- Excess benefit transaction prevention and correction
- Advocacy, lobbying, and political activities
- Supporting organization qualification and operating standards
- Donor advised fund qualification and operating standards
- Public disclosure
Private foundation rules and regulations
- Formation as well as obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status
- Grant-making practices, diligence, and documentation
- Jeopardizing investment rules
- Minimum distribution rules
- Taxable expenditure rules
- Scholarship and individual grant guidelines and IRS approval
- Disqualified person and self-dealing rules
- Cross-border grants and activities
- Operating foundation qualification and operating standards
- Analyzing nontraditional investments for tax consequences and risk
Governance
- Governance policies
- Committee Charters
- Executive compensation including avoidance and correction of intermediate sanctions
- Board structure, composition, roles, and responsibilities
- Board/staff relationships, responsibilities, and delegation of authority
Commercial and entrepreneurial activities
- Taxation of unrelated business income
- Corporate Sponsorships and cause marketing agreements
- Formation of taxable subsidiaries and joint ventures
Risk management
- Insurance and Indemnification policies
- Waivers and Releases
- Participation Agreements
- Regulatory compliance and annual reporting
- Corporate practices and record-keeping
Fundraising counsel
- Planned gifts
- Major gifts including naming rights gifts
- Corporate sponsorships
- Gift annuity programs
- Multi-state fundraising registration and reporting
- Muti-state commercial co-venture registration and reporting
- Pledge enforcement
- Tax-shelters and listed transactions
- Raffles and charitable gaming
Nonprofit organizational relationships
- Mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, program transfers and dissolutions
- Agreements for joint services, funding, administration, and joint venturing
- Strategic alliances, public/private partnerships, affiliations and collaborations
- Board/staff relationships and responsibilities
- Executive and staff employment agreements
Charter Schools
- Preparing and filing Articles of Incorporation that meet the requirements for a 501(c)(3) school
- Securing Tax Exempt Status
- Drafting Bylaws and governance policies
- Re-structuring
- Contract Drafting and Review
- Lease Reviews
- Board Governance Trainings
International philanthropy
- Assisting in the establishment of international nonprofit organizations in foreign countries.
- Advising on raising funds in foreign countries
- Assisting foreign entities in establishing “friends of” organizations in order to raise tax-deductible donations in the U.S.
- Preparing affiliation agreements between nonprofits in various countries to combine efforts and effectively share resources
- Assisting nonprofits in complying with OFAC licensing requirements
- Connecting clients to attorneys in other countries who can help with nonprofit legal needs in that specific country
Annual reporting
- Form 990 Review
- State law compliance and reports
Social enterprise
- Advice regarding corporate foundations and giving programs
- Advice regarding commercial co-ventures and charitable sales promotions
- Structuring philanthropic venture capital investments
- Analyzing Socially-responsible investments
- Forming B corps, L3C’s, and other non-traditional legal structures
- Structuring joint ventures between for profit and nonprofit businesses
- Creating taxable subsidiaries to insulate nonprofit from business activity
- Embedding social purpose into governing documents and policies
Contract drafting and review
- Independent contractor, vendor, consultant, service provider, venue, etc.
- CEO employment and severance (including excess benefit transaction compliance)
- Confidentiality and proprietary information
- Non-competiton and non-solicitation
Compensation
- Opinion letters
- Excess benefit transaction compliance
- Self-dealing compliance
- Compensation policies
Available for presentations as well as staff and board trainings on:
- Forming a nonprofit
- Nonprofit Law 101
- Nonprofit Boards – Limiting the Risks
- Lobbying and Political Activities
- Nonprofit Governance
- Private Foundations 101
- Managing Endowments and Restricted Gifts
- Charter School Governance
- Proper Acknowledgment of Gifts
- Public Disclosure
- Form 990
- Maintaining Tax-exempt Status
- Top Nonprofit Governance Mistakes
- Custom trainings tailored to organization’s needs