Issue advocacy is protected under Section 501(c)(3); electioneering is not. Here is where the IRS draws the line — the seven factors that decide it, and what it costs an organization that crosses it without meaning to.

Many nonprofits track their 501(h) lobbying spending and assume that covers them under federal law. It doesn't. Here's the two-part test — and the 45-day clock — that actually determines whether your organization must register under the LDA.

Direct and grassroots lobbying are taxed and capped differently under IRC § 501(c)(3).  Here's how CT, DC, MA, and NY nonprofits tell them apart, and what it costs to get the split wrong.

Fiscal sponsorship is often treated as an administrative shortcut, but it's a governance decision with real employment, insurance, and multistate compliance consequences. This piece walks nonprofit boards through the legal models, the risks each one creates, and what the agreement needs to say.

Nonprofits often rely on volunteers to keep programs running, but that reliance can create legal risk when a volunteer arrangement starts to look like an employment relationship. This article outlines common classification red flags, explains why stipends require care, and summarizes the volunteer-liability framework under federal law, Massachusetts law, and D.C. law.

Grant agreements are contracts in legal disguise: they bind your organization to deliverables, reporting timelines, indemnity terms, and clawback rights, and the moment to negotiate them is before signing, not after the funder asks for a refund.

Tax exemption isn't permanent: three years of unfiled 990s triggers automatic revocation, and so do private inurement, excess political activity, and operations that drift from your stated exempt purpose, often before a board notices anything has changed.

Federal 501(h) election covers your IRS exposure, but every state has its own lobbying registration regime, and once your advocacy crosses the state-defined threshold, missing the registration is a strict-liability problem that can shut a campaign down.

Most 501(c)(3) leaders avoid lobbying entirely because they think the rules are restrictive, but the 501(h) election actually quantifies what's allowed, and the limits are higher than most boards realize, leaving real influence on the table.

Nonprofit status doesn't exempt you from federal or state employment law, which means your wage-and-hour exposure, benefits obligations, and discrimination liabilities are the same as any for-profit employer's, even when you can't pay market rates.