Practical resources on the rules nonprofits operate under. Governance and fiduciary duties. Tax-exempt status and public-support tests. Lobbying and advocacy rules. Employment and volunteer compliance. Fiscal sponsorship.
Written for executive directors, board members, and senior leadership who want to understand the frameworks shaping their work.
The Nonprofit Law Primer.
Charitable Solicitation and Registration, Part II: Online and Multi-State Fundraising — Navigating a Borderless Compliance Landscape
The moment your donate-now button is reachable from anywhere with internet, you're potentially soliciting in 40+ states; the unified registration system was supposed to fix that but doesn't, leaving online nonprofits with a borderless fundraising landscape and bordered compliance obligations.
State Charitable Solicitation and Registration, Part I: A Core (and Often Missed) Nonprofit Compliance Area
Before your nonprofit asks anyone for a donation, most states require you to register, and the penalty for skipping that step ranges from a fine to a public listing of unregistered solicitors that funders quietly use to disqualify grant applicants.
What Effective Nonprofit Conflict of Interest Policies Look Like, and How to Enforce Them
Most nonprofit COI policies are drafted to satisfy the IRS Form 990 question and then ignored, which is exactly when they fail, because the moment a real conflict surfaces is the moment everyone realizes the policy doesn't say who has to recuse.
Navigating Federal Funding Cuts: A Mission and Governance Checklist
Federal funding cuts don't just compress the budget; they force board-level decisions about mission scope, reserve drawdowns, and program triage that should have been mapped before the cuts arrived. Download our checklist.
Nonprofit Startup Checklist
Launching a nonprofit takes more than a mission statement: between state incorporation, EIN, bank account, 501(c)(3) application, and charitable solicitation registration, here's the sequencing that gets you operating without backtracking.
Board Structures, Bylaws, and Policies: The Governance Framework Every Nonprofit Needs
Bylaws aren't a one-time filing; they're the operating manual your board will reach for the day a chair resigns, a major donor demands accountability, or a regulator asks who has authority to do what.
IRS Form 1023: A Guide to Applying for 501(c)(3) Tax Exemption
Form 1023 isn't a checkbox exercise but a narrative document where the IRS evaluates whether your activities, governance, and projected finances actually qualify under §501(c)(3), and the most common rejection reason is a vague description of operations.
From State to IRS: How Nonprofits Move from Incorporation to Tax-Exempt Status
Filing articles of incorporation creates a nonprofit corporation under state law, but it doesn't make you tax-exempt; that requires a separate federal application most founders don't realize is decoupled from the state filing.
The Two Layers of Nonprofit Law: What Founders Should Know About Federal vs. State Oversight
Tax-exempt status is only half the picture: federal IRS rules and state nonprofit laws create distinct compliance regimes that sometimes conflict, and the cost of treating them as one stack falls hardest on the founders who didn't realize they had to file twice.
501(c)(3) vs. 501(c)(4) vs. 501(c)(6)
Most founders default to 501(c)(3) without realizing another subsection might better fit their advocacy ambitions, member-service model, or political reality, and here's how to pick the right one before you commit.
A Brief History: Part II
From the Revenue Act of 1917 to the Tax Reform Act of 1969 to today's Form 1023-EZ, the modern 501(c) regime is the product of a century of political compromise, and understanding why each layer was added is the fastest way to predict what regulators will look at next.
A Brief History: Part I
Modern nonprofit law didn't start with the Revenue Act of 1917; it traces back to the English Statute of Charitable Uses of 1601 and the common-law trust doctrine that still shapes how American courts interpret fiduciary duty today.
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Topical legal news from The Beacon. Resources from the Nonprofit Law Primer. Commonlight Legal news when it happens From the Hearth.
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