Nonprofit Law Prof Blog

American Council on Education 501(c)(3) Due Diligence Checklist

The American Council on Education recently formulated a 501(c)(3) "Due Diligence" checklist that should prove helpful for nonprofits preventive law programs.  Here is the introduction:

The Internal Revenue Service recently redesigned the Form 990. As a result, non-profit organizations will be required to disclose, under penalty of perjury, whether they have in place various polices and procedures, some of which are mandatory under the Internal Revenue Tax Code or Sarbanes-Oxley. Other policies and procedures are voluntary but may become mandatory over time or may expose a non-profit to adverse publicity if absent. Below is a checklist of these rules, based primarily on the reporting requirements in the new Form 990. The rules become effective for returns filed for the applicable deadline in 2009 for organizations with tax years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2008.

The comprehensive checklist was prepared by the law firm Arent Fox and contains lists of (1) suggested or required policies, (2) suggested procedures, and (3) suggested committees geared towards schools and hospitals.  It is designed for use in complying with the revised form 990.

dkj

Announcing Call of Papers: University of North Carolina 12th Annual Tax Symposium

The University of North Carolina is organizing its twelfth annual symposium designed to bring together leading tax scholars from economics, accounting, finance, law, political science, and related fields. The symposium will be held in Chapel Hill on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, January 23 & 24, 2009, and will be sponsored by the KPMG Foundation and the UNC Tax Center. The goal is to bring together scholars from different areas who share a common interest in current tax research. Previous conferences have been very successful, and we anticipate the same this year.

PAPER DETAILS:

Papers should be well developed, but at a stage where they can still benefit from the group's discussion. The symposium will include no more than six papers. Travel and lodging expenses for presenters will be reimbursed up to $500.

PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE:

Please submit an electronic version of the paper no later than November 13, 2008 to:

CONTACT:   Professor Douglas Shackelford
Email:         MAILTO:doug_shack@unc.edu

Postal:        Kenan-Flagler Business School
                  University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
                  Campus Box 3490, McColl Building
                  Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3490

Paper selection will be finalized by December 1, 2008.

AMT

Charitable Deductions for Microfinance Lenders

At the Critical Tax Conference at Florida State being held yesterday and today, Sarah Lawsky of George Washington presented a paper entitled, Money for Nothing: Charitable Deductions for Microfinance Lenders.  The discussant was Rob Atkinson of Florida State.  The schedule is posted on the FSU website.

sng

Call for Papers - AALS Section on Agency, Partnerships, and LLCs

Announcement:

The Section on Agency, Partnerships and Limited Liability Companies is calling for papers for the 2009 AALS Annual Meeting in San Diego.  We are interested in presentations on the application of modern theories and empirical methods of business associations to agency and unincorporated firms.  The program has two goals:  First to show how these theories can be enriched by taking them outside the "box" of corporate law; and second to show the relevance of agency and unincorporated firms to the mainstream of corporate theory and empirics.  A non-exhaustive list of possible topics includes the nature and function of fiduciary duties, agency theory, the role and enforcement of contracts, jurisdictional competition and choice of form, the relationship of federal and state law, jurisprudence, international and institutional comparisons, and legal and economic history.

Please email either a draft paper, if available, or if not an abstract and outline, to Larry E. Ribstein, University of Illinois College of Law, ribstein@law.uius.edu by no later than September 1, 2008.

sng

Robert Katz posts "`PAGING DR. SHYLOCK!' Jewish Hospitals and the Prudent Re-Investment of Jewish Philanthropy"

Professor Robert Katz has posted a paper entitled "`PAGING DR. SHYLOCK!' Jewish Hospitals and the Prudent Re-Investment of Jewish Philanthropy" on SSRN's Nonprofit and Philanthropy Law Abstracting Journal.  It is slated for publication in a book on religious philanthropy to be published in 2009 by Indiana University Press entitled Giving: For the Love of God, edited by religious scholar and ethicist David H. Smith. Its abstract reads:

This paper explores the history of Jewish hospitals in the United States as a case study in how Jewish philanthropy (defined as charitable giving from a Jewish perspective) reflects both Judaic concepts such as tzedakah (righteousness, imperfectly translated as charity) and the experience of Jews as a discrete and insular minority living in a determinedly hostile environment.   For most of American history, Jews used their philanthropy -- and above all Jewish hospitals -- to take care of fellow Jews, improve relations with non-Jews, counteract anti-Jewish stereotypes and prejudice, and provide enclaves from anti-Jewish discrimination.

The decline of anti-Semitism in the U.S. since World War II obviated most of the problems that Jewish hospitals were founded to address.  Jewish philanthropy  would be more robust today if more Jewish hospitals had sold their institutions and became grantmakers.   Most Jewish communities can find more innovative and urgent ways to perform tzedakah and engage in tikkun olam (world repair) than by operating nonprofit hospitals.  Additionally, the future of American Jewry would be more secure if foundations financed by hospital sales would devote more resources to Jewish education, religion, culture, and communal life.  This grantmaking agenda advances what I see as the fondest and most fundamental hope of many founders of Jewish hospitals: to help American Jewry survive and thrive as a distinct community.

The denouement of Jewish hospitals and the opportunities it afforded for fresh and responsive Jewish philanthropy -- some pursued, others squandered -- offer a lesson for other communities of faith and fate.  When designing philanthropic enterprises to help ensure their collective survival, they should consider how, should an enterprise's value to that future fall, its resources might be recouped and re-invested in ways they deem more conducive to that end.

rk

International Public Health Work with NGO's

Karen E. Gieseker of the Institute of Public Health at Georgia State University will present "International Public Health Work with NGO's" on March 25, 2008, at Georgia State's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.  Here is the text of the announcement:

Seminar Announcement

What: The Nonprofit Studies Program of the Andrew Young School of Policy at Georgia State University presents its Brown Bag Seminar Series in Nonprofit Research.

Who: Karen E. Gieseker of Institute of Public Health, GSU will address the topic: "International Public Health Work with NGOs"

When: Tuesday, March 25, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Where: Seminar Room #749 at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Building at 14 Marietta Street, NW

The purpose of these seminars is to discuss research-in-progress by faculty associated with the nonprofit program. We invite students, faculty and interested members of the community to join us!

Drinks and cookies will be served.

Listed below are the remaining seminars

Tuesday, April 15, 2008, 12:30 PM Prof. Russell James Dept. of Housing & Consumer Economics, UGA Health, wealth, and charitable estate planning: A longitudinal examination of testamentary charitable giving plans

Tuesday, April 22, 2008, 12:30 PM Bonnie Koenig Going International, Chicago, Illinois US Nonprofits Working Internationally

DAB

"For What? Is Philanthropy Abandoning the Needy?"

OnPhilanthropy.com contains a very provocative essay entitled "For What?  Is Philanthropy Abandoning the Needy?" The very well written essay, authored by Dr. Susan Raymond, provides an opportunity to step back and consider the forest as we tend to the individual trees.  Its well worth reading.  Here is a brief excerpt:

For what?  The question, my friends, is being asked.  Unfortunately, it is not being asked by us.  I say unfortunately because there is no such thing as a good surprise.  It is always better to anticipate criticism, understand its roots, and prepare for its consequences, than to have the momentum of questions build from the outside, momentum that grows from a murmur to a sotto voce aside to a comment to a news article to an op ed piece to a Congressional hearing. It is always better to ask first, rather than answer last.  Rather than by us, the question “For What?” is being asked by observers and pundits who see the ever upward tracking line of philanthropy, the headlines about billion dollar campaigns, the 200% increase in the number of nonprofits and ask, for what?  For what, when the same problems seem to plague the social commons?  For what, when the homeless still are without shelter?  For what, when the chasm between the ultra-wealthy and the extremely poor continues to widen?  For what, when the bottom billion in the world face no more hope today than they did yesterday?  For what, when the money flows but results on the societal commons do not?  For what, when the dollars to help flow so generously, but nothing ever seems to get fixed? 

The question is being asked in a fundamental form.  Is philanthropy, and the nonprofit sector it supports, abandoning the needy?  Do not smile sadly and shake your head about the ignorance of some pundits.  Do not believe that question reflects the naiveté of those who simply do not know what we do.  This is not the source of the questioning. Those asking  the questions are not the hairdressers of Hopkinsville or the good old boys of the Koffee Klatch Kafe.  The questions are not being asked out of ignorance.  They are being asked out of observation.

No less than Robert Reich has asked whether institutions with $40 billion endowments and consistently black balance sheets are actually charities.  No less than Google has supported research that implies that much of philanthropy is not about the societal commons at all, but rather about feeding the egos of the already empowered.  No less than the United States Congress has cast a skeptical eye at the endowment coffers of institutions philanthropies and nonprofits -- that already sit on billions of dollars that produce earnings of 10% to 15%, but pay out funds for programs that actually help anyone at only 4%.  No less than the editorial staff of the New York Times has upbraided the sector for its turning from the poor. 

dkj

Fostering Ethical Cultures in Non-Profit Organizations

John Knapp of the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Georgia State College of Business will present "Fostering Ethical Cultures in non-Profit Organizations" today at Georgia State's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies.  Here is the text of the announcement:

Seminar Announcement

What: The Nonprofit Studies Program of the Andrew Young School of Policy at Georgia State University presents its Brown Bag Seminar Series in Nonprofit Research.

Who: John Knapp of The Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at the J. Mack Robinson College of Business will address the topic: "Fostering Ethical Cultures in Non-Profit Organizations"

When: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 12:30 PM

Where: Seminar Room #749 at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Building at 14 Marietta Street, NW

The purpose of these seminars is to discuss research-in-progress by faculty associated with the nonprofit program.

We invite students, faculty and interested members of the community to join us!

Drinks and cookies will be served.

DAB

C-Span Airs 2 hour, 29 Minute Conference on University Endowment Spending

We have previously reported on the ongoing pressure to force colleges and universities to spend more of their endowments on tuition support for poor and middle class students.  Last Month, C-Span recoreded a two hour and 30 minute conference sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute entitled "The Role of University Endowments."  Of course, I'm too busy playing golf and lounging in the pool to have listened to the entire 150 minute event but the panelist (shown below) included Dan Zerbe, fomer Chief Legislative Counsel for the Senate Finance Committee and a pretty staunch critic of the college and university hording (I mean, "spending") practices.  A word of caution.  When you get to the link with the video, read and follow the instructions closely after clicking on the "Flash Video" or "Windows Media" icons.  Otherwise, like me, you will click on one or the other and then just sit there watching a blank screen.  Essentially, you have to click on the icon, then (e.g., the windows media) right click on the arrown next to "now play" then click on "play" in the pop-up menu.  Those of you who are more technology savvy than me can just ignore my help.

Baum, Sandy	Senior Policy Analyst	College Board	-
Frey, Donald E.	Professor	Wake Forest University	Economics
Hartle, Terry	Senior Vice President	American Council on Education	Public Affairs
Miller, Charles	Chairman	Commission on the Future of Higher Education	-
Munson, Lynne	Research Fellow	Center for College Affordability and Productivity	-
Vedder, Richard	Visiting Scholar	American Enterprise Institute	-
Zerbe, Dean	Chief Investigative Counsel	Senate Finance Committee	-
Zywicki, Todd J.	Professor	George Mason University	School of Law

dkj

Will Retired Boomers Volunteer?

The Urban Institute has issued research briefs addressing volunteerism among older adults.  The research briefs use data from the Health and Retirement Survey.

Will Retiring Boomers Form a New Army of Volunteers? by Sheila R. Zedlewski uses the data to show that a significant number of retirees begin volunteering after they retire.  As the boomers reach retirement age, charities should benefit.

Are We Taking Full Advantage of Older Adults' Potential, by Sheila R. Zedlewski and Barbara Butrica, notes that in 2004 more than 10 million healthy adults did not work or volunteer.  That group represents an untapped source of volunteers.

Volunteer Transitions among Older Americans, and Retaining Older Volunteers Is Key to Meeting Future Volunteer Needs, by Barbara Butrica, Richard W. Johnson, and Sheila R. Zedlewski, both examine entries into and exits from volunteering by adults from age 55 to 65 and note the importance of developing retention strategies. 

sng