NAAG/NASCO Charities Conference Public Day Agenda

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) will hold their annual conference in Baltimore and online next week. Here are the highlights from the draft agenda for the public day (Tuesday, October 8th):

9:00 am – 9:30 am Welcome & Introductory Remarks

9:35 am – 10:35 am Partnering for Public Good: This panel will examine graduated approaches to enforcement to help charitable organizations and their advisors understand the challenges faced by regulators and to help regulators understand the impact enforcement efforts have on charitable organizations. Two regulators will engage in a moderated conversation with a nonprofit practitioner and in-house counsel.

10:50 am – 11:50 am AI’S Role in Charities: This program will be a fireside chat between a state regulator and Heather Iliff, President and CEO of Maryland Nonprofits, discussing the role of artificial intelligence in the nonprofit sector.

12:20 pm – 1:35 pm Lunch/State Update: State regulators share brief updates on recent enforcement actions, outreach activities, and regulatory and legislative changes based on information in NASCO’s Annual Report. 

1:50 pm – 2:50 pm Fraud Resiliency In The Charitable Sector: Charitable fiduciaries are responsible for protecting their organizations from fraud. This session will focus on the research of the National Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, highlighting trends and issues relevant to regulators and charitable fiduciaries.

2:55 pm – 3:50 pm Boards Facing Crisis: This panel will include regulators, former regulators, and practitioners who will discuss how boards facing an organizational crisis can help shepherd their organization through the crisis, including governance and communications strategies to weather the storm.

4:05 pm – 5:00 pm Fiscal Sponsorship Roundtable: Fiscal sponsorship relationships have propagated throughout the country. This panel, which includes a lawyer who advises fiscal sponsors, a leader in a large fiscal sponsoring organization, and a regulator, will discuss what a fiscal sponsorship relationship is, how they interact with existing legal frameworks, and some of the benefits and pitfalls associated with them.

5:05 pm – 5:55 pm Government Oversight of Charities And Fundraising In 2024 And Beyond: A group of ten state and federal government regulators with more than 250 years of collective experience in charities oversight recently co-authored a paper, “Charitable Oversight: Insight from Regulators and Enforcers” that was presented at an April 2024 Symposium on the Future of Nonprofit Regulation. The Symposium was a collaboration of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy at the Urban Institute and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University. Three authors of that paper join one of the academic architects of the Symposium to discuss some of the insights on nonprofit regulation, including future challenges, identified by the paper and some of the other perspectives shared at the symposium. We will also share the results of a survey of conference participants about past changes and challenges in nonprofit regulation as well as prognostications about future such changes and challenges.

6:00 pm - 6:05 pm Closing Remarks

Lloyd Mayer