Tax, Legal & Compliance

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article entitled “It’s Not Too Soon to Plan Year-End Fundraising.” While Dec. 31 seems far away (especially if you’ve used up your vacation time for 2016) in fundraising time, it’s just a blink of an eye. To help all of us prepare, I recently chatted with Bill Sayre, president of Merkle Response Group, about the back-end processes for year-end donations—making sure your donations are processed accurately and quickly so you can mail out your thank-you receipts in a timely manner...

A nonprofit conservative organization advocating for less government must reveal information about major donors to the state's attorney general if it wants to solicit money in the state, a judge ruled Monday as he rejected First Amendment claims. U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein said that states have a strong interest to ensure that charities…

Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance (BBBWGA) released a list of the top 10 charities, based on fiscal year 2014 contributions, that did not verify their transparency by completing the watchdog's evaluation. BBBWGA dubbed the charities on its list "transparency dodgers."...

Sen. Bernie Sanders wants to assure his supporters that his bid for president—and the ensuing shake up and movement within the Democratic party—was not for naught. On Wednesday, the Vermont senator announced the creation of Our Revolution, a 501(c)(4) political organization, The New York Times reported. But things haven’t exactly gotten off to a smooth start...

Months after he was supposed to give away more than $100,000 for college scholarships, Milo Yiannopoulos said all of the money is still sitting in his bank account. The Breitbart editor and professional political agitator (recently banned from Twitter for harassment) came under fire this week as allegations surfaced that his charity, which would provide…

A dual national British-Australian man has been arrested and detained in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for sharing on Facebook a link to a fundraising campaign benefiting refugees in Afghanistan. Scott Richards, who lives in the United Arab Emirates city with his family but is a citizen of both Australia and the U.K., was charged with…

Jimmy Feigen, who has been accused by Brazilian authorities of fabricating a robbery claim along with Ryan Lochte and two other U.S. swimming teammates, will pay about $10,800 to an unnamed Brazilian charity and then leave the country, his attorney told the Associated Press early Friday. According to attorney Breno Melaragno, Brazilian law allows people…

More than two decades after issuing rules and regulations for nonprofits on how to present and share their financials, the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) hopes to simplify things for these organizations, as well as their donors, by issuing new guidelines. After years of study and outreach, the FASB released new guidelines this week that…

The IRS has slashed the application fee small charitable organizations are required to pay when applying for tax-exempt status. According to Revenue Procedure 2016-32, the IRS reduced the user fee from $400 to $275 for Form 1023-EZ, Streamlined Application for Recognition of Exemption Under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. The new fee went into…

Colorado’s attorney general and secretary of state are asking residents to do more to check out charities before they decide to give. "I encourage the many generous people in our state who make charitable contributions to take proper precautions before donating their hard-earned money," Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman said in a news release. "Unfortunately,…