The Nonprofit Team provides comprehensive legal counsel and services for tax-exempt organizations, helping with your legal needs that may arise. We routinely review grant agreements, contracts, leases, insurance policies, purchase agreements, mortgages, vendor contracts, and other documents that naturally arise as part of the many business transactions your nonprofit may engage in.
Starting a nonprofit organization with a solid legal foundation is paramount to the long-term success of your organization. Through a streamlined, consultative process, The Nonprofit Team will guide you through the formation process, beginning with strategic advice on corporate structuring so your organization is set-up in a way to accomplish both initial and long-term objectives. At The Nonprofit Team, we are passionate about engaging in a collaborative process with our clients, helping each client gain understanding and practical knowledge as you begin the challenging but exciting adventure of a starting a nonprofit organization.
We regularly provide our clients with strategic advice to identify the organization’s primary and long-term objectives and to effectively execute their mission. We leverage our decades’ long experience to engage our clients in a collaborative process, helping each client gain understanding and practical knowledge to navigate growth and to maximize their impact upon their communities. In some situations, it may be that corporate restructuring or collaborating with other nonprofits will help your organization best fulfill its mission and purpose. Our team will help your organization consider various forms of collaboration and restructuring efforts, including mergers, acquisitions, consolidations, voluntarily affiliations, joint ventures, and other collaborative partnerships.
As your nonprofit grows and hires additional staff, it is inevitable that various employment issues will arise. The Nonprofit Team provides a full range of employment counsel including: the hiring process, employee classification, discipline and termination issues, harassment policies and training, employment agreements, employee handbooks, and separation agreements.
As your organization experiences growth and transitions from the initial formation period to becoming an established nonprofit, the organization will have ongoing governance needs. Periodically, the governance documents-including both the organization's certificate of formation and bylaws-may need revision as the organization experiences growth and change. At The Nonprofit Team, we routinely guide our clients through the revision process to ensure the organization's corporate documents accurately reflect its operational structure, ensure the documents are compliant with current federal tax law, state law, and set forth best practices specific nonprofit organizations. Additionally, we provide ongoing consultation to officers and directors of nonprofit organizations as they seek to steward the organization for which they are responsible.
Before an organization begins any international activities or administering foreign charitable grants, a number of legal issues must be considered. I provide legal counsel, guidance and recommendations of best practices an organization should implement to comply with the U.S. Department of Treasury and Office of Foreign Asset Control as well as provide ongoing guidance for U.S.-based organizations operating on an international scope.
Creativity is a big part of an organization’s life. Whether it be books, art, music, photographs, or film, questions like “who owns it?” and “can we use it?” can lead to a lot more legal questions that stifle the creativity process. Our team can assist your team and understanding intellectual property law and how to use the US copyright and trademark registration offices. If you have questions about intellectual property registration, royalties, licensing, or any other questions, don’t hesitate to contact us. We also assist clients in obtaining advice and counsel for foreign intellectual property use.
Reaching a decision that it is time for your organization to shut down can be a difficult experience for leaders and a nonprofit’s board. While the reasons for such a decision vary, they may include issues of financial solvency, decreased effectiveness, or even internal disputes among the board of directors and leadership. By the time an organization makes this hard decision, the leadership is often exhausted; however, a complex process of formal dissolution remains to legally terminate the organization’s corporate existence. Whether your organization is considering dissolution, or you have already reached the decision, our team can come alongside your organization to ensure that dissolution is the appropriate next step and, if it is, to ensure the entire dissolution process is done in accordance with state and federal law.
The process of filing an application for tax-exempt recognition with the Internal Revenue Service can be tedious and a daunting prospect for many. The good news is that it does not have to be. Your attorneys at The Nonprofit Team routinely assist clients with securing federal tax-exemption as a section 501(c)(3) organization and have successfully obtained recognition of tax-exemption for numerous influential nonprofit organizations. Through this process, we prepare the application for tax-exemption that appropriately communicates your mission and vision to the IRS while leveraging our experience and knowledge to help your organization attain recognition as tax-exempt organization.
As your nonprofit grows in size and impact, it may have increasing opportunities for partnerships and affiliations with other like-minded organizations. The Nonprofit Team is ready to provide counsel to your organization on structuring for-profit and nonprofit partnerships and joint ventures, affiliation networks, multisite, umbrella organizations, group exemptions, fiscal sponsorships, and more.
Risk management is an ongoing issue that needs repeated evaluation to ensure your organization is operating wisely, protecting not only the integrity of the organization but also those under an organization’s care and scope of service. The Nonprofit Team is experienced in helping organizations identify areas liability exposure and implement sound risk management strategies so that your organization can fulfill its religious and charitable purposes.
Your organization’s impact on the next generation is dependent on good succession planning. Retirement planning for outgoing leaders, board member buy-in, and donor relations are all vital parts of your organization’s leadership moving to the next generation. Our team has helped scores of nonprofits make a smooth transition from one generation to the next, and we can help you do the same.
We help nonprofit and community leaders be sure their lifelong work is in good hands and their last wishes fulfilled. Whether you want to pass along property or a business to the next generation, or provide financial security for your loved ones, our team can help you achieve those goals. Wills, trusts, and power of attorneys are all tools we use to help you rest well at night known your loved ones will be able to navigate life without you a little easier.
When families want to give back together, they are often faced with wondering how to do it. Family foundations, donor advised funds, charitable trusts, public charities and supporting organizations are options, but not the only ones. We can help your family, or family business, strategize on how to become a philanthropic family that leaves a legacy for generations to come.
A big milestone in the life of a nonprofit is buying or leasing a building. This process can be difficult to navigate with miles of paperwork and potential pitfalls along the way. We are here to help guide you along this exciting new journey for your organization. When navigating purchase or lease agreements, loans, title, and insurance, our team can help you understand every part of the process and what risks you should be aware of.
