Venable's Nonprofit Organizations practice is pleased to share recent articles, presentations, and video-recorded webinars by our attorneys. This digest brings together some of our most interesting and useful materials, which you can use to tackle the difficult legal challenges facing your organization.
New DC Automatic Renewal Law Likely to Affect Many Nonprofits
The gold standard for many nonprofit membership organizations is to persuade members to agree that their membership can automatically be renewed and charged to their credit card whenever it expires. The same is true for nonprofit journal subscriptions and a variety of other goods and services offered by nonprofit organizations, whether tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), 501(c)(6), or another section of the Internal Revenue Code.
What’s the Deal with DAFs? A User-Friendly Guide to Donor-Advised Funds
When deciding how to achieve long-term philanthropic goals, individual donors have many options to consider. High-net-worth donors frequently find themselves deciding whether to establish a private foundation or a donor-advised fund, often without understanding the key differences between the two.
Ninth Circuit Ruling Bolsters ADA Website Accessibility Suits: Risks for Nonprofits
Plaintiff-friendly website accessibility opinions keep coming. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently decided in Robles v. Domino's Pizza, LLC that organizations' websites (including nonprofits' websites) may violate the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) if they are inaccessible to consumers with visual, auditory, or other disabilities. While such litigation was already rapidly proliferating nationwide, Robles becomes one of the few federal appeals court decisions to specifically address website accessibility. It will undoubtedly shape future accessibility lawsuits, both in and outside of the Ninth Circuit, in several key respects.
IRS Announces Important Filing Changes for Nonprofits with Group Tax Exemptions
As part of a broader shift in reducing its administrative burdens, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) will no longer send "central" organizations that hold group tax exemptions a yearly roster of each affiliated "subordinate" organization covered by the group ruling. For decades, this roster, also known as the "List of Parent and Subsidiary Accounts," served as a filing reminder and as a simple way to keep the IRS records of the subordinates included on a group exemption accurate and up to date. While every central organization's obligation to file an annual group exemption information update with the IRS remains unchanged, any nonprofit that holds or is covered by a group exemption should consider taking a more proactive role in completing the update and keeping its tax-exempt status intact, without relying on receiving a reminder from the IRS.