Nonprofit Organizations
Pat helps nonprofit organizations satisfy the regulatory and other legal requirements applicable to them as tax-exempt entities as well as to the activities that form their mission.
She has formed and obtained IRS recognition of exempt status for many nonprofit entities and assisted them in structuring their bylaws, boards and governance policies. Their directors look to her for advice on their responsibilities, powers and liabilities. She has guided numerous large and small charitable organizations in the processes of reorganization, strategic alliances, mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures.
Charitable organizations, whether public charities or private foundations, must satisfy unique federal and state tax requirements in order to maintain their exempt status. Congress and the IRS are increasingly scrutinizing their commercial, political and lobbying activities, as well as transactions with “insiders,” and the rules in these areas are constantly changing.
Nonprofits have many of the same needs as business organizations for contractual relationships, for example, in the areas of purchase and sales, technology licensing, etc. Adoption and implementation of compliance programs and policies are as critical for most nonprofits as for commercial entities. Many of them have web site presences that impose the same privacy, security and protection of intellectual property requirements applicable to for-profit entities, but also raise issues unique to exempt organizations, such as state regulation of fundraising and corporate sponsorships.
Having served as an officer and director of numerous charitable organizations, Pat is familiar with the practical issues of directors’ orientation, strategic planning and self-evaluation. Through both her volunteer service and professional activities, she has become familiar with the “life cycle” of nonprofits, from founding by passionate volunteers, through the growing pains of bringing in professional management to the continual challenge of assessment and revitalization of mature organizations.
