Lead Stories

Although the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act was originally promulgated by the Uniform Law Commission in 2006 and adopted by New York in 2010, there have not been a lot of definitive decisions interpreting the law.  A trial court in Madison County, NY, has recently interpreted the law in awarding endowed scholarship funds following the closing of Cazenovia College.  The Court has overridden the recommendations of Cazenovia in awarding scholarship funds to several institutions other than the one recommended by Cazenovia.

A new report on the demographic characteristics of board leadership in the 40 largest nonprofit educational and medical organizations in the Philadelphia region shows modest gains in gender and racial diversity but a “troubling decline” in the number and percentage of organizations willing to share data on board demographics.

A federal District Court in Pennsylvania has ruled that an alumni trustee on the Board of Pennsylvania State University is a “public employee” who can be removed from office by the Board and not a “public official” who cannot be retaliated against for exercising his free speech rights under the Constitution.  It has dismissed former trustee Barry J. Fenchak’s claim that he was “deliberately retaliated against” for his “exercise of speech.”

The Constitution of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People includes a provision providing that a member who sues the Association with respect to internal matters of the Association shall indemnify the Association and its officers and directors against all costs in defending the Association, without regard to the outcome of such litigation.  It provides that the group’s claim shall be brought in Baltimore, MD.

The 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed a trial court decision and allowed a black rights nonprofit to sue for violation of the First and 14^th Amendments when Pinellas County revoked an authorized grant and denied a second grant of Covid-relief funds.  It has found that the African People’s Education and Defense Fund (“APEDF”) has alleged sufficient facts to survive a motion to dismiss.

Shane and Victoria McCartney, relative newcomers to the town of Welcome, MN, decided to participate in a program called “Going Hog-Wild in Martin County.” The program distributes dozens of artistically painted cement pigs throughout the county as a promotion of Martin County.  The county is the largest hog producing county in the state and the sixth largest hog producer in the country.