Claims of employment discrimination are among the leading causes of lawsuits against nonprofits. Some of that litigation could be avoided by following some simple rules about asking questions in pre-employment interviews.

The Employment Law Department of the Philadelphia law firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads, LLP, has put together a summary of some general legal requirements which apply to any inquiry, whether written or oral. (List included in article.)

When the IRS audits a nonprofit organization, one of the first things it looks at are the employment records and the classification of any independent contractors. If the organization has not been withholding income taxes and FICA payments for those the IRS considers to be employees, it can be a costly experience for the organization, and potential personal liability for the "responsible persons" who failed to withhold. Although it may seem like a real bother, err on the side of withholding.

Charities and their accountants are struggling to understand how to account for donor-restricted endowments held by charities under the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (“UPMIFA”) which has now been adopted in about 43 states. 

The Financial Accounting Standards Board has given considerable discretion to the boards of directors of the charities to determine how much should be treated as permanently restricted, and how much should be classified as temporarily restricted.  In our opinion, that bifurcation does not reflect the board’s power under the law and will lead to huge variation in financial statements across the country.  In our...

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) issued a statement highly critical of nonprofit tax-exempt hospitals while releasing answers of 10 major nonprofit hospitals prior to a Senate Finance Committee hearing on September 13. He questioned whether the public was receiving measurable benefits in return for “billions of dollars in tax breaks.”

A partial text of the statement follows:

Non-profit doesn’t necessarily mean pro-poor patient. Non-profit hospitals may provide less care to the poor than their for-profit counterparts. They may charge poor, uninsured patients more for the same services than they charge insured patients. They sometimes give their executives gold-plated compensation packages and...

The Unifrom Mangement of Institutional Funds Act, first promulgated by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws in 1972 and subsequently adopted in the same or modified form by 46 states, has long established the basic rules of mangement of charitable endowments.

In simple and direct language, the Act defines an "institutional fund", provides broad powers of investment, permits delegation of investment management, establishes a prudent investor standard for investment managers, and deals with the release of restrictions.