Hinckley, Allen & Snyder LLP's Non-Profit Practice Group is comprised of attorneys from a number of diverse specialties - Tax, Corporate, Health, Public Finance, Environmental, Labor & Employment, Personal Financial Planning, to name a few - providing comprehensive legal services to a wide array of non-profit organizations. The Group's clients include IRC §501(c)(3) organizations and other exempt categories such as trade organizations, civic groups, business leagues, voluntary employees' beneficiary associations and the like, and run the gamut from small social service entities to universities, hospitals, and major charitable foundations.
While non-profit organizations routinely confront legal issues common to all types of business, many matters are unique to non-profits. The non-profit practice group has a particular focus on the issues which are of specific concern to non-profit and tax-exempt organizations, including the following:
- Organization of non-profit entities; governance structures, fiduciary responsibilities, and development of conflict of interest and other IRS-preferred policies.
- Acquisition and retention of tax-exempt status under applicable federal, state and local statutes; the significantly expanded new IRS Form 990 information tax return and its closely related governance and executive compensation issues.
- State laws and regulatory schemes applicable to non-profit corporations; interfacing with state and local governments; grant eligibility and grant-writing.
- Structure and management of asset acquisitions, mergers, consolidations and affiliations of non-profit organizations such as hospitals, health care organizations, and educational institutions; strategic planning processes; anti-trust compliance and other regulatory approvals.
- Private and public foundation matters, from donations receipt policies and grant making policies to capital campaigns and endowment (UPMIFA) management.
- Compliance with charitable solicitation laws and requirements of state charitable organization and donation regulatory provisions; private sector fund-raising; challenges to entitlement to charitable gifts and bequests.
- Financing transactions for tax-exempt organizations; bond issuances; underwriting; trustee concerns.
- Advising non profit entities in connection with their interactions with the executive and legislative branches of state and local governments.