For more than a century, Fox Rothschild attorneys have had a comprehensive understanding of the business and legal complexities with which nonprofit organizations must contend.

Our nonprofit practice devotes extensive resources to supporting and providing legal services to various community service and charitable organizations. Many of our attorneys are actively involved in civic organizations, serving on boards that provide critical services to their communities and offering their time and experience by giving presentations to nonprofit entities.

We provide counsel to a wide array of organizations, including:

• corporate fiduciaries (who administer charitable trusts and cemetery trusts)
• private foundations
• supporting organizations
• nonprofit corporations and associations
• publicly supported charities
• religious entities
• colleges and universities
• private educational institutions
• educational foundations of school districts
• hospitals
• medical research organizations
• social service agencies
• community development corporations and community foundations
• corporate foundations
• title holding companies
• social benevolent organizations
• trade associations
• chambers of commerce
• hunt clubs
• social clubs
• country clubs
• cemetery organizations
• veterans organizations
• political action committees

We counsel nonprofit organizations on a wide range of corporate, contract, labor, health care, real estate, tax, fundraising, litigation, intellectual property and environmental issues. Our services specifically include:

Corporate

Our corporate services include guidance on formation, liquidation, corporate governance, corporate policies/best practices, attorney general issues, structuring agreements, joint venture investments, employment matters, grants, affiliations and alliances, termination, reclassification and subsidiary formation, among other issues. We also provide education and training to nonprofit board members on their fiduciary obligations and duties and, when requested, attend or facilitate board meetings and strategic planning sessions.

Financing

We structure, negotiate and help clients obtain financing for capital projects, including tax exempt bond financing. We also advise on obtaining loans from banking institutions.

Tax and Administration

For clients interested in donating to nonprofit organizations, we render counsel in connection with charitable and planned giving and the preparation of estate planning documents to fulfill desired goals. For nonprofit entities, we assist with the preparation of federal income tax exemption applications, as well as applications for sales tax exemptions and small games licenses. We also review Form 990 returns and handle IRS and state examinations, defending against income and excise tax assessments and assisting in abating failure to pay/file penalties, as well as help eliminate or minimize unrelated business taxable income and advise on corporate sponsorship payments.

Compliance

For nonprofit organizations such as public charities, we help with compliance issues including intermediate sanctions issues, reasonable compensation, public support test calculations, fundraising registrations and private benefit concerns and lobbying practices. For nonprofit organizations such as private foundations, we assist with issues regarding self-dealing, excess business holdings, qualifying distributions and taxable expenditure responsibility. For all nonprofit organizations, we provide counsel on compliance issues related to scholarship grants, grants to foreign individuals and grants to foreign entities.