The First Legal Answer Book for Fund-Raisers (Wiley Nonprofit Law, Finance and Management Series) [Paperback]

Bruce R. Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 23, 2000 | ISBN-10: 0471356190 | ISBN-13: 978-0471356196 | Edition: 1

Critical legal information for enhancing and expanding the activities of charitable fund-raisers

As the competition for gifts grows increasingly intense, managers and fund-raisers for charitable organizations must learn how to work with tax and business law to optimize their return. Written by the leading legal authority on tax-exempt organizations, this book provides an accessible approach to understanding the various laws and offers solutions to enhance an organization's wealth and effectiveness. Bruce Hopkins clearly explains to fund-raisers the pertinent aspects of the law, enabling them to dramatically increase funding without legal missteps. He also thoroughly details the steps needed to solve the fund-raiser's most pressing legal headaches, including maintenance of tax exemption and public charity status, planned giving, charitable giving rules, unrelated business activities, fund-raiser's compensation, state regulations, and much more.

This book provides critical answers to fund-raisers' questions such as:
* What law basics should every fund-raiser know?
* Is a charitable organization required to apply to the IRS for tax-exempt status?
* What are the charitable contribution deduction rules?
* How do the unrelated business income rules apply to fund-raisers?
* How does a charitable organization start a planned giving program?
* What are the important elements of the fund-raiser's contract?
* What are the contents of a typical charitable solicitation act?
* Can a charitable organization have a taxable subsidiary?
* When does a fund-raiser need a lawyer?


With its comprehensive coverage of the legal issues that nonprofit organizations face,

The First Legal Answer Book for Fund-Raisers is a powerful resource that every fund-raiser must have!

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Critical legal information for enhancing and expanding the activities of charitable fund-raisers

As the competition for gifts grows increasingly intense, managers and fund-raisers for charitable organizations must learn how to work with tax and business law to optimize their return. Written by the leading legal authority on tax-exempt organizations, this book provides an accessible approach to understanding the various laws and offers solutions to enhance an organization’s wealth and effectiveness. Bruce Hopkins clearly explains to fund-raisers the pertinent aspects of the law, enabling them to dramatically increase funding without legal missteps. He also thoroughly details the steps needed to solve the fund-raiser’s most pressing legal headaches, including maintenance of tax exemption and public charity status, planned giving, charitable giving rules, unrelated business activities, fund-raiser’s compensation, state regulations, and much more.

This book provides critical answers to fund-raisers’ questions such as:

• What law basics should every fund-raiser know?
• Is a charitable organization required to apply to the IRS for tax-exempt status?
• What are the charitable contribution deduction rules?
• How do the unrelated business income rules apply to fund-raisers?
• How does a charitable organization start a planned giving program?
• What are the important elements of the fund-raiser’s contract?
• What are the contents of a typical charitable solicitation act?
• Can a charitable organization have a taxable subsidiary?
• When does a fund-raiser need a lawyer?

With its comprehensive coverage of the legal issues that nonprofit organizations face,

The First Legal Answer Book for Fund-Raisers is a powerful resource that every fund-raiser must have!

About the Author

BRUCE R. HOPKINS is the country's leading authority on tax-exempt organizations and a lawyer with the firm Polsinelli, White, Vardeman, and Shalton. He is the author of twelve books, including The Legal Answer Book for Nonprofit Organizations; The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, Seventh Edition; The Law of Fund-Raising, Second Edition; Private Foundations: Tax Law and Compliance; The Legal Guide to Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization, Second Edition; and The Tax Law of Charitable Giving, Second Edition, as well as the newsletter The Nonprofit Counsel, all published by Wiley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (March 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471356190
• ISBN-13: 978-0471356196
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,113,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Bruce R. Hopkins is a lawyer who divides his time between the writing of books and his monthly newsletter, and the practice of law.

He is a senior partner in the law firm of Polsinelli Shughart PC, practicing in the firm's Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C., offices. He specializes in the representation of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations. His practice ranges over the entirety of law matters involving exempt organizations, with emphasis on the formation of nonprofit organizations, acquisition of recognition of tax-exempt status for them, governance and the law, the private inurement and private benefit doctrines, the intermediate sanctions rules, legislative and political campaign activities issues, public charity and private foundation rules, unrelated business planning, use of exempt and for-profit subsidiaries, joint venture planning, tax shelter involvement, review of annual information returns, Internet communications developments, the law of charitable giving (including planned giving), and fundraising law issues.

Mr. Hopkins is the series editor of John Wiley & Sons' Nonprofit Law, Finance, and Management Series. He is the author (or, in some instances, co-author) of 26 books that are currently on the market. His first book, The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, was first published in 1975. His most recent book, Fundraising Law Made Easy, was published in 2009. He writes a monthly newsletter, Bruce R. Hopkins' Nonprofit Counsel. All of these publications are published by John Wiley & Sons.

He received the 2007 Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer Award (Vanguard Lifetime Achievement Award) from the American Bar Association, Section of Business Law, Committee on Nonprofit Organizations. He is listed in "The Best Lawyers in America," Nonprofit Organizations/Charities Law, 2007-2010.

He participates in many conferences and seminars, including those sponsored by Georgetown University Law Center, the University of Texas, PESI, AICPA, Salk Institute, and Loyola University (Los Angeles).

He maintains the Nonprofit Law Center, accessible at www.nonprofitlawcenter.com.

He earned his J.D. and LL.M. degrees at the George Washington University National Law Center, and his B.A. at the University of Michigan.

He is a member of the bars of the District of Columbia and the state of Missouri.