Nonprofit Law Made Easy [Hardcover]

Bruce R. Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471709735 | ISBN-13: 978-0471709732 | Publication Date: April 20, 2005 | Edition: 1

The ins and outs of law in the nonprofit sector--made easy!

Written by renowned author Bruce R. Hopkins, Nonprofit Law Made Easy is a must-read guide for executives, board members, officers, accountants, fundraisers, and others who handle legal issues that affect the way nonprofit organizations are formed and operated.

Nonprofit Law Made Easy presents in-depth discussions on such hot topics as acquiring and maintaining tax-exempt status, reporting requirements, charitable giving, disclosure requirements, unrelated business activities, fundraising, corporate governance principles, and board member liability. It also includes crucial information on avoiding nonprofit law traps and navigating governance and liability issues.

Packed with practical tips and hard-to-find, authoritative advice, Nonprofit Law Made Easy demystifies complex legal issues with plain-language explanations of laws and regulations for non-legal professionals.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Nonprofit Law Made Easy

There are more than three million nonprofit organizations in the United States. Because of the tax-exempt status nearly all nonprofits enjoy, they must comply with stringent federal and state law or risk losing this special tax-exempt status. Written by a lawyer for non-lawyers, Nonprofit Law Made Easy provides a complete legal guide for anyone interested in starting a nonprofit organization as well as a valuable, go-to resource for directors and officers of established organizations.

Author Bruce R. Hopkins—a leading authority on tax-exempt organizations—offers plain-language explanations of the statutes, regulations, rulings, and court decisions that apply to nonprofit organizations. Designed to get you quickly up to speed, you will discover:

• How to handle the complex legal issues that affect the way nonprofit organizations are formed and operated
• Invaluable information on how to avoid nonprofit law traps
• How to manage governance and liability issues

Hopkins covers newly emerging concepts alongside such absolute basics as the private inurement doctrine, the lobbying rules, the unrelated business rules, and planned giving.

Several factors are poised to drastically affect nonprofit law, including a congressional enactment of major tax-exempt legislation, ambitious regulations and rulings projects by the IRS, and other court contributions to the law. Hopkins looks to the future of nonprofit law and addresses these issues with the insight of his world-class experience.

Covering everything you need to know to navigate the complex web of nonprofit legal issues, Nonprofit Law Made Easy explores:

• Forming a nonprofit organization
• Acquiring and maintaining tax-exempt status
• Public charities and private foundations
• Reporting requirements
• Charitable giving
• Disclosure requirements
• Unrelated business activities
• Fundraising
• Building on the basics
• Nonprofit law traps
• Governance principles and liability
• Subsidiaries
• Joint ventures
• And much more

Nonprofit Law Made Easy is a must-read for nonprofit board members, executive directors, senior managers, fundraisers, executives, and anyone else working toward tax compliance in the nonprofit realm.

From the Back Cover

The ins and outs of law in the nonprofit sector—made easy!

Written by renowned author Bruce R. Hopkins, Nonprofit Law Made Easy is a must-read guide for executives, board members, officers, accountants, fundraisers, and others who handle legal issues that affect the way nonprofit organizations are formed and operated.

Nonprofit Law Made Easy presents in-depth discussions on such hot topics as acquiring and maintaining tax-exempt status, reporting requirements, charitable giving, disclosure requirements, unrelated business activities, fundraising, corporate governance principles, and board member liability. It also includes crucial information on avoiding nonprofit law traps and navigating governance and liability issues.

Packed with practical tips and hard-to-find, authoritative advice, Nonprofit Law Made Easy demystifies complex legal issues with plain-language explanations of laws and regulations for non-legal professionals.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 20, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471709735
• ISBN-13: 978-0471709732
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,395 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.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent -informative and accessible, March 30, 2007

By 

A. Morgan "well-read" (MI) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Nonprofit Law Made Easy (Hardcover)

I was searching for a text book for a class on nonprofit law for nonlawyers, and chose this after reviewing several other groups of materials. Hopkins is concise, to the point, and accurate. His style is easy to comprehend. The nicest thing is that it is a cost effective alternative to the $200 hornbook, which most of my students would never look at again. There are a few topics I wish he had covered more in depth, but then, that would have required a much thicker book!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Thorough but not quite "Easy", January 14, 2011

By 

Grant S. Robertson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nonprofit Law Made Easy (Hardcover)

Though this is a good book, it is clear the author is used to writing for an audience of lawyers. A lot of space is taken up fleshing out additional aspects or history of the law that are really of no concern to the reader. The writing is rather convoluted, continuously referring back and forth around the book, so the reader is practically forced to draw a map in order to keep track of it all. Finally, many somewhat confusing topics are glossed over like a bad software help file where the author offers no more information than what is available on the form being described.

Again, the book is much more thorough than other similar books intended for a lay audience, including those from Nolo Press. However, the reader must be prepared to take notes and "study" the book rather than simply read through it.