Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide [Paperback]

Bruce R. Hopkins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2004

Whether you are a nonprofit novice or the director of an established organization, this must-have guide to nonprofit law contains all the information you need to succeed, thrive, and protect your nonprofit's tax-exempt status. This practical reference offers you information on virtually every legal aspect of starting and operating a nonprofit organization—from receiving and maintaining tax-exempt status to tips for successful management practices. Completely revised and expanded, the third edition features updated information on changes in law, rules, and regulations governing the nonprofit sector, and provides you with clear information on corporate, tax, and fundraising laws.

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Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The essential resource for nonprofit success

For everyone from nonprofit novices to sophisticated directors of established organizations, this expert guide to nonprofit law provides all the critical information and know-how executives and other leaders need to succeed, thrive, and protect any nonprofit’s tax-exempt status. Written by Bruce Hopkins, the country’s leading legal authority in the field, this Fourth Edition of Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide covers the breadth of legal aspects of starting and operating a nonprofit organization. This latest edition’s revisions include updated material on changes in laws, rules, and regulations governing the nonprofit sector.

Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide, Fourth Edition provides:

Practical guidance on the rules and regulations governing nonprofit organizations, including corporate, tax, and fundraising law applications and implications

Up-to-date information on reporting revenue, private benefit, intermediate sanctions, supporting organizations, and the commerciality doctrine

New material on advocacy communications by exempt organizations, the political organization’s notice and reporting requirements, and the use by exempt organizations of limited liability companies

Insight into the newly emerging law concerning involvement of exempt organizations in joint ventures

Checklists, step-by-step guidance to procedures, and a glossary of legal terms for fail-safe compliance

Written by a lawyer for non-lawyers, this easy-to-read book is an invaluable resource for nonprofit executives and managers, fundraising professionals, trustees, consultants, committed volunteers, and anyone involved in the complex, rewarding world of nonprofit organizations.

About the Author

BRUCE R. HOPKINS is the country’s leading authority on tax-exempt organizations and is a lawyer with the firm Polsinelli, Shalton & Welte, PC. He is also the author of fifteen books, including The Law of Intermediate Sanctions; The Legal Answer Book for Private Foundations; The First and Second Legal Answer Book for Nonprofit Organizations; The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, Eighth Edition; Private Foundations: Tax Law and Compliance, Second Edition; and The Tax Law of Charitable Giving, Third Edition, as well as the newsletter Bruce R. Hopkins’ Nonprofit Counsel, all published by Wiley.

Product Details

• Paperback: 360 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 4 edition (September 13, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471680001
• ISBN-13: 978-0471680000
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,054,105 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #42 in Books > Business & Investing > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Legal Guides

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

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Rosetta Stone for legally-challenged nonprofit trustees, April 29, 2004

By 

David J. Coughlin (Thousand Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide (Wiley Nonprofit Law, Finance and Management Series) (Paperback)

I will begin with two disclaimers: I do not work for nor have any affiliation with the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, Inc (I am not a "corporate shill"). Notwithstanding that I would consider it an honor, I do not know nor have I ever met the author.

As an independent consultant providing philanthropic and nonprofit investment management consulting to the trustees of personal, fiduciary and institutional trusts, it is critical that I have expert resources available to provide timely and cutting-edge advisory.

I read voluminously, and my experience is simply this: in the world of nonprofit legal advisory, there is Hopkins, and everybody else.

I believe that success in any field of professional advisory is founded on specialization. This is another outstanding work by the pre-eminent legal expert specializing in advising charitable and educational organizations, associations, colleges, universities, hospitals, religious organizations, associations, and private foundations.

"Starting and Managing ..." is an essential resource in my nonprofit library; I recommend it to my clients as a "Rosetta stone" for translating the Byzantine intricacies of the Internal Revenue Code into a summary of the laws that affect the operation of nonprofit organizations.

If you have questions related to the establishment and qualification for tax exemption of nonprofit organizations, the establishment and operation of charitable fund-raising programs, and advice on matters such as public charity/private foundation qualification, the unrelated business income rules, and the involvement of nonprofits in partnerships and other joint ventures ... and need answers in non-legalese, rest easy: you have found your resource.
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1 My "due diligence" research on the author yielded the following: Hopkins is author of eight books (three of which are annually supplemented): The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations (6th ed. 1992); The Legal Answer Book for Nonprofit Organizations (1996); The Nonprofit Law Dictionary (1994); A Legal Guide to Starting and Managing a Non-Profit Organization (2d ed. 1994); The Tax Law of Charitable Giving (1993); Charity, Advocacy, and the Law (1992); The Law of Fund-Raising (2d ed. 1996) (winner in the first edition of the first annual National Society of Fund Raising Executives/Staley/Robeson/Ryan/St. Lawrence Research Award); and Charity Under Siege: Government Regulation of Fund-Raising (1980) (which was selected by the NSFRE as one of the 25 books most favorably affecting fund-raising). He is co-author of a book titled The Law of Tax-Exempt Healthcare Organizations (1995). He writes a monthly newsletter titled 'The Nonprofit Counsel" and a bimonthly newsletter titled 'The Fund-Raising Regulation Report." John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, New York, publishes these books and newsletters. He is Editor of Wiley's Nonprofit Law, Finance, and Management Series.

Hopkins is a member of the Legal Section Council of the American Society of Association Executives. He served as Chair of the Committee on Exempt Organizations, Section on Taxation, American Bar Association; Chair of the Section of Taxation, National Association of College and University Attorneys: and President, Planned Giving Study Group of Greater Washington, D.C. He was appointed to the IRS Exempt Organizations Advisory Group in 1 987 and was accorded the Assistant Commissioner's (IRS) Award in 1984.

Hopkins graduated from the University of Michigan in 1964. He received his law degree from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1967, and masters of law degree in taxation from the Center in 1971.

20 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Terrible source of outdated information, April 26, 2006

By 

Robert C. Baruch (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide (Paperback)

IRS Form 1023 is one of the most important pieces of starting a nonprofit organization. Yet this book, which is stamped with a 2005 copyright, contains information for the outdated, pre-2004 version of the 1023.

For example, the advice is given that one can attach a form SS-4 (request for EIN) with the form 1023, and in the form 1023 state "SS-4 attached" when it asks for an SS-4. Wrong. The IRS now requires an EIN be registered prior to submitting a 1023.

Likewise, the hints about "Part this" and "Question that" are completely out of sync with the actual application.

Grudgingly, I give the author credit for the other parts of the book. But 1023 is so important, that it would be terrible to let anyone rely on the information in this book.

A good source of detailed, up-to-date information on the 1023 is "IRS Form 1023 Tax Preparation Guide" by Jody Blazek. And I also recommend the companion book by the same author, "IRS Form 990 Tax Preparation Guide for Nonprofits".

Get those books. Do not get this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contemplating, March 22, 2007

By 

E. C. Cameron (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization: A Legal Guide (Paperback)

Have been interested in starting an advocacy organization. This book is clearly written, appears to be authoritative and comes from a person who seems to care about the field. I finished the book mildly encouraged but with some respect for the complexities involved. Note that this is only about the legal issues of non profits, not "managing" non profits per se.