NONPROFIT AND HOUSE OF WORSHIP LAW

Legal Services for Nonprofit Organizations

Those in our society who do not share in its abundance cannot abide a second-rate job by their lawyers. Those lawyers must step up; they must exceed themselves. The Nissenbaum Law Group has a boutique practice focused in commercial representation, an important component of which is nonprofit law. Indeed, many of our firm’s attorneys and paralegals serve on 501(c)(3) boards of trustees for a variety of nonprofit charities and religious institutions. As a result, our firm’s practice has expanded to include (a) standard 501(c)(3) charitable organizations, (b) 501(c)(4) advocacy groups, (c) religious nonprofits, including churches, temples, and other houses of worship and (d) “friends of” charities that work with non-governmental organizations (NGO). They believe in the mission of advocating for the abused, the suffering and the dispossessed. The firm’s attorneys welcome the opportunity to defend the legal rights of the organizations that are defending those in need. Its team of lawyers is eager to represent nonprofit organizations in NJ, NY as well as a number of other states (consistent with the multijurisdictional rules of practice) involving such items as:

Formation of the Nonprofit

• filling out IRS forms 1023 and 1023-EZ to apply for 501(c)(3) status;
• drafting the initial corporate resolutions and by-laws;
• helping the nonprofit determine whether to utilize a member or non-member structure;
• analyzing the Internal Revenue Service conflict of interest rules relating to boards of trustees;
• assisting the nonprofit in obtaining sales tax exemption certificates;
• forming a religious nonprofit and addressing the unique legal issues confronting spiritually-based gathering places and 501(c)(3) religious supporting organizations;
• forming a 501(c)(4) organization that can engage in significant lobbying and have involvement to an extent in political campaigns; and
• establishing a “friends of” organization with appropriate project oversight and clawback provisions.

Internal Oversight

• assisting in satisfying the fiduciary responsibility of officers and others in a leadership position;
• helping to enforce the unique personnel issues that apply to non-profit officer compensation;
• creating an internal background check procedure for volunteers who work with children;
• reviewing state and federal fundraising laws and regulations;
• handling internal investigations relating to theft of funds; and
• creating a monitoring system for funding projects of foreign NGOs under IRS Revenue Ruling 63-252 and IRC 170.

Transactional Legal Matters

• complying with municipal ordinances and other local governmental requirements that may also apply to certain types of fundraising, such as games of chance;
• negotiating commercial real estate leases for the nonprofit;
• preserving the nonprofit’s intellectual property rights, such as copyright and trademark;
• creating a master collaboration agreement between a domestic 501(c)(3) and a foreign organization sharing the same mission;
• creating a grant structure with respect to support of a foreign NGO.

Asserting the Nonprofit’s Legal Rights

• defending the nonprofit’s First Amendment and religious autonomy rights (if applicable);
• addressing potential federal Religious Land Use Act violations;
• implementing a procedure for internal mediation of disputes that would otherwise result in the nonprofit being the subject of a lawsuit; and
• defending the nonprofit in state or federal court; and
• addressing the legal and regulatory complications of working as a “friends of” organization with a foreign NGO.