Legal Resources for Nonprofit Orgs
@xolotl just told me to post some links to legal resources for nonprofits. It’s a blawg-eat-blawg world out there, but after some digging, I found some clearinghouse-style resources for those who want to check out the basics:
This place is a good one to start with. It gives a decent overview of the process involved, and links to the IRS regs on nonprofit status.
Speaking of the IRS, that eldritch body has a lot of tax information for nonprofits.
I would link to the FilinginOregon nonprofits page, but it appears to be down. MLK Day taken way too seriously by the servers! Will edit when they come back up.
The main problem is that, like all things legal, there is a long-established tradition of industry-generated barriers to entry. So, for example, you can pay $200+ for someone’s bad, potentially outdated 501(c)(3) form, or you can hire a lawyer or consultant on the basis of the free information available on their site (ala nonprofitexpert.com, above). But you can’t just find out without knowing some fairly specialized search techniques, or knowing where to look to begin with. If drafting is coding, then code should be open and free. But that’s a post for another day…
Is there a SourceForge-type of solution for legal documents? Like Creative Commons but for more common, less critical legal documents? Like an open source NoLo type of thing. How many times has the exact same contract been written?
There is not, but there needs to be. Forms should be free to roam. There’s much to be said about the “source is open but the tailoring will cost ya” model of open source code bases. Rabbi David agrees.
Really wish you’d make that “post for another day.” I’d love to hear a rant on opening legal information to public scrutiny and pwning barriers to entry.
Fair cop, @judicialfiat! Will get on that soon.
Thanks for this! My eventual goal, with my MPH, is to run my own non-profit. I’ve been intimidated by the process — this is actually really quite heartening.