Product Description: As the number and size of nonprofit organizations continues to grow, NFPs are coming under ever-increasing government scrutiny. Soon Congress will require that nonprofits comply with rigorous accounting and governance standards very similar to those set forth for for-profits in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
If you work for a nonprofit and are concerned about meeting impending changes to tax and finance standards governing NFPs this book is for you. In simple, straight-forward language, this guide demystifies the often perplexing world of nonprofit governance in the age of Sarbanes-Oxley. Author, Jill Gilbert Welytok, an attorney who heads the Sarbanes-Oxley division of a major Midwest law firm, walks you step-by-step through the process of evaluating your governance structures. She arms you with tips and strategies for adopting uniform standards under current governance and tax laws, while preparing you for any upcoming changes. She shows you how to protect your tax status and reassure donors and volunteers while staying true to your organization’s mission. And she fills you in on what you need to know to:
Comply with state laws and regulations
Get and keep tax–exempt status
Avoid lawsuits and other legal landmines
Handle the media
Anticipate future trends
Make sense of the Sarbanes–Oxley act
Including sample nonprofit bylaws and a complete audit committee report, Nonprofit Law & Governance for Dummies, Second Edition is an indispensable survival tool for 21st century nonprofits.
Made me feel much better prepared. A very helpful book for anyone starting, operating, or directing a small nonprofit. It covers some material (e.g., SOX compliance, foundation structure) which I suspect would only be useful to people who are more likely to hire a lawyer than read a For Dummies book; however, much of it is quite applicable to small churches, community organizations, or other small-scale operations. Hopefully the executive director of the American Red Cross has moved on to more advanced texts.
Broadly, the book deals with two topics: the regulatory interfaces a non-profit must be prepared to navigate and how a non-profit should be structured from the standpoint of strategic management. If you are starting from near-zero knowledge of these two topics, you will end up feeling much better prepared when you're done.
My primary interest in reading the book was to be better informed about a professional association I have recently become involved with. Most of the book--and indeed, most of the non-profit sector--is geared toward traditional charitable organizations, but it does go to lengths to explain the differences between the different kinds of of non-profit structures recognized by the IRS. I'm glad to have read it.
(Note that I'm neither a tax lawyer nor a CPA, so I only *feel* like I've been helped. Still, I trust Wiley to have vetted their authors well.)
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
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