Compliance and Legal Documents Your Nonprofit Needs
A Self Assessment for Growing Nonprofits
By: Attorney Michael Jonas
I was recently asked by a friend who is a professional service provider to nonprofits what questions their nonprofit client should ask in order to know if they’re in “good legal shape”. I came up with some questions for that friend and my team thought this could work well in a blog. So, here we are. We can’t promise this is a complete list of questions that should be asked or things that should be considered. And, other questions may need to be asked. No organization is the same and therefore this blog like all others is to make suggestions and to give general information, but not to be taken as legal advice.
The things you’ll want to reflect upon for your nonprofit self assessment are:
Are your bylaws current, up to date, and effectively represent your current purpose, programs, and committees?
Are you up to date with grant reporting/set up to be able to compile grant reporting data and put it in the required format when needed?
Do you have business insurance?
(Maybe part of the one above) Do you have all of the types of insurance needed for nonprofits (ie. general, board errors and omissions, something specific you need like cyber)?
Do you handle health information or other private information? Do you have proper agreements in place both externally and externally? (ie. HIPAA forms, informed consent, confidentiality clauses in your team's contracts and/or handbooks)?
Do you have contractor and employee agreements drafted? Have you given out the proper government forms (w-9s for contractors to get 1099s and w-4s for employees to get w-2s at tax season)?
Are you protecting your intellectual property? Have you filed copyrights, trademarks, and patents? Do you have a licensing agreement in place for those who use it? Do you have disclaimers on IP that goes out via pdfs, downloads, or curriculum that says that the information is only to be used for that person or org and not sublicensed or re-sold?"
Do you have a participation agreement for participants or assumption of risk/liability waiver for volunteers (or both)?
Do you have a fiscal sponsor agreement in writing if you do fiscal sponsorships?
Do you have contracts in place with all of your vendors (legally binding agreements not just orders or emails)?
Do you have a written legally binding community partnership agreement (not just notes or MOUs that are not binding)?
Do you have a written sponsorship agreement laying out not just terms of sponsorship but liability, marketing goals or restrictions (ie using the sponsor's logo to further your cause), etc.
Have you talked to not just an attorney, but to a bookkeeper, an accountant, a financial planner, or any other service providers that may be able to offer help through consulting, services, or both?
Are any documents or processes potentially out-of-date?
Are there any other topics you want to get a professional opinion about?
If any of these areas make you nervous and you want to ensure you are compliant and up to date, get in touch with the professionals! For legal things, we’d be to help. For accounting, HR, or other professions, check out our referrals page.
If you’d like to talk more about your nonprofit and to assess what it may need to be in “good legal shape,” please reach out to us here.