19th Annual Institute on Advising Nonprofit Organizations - Primer AND Institute
April 2010
19th Annual Institute on Advising Nonprofit Organizations in Colorado - BOTH Primer and Institute
Why You Should Attend
This program will present a comprehensive analysis of legal issues of concern to nonprofit organizations. The program is intended primarily for attorneys. Key representatives of nonprofit organizations, including board members, executive directors, chief financial officers, accountants, and representatives of governmental agencies can also benefit.
Program Highlights
- A Four-Subject Primer
- Annual Tax Update
- Maintaining Endowments in an Year of Declining Markets
- Internal Revenue Service Enforcement Activities
- With Malice Toward None, With Charity For All - Colorado Enforcement Activities
- Form 990 Update: The Dawning of a New Age of Accountability, Oversight and Disclosure
- Operating in Cyberspace: The Top Ten IP Issues for Non-Profits
- The Financially Troubled Charity
Program Description
The program is presented in two parts. It begins on Thursday afternoon with a Primer that presents lectures on forming nonprofit entities, obtaining and retaining tax exempt status, differentiating between public charities and private foundations, and planning for charitable activities by donors.
The following day's Advanced Program will examine in depth 7 topics of current interest, the first dealing with the tax rules relating to and the campaign financing of political activities, followed by the annual tax update, then an examination of sponsorship and affinity fundraising activities with businesses, and the morning ending with an examination of the legal pitfalls when using social media such as Facebook and Twitter. The luncheon keynote speaker will discuss protecting your organization against criminal fraud, followed in the afternoon by compliance issues when soliciting donations in Colorado and nationally including use of the Internet, then structuring transactions with businesses using partnerships, joint ventures, for profit subsidiaries and LLCs, and closing with an examination of the duties of members of the board of directors.
Agenda - Primer (4/29/2010)
Moderated by: John Valentine Esq., Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
12:15 -12:45 p.m.
Registration
12:45 - 1:00 p.m.
Welcoming Remarks and Introduction of Primer Moderator
Peter C. Guthery, Esq., Program Chair and Gary Abrams, CLE Executive Director
1:00 p.m.
Organization of Nonprofit Entities
This session will begin with an overview of the different types of entities that may be used in Colorado to form a tax-exempt organization, with particular emphasis on the Colorado nonprofit corporation. The mechanics of creating a Colorado nonprofit corporation will be examined followed by a consideration of the many different ways in which it may be governed, including a discussion of the relative rights and responsibilities of members, officers, and directors. This session will also touch on important areas of compliance with the Colorado Revised Nonprofit Corporation Act.
Presented by: John Valentine Esq.
1:50 p.m.
Obtaining and Retaining Tax-Exempt Status
This session will provide a basic introduction to the tax law applicable to organizations described in Section 501(c). It will begin with an overview of the varied categories of tax-exempt organizations, including social welfare organizations, trade associations, and social clubs, and will then focus on the requirements for qualifying and operating as a Section 501(c) (3) charity. In that regard, this presentation will explore the types of activities that can be considered to fall within the scope of Section 501(c)(3), the relationship between its public benefit requirement and private inurement prohibition, and its restrictions on lobbying and political campaign involvement.
Presented by: Samantha M. White, Esq.
2:40 p.m.
Break
2:55 p.m.
Public Charities, Private Foundations, and UBTI This session will clarify the complexities of qualifying a Section 501(c) (3) organization as a public charity, as well as the consequences of its failure to establish or maintain that status and thus becoming classified as a private foundation. The second half of this presentation will explore the taxation of unrelated business taxable income, with a special emphasis on how to recognize which activities may generate taxable income and strategies for avoiding or minimizing it.
Presented by: Adam L. Weitzel, Esq.
3:45 p.m.
Charitable Giving: Tools for Charities and Tax Relief for Donors
In this economic climate, many charities are seeking to increase their revenues while potential donors are seeking tax relief. Charitable giving can meet both goals. This presentation will begin with an introduction to various charitable giving techniques charities may wish to employ as part of a planned giving program, including charitable split interest trusts, conservation easements, gifts of remainder interests, restricted gifts, charitable gift annuities, and pooled income funds, with an emphasis on techniques that can be particularly attractive to donors when interest rates are low. It will then review the substantiation rules imposed on charities and donors when a gift is made. Finally it will survey the deductibility of charitable contributions, including categories of eligible donees, percentage limitations, and special rules based on the type of property donated and the uses of that property.
Presented by: Merry H. Balson, Esq.
4:35 p.m.
Wrap-up: Questions and Answers - Panel
4:50 p.m.
Adjourn
Agenda - Institute (4/30/2010)
Moderated by: Peter C. Guthery, Esq., Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
8:00 a.m.
Registration (continental breakfast provided)
8:30 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Peter C. Guthery, Esq., Program Chair and Gary Abrams, CLE Executive Director
8:35 - 9:25 a.m.
Political Activities in 2010
The recent United States Supreme Court decision reversing decades of precedent and allowing corporations and unions to support political candidates directly has thrown campaign finance into turmoil. In an election year, both state and federal election authorities, as well as the Internal Revenue Service, can be expected to be unusually attentive to the political and campaign activities of charities. The two presenters will discuss the likely impact of the Citizens United case on political campaign activities in general, as well as its possible effect on the rules that the tax code imposes on nonprofit organizations specifically.
Presented by: Cara Lawrence, Esq.and Mark Grueskin, Esq.
9:25 - 10:15 a.m.
Tax Update
This lecture will examine developments over the past 12 months in the area of nonprofit, tax exempt organizations including Federal and Colorado proposed and new legislation, court decisions and administrative pronouncements. Special emphasis will be given to those areas not covered by the other six lectures.
Presented by: Peter C. Guthery, Esq.
10:15 - 10:30 a.m.
Networking Break
10:30 - 11:20 a.m.
Corporate Sponsorships, Affinity Arrangements and UBTI
This session will consider some of the tax pitfalls that charities face when they seek to raise funds from corporate sponsors and partners. While the corporate funders may be principally concerned about reaching new audiences and broadening their market shares, charities need to be sensitive to the unrelated business taxable income issues they face when promoting for-profit funders. This session will explore these outer boundaries of UBTI when charities permit for-profit businesses access to the charity's donor and membership lists, when acknowledging the support of corporate sponsors in creative ways, and when otherwise offering incentives to corporate funding sources for their financial assistance.
Presented by: Peter B. Nagel, Esq.
11:20 - 12:10 p.m.
Being Social While Staying Private: The Interplay of Social Media and Individual Rights of Privacy
Google, Buzz, Plaxo, SNS, the Port, Higher Logic and “gamers” are but a few of the latest terms and products populating the world of social media. Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and blogging are among the better known concepts in the exploding world of communication. However, while the means by which nonprofits can “socialize” are expanding, the legal issues presented bring us back to the “good old days” of writing letters and sending faxes. Copyright, defamation, invasion of privacy, antitrust, and employment are only a few of the issues which remain alive and well in the new environment. At the same time social networking is growing exponentially, federal and state laws mandate increased protection for personal information. Red flags are waving and many nonprofits need to be aware of these new laws and regulations. Discover the challenges and suggested solutions as an expanding social world collides with rights of privacy.
Presented by: William E. Walters, III, Esq.
12:10 p.m.
Questions and Answers - Panel
12:25 - 1:30 p.m.
Keynote Luncheon Presentation “Protecting Your Organization Against Criminal Activity”
Presented by: Douglas E. Cash, MBA, CFE, CFI, CFCI
1:30 - 2:20 p.m.
Charitable Solicitations in Colorado and Nationally
This session will present the requirements for registering before conducting charitable solicitations in Colorado and nationwide, discuss the new rules and penalties enacted in Colorado, including compliance monitoring within the Secretary of State's office and the possibility of referral of abusive cases to the Attorney General. The speaker will also cover concerns over solicitations using the social media, Colorado's adoption of the Charleston Principles, the problems that charities face when conducting solicitation campaigns in other states, compliance by donor advised funds, and compliance when affinity arrangements are used such as a charitable component to event ticket sales.
Presented by: Chris Cash
2:20 - 3:10 p.m.
Structural Strategies with Businesses, Partnerships, Joint Ventures, For Profit Subsidiaries, and LLCs
As the complexity of their business affairs increases, nonprofit organizations have entered into a wide variety of different business arrangements and have sponsored the formation of business entities that have been far from conventional in the nonprofit world. Responding to liability concerns, financing pressures, and new profit-making opportunities, nonprofit organizations must now navigate treacherous tax, management, and structural issues that this session will address.
Presented by: Marla J. William, Esq.,
3:10 - 3:25 p.m.
Break
3:25 - 4:15 p.m.
Fiduciary Duties of Directors
While corportate directors and officers are not, strictly speaking, fiduciaries, they do owe certain statutory duties to the nonprofit corporation they manage. This session will begin by exploring the nature and boundaries of those duties and will continue with a discussion of best practices that have emerged in the wake of various scandals in the for-profit and nonprofit worlds, that the Internal Revenue Service now encourages through its revision of Form 990, and that are rapidly becoming the new norm in corporate management.
Presented by: Kelly R. Berg, Esq.
4:15 - 4:30 p.m.
Panel Discussion
4:30 p.m.
Adjourn
Planning Committee
Peter C. Guthery, Esq., Program Chair
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
Peter B. Nagel, Esq.
Peter B. Nagel, P.C.
Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
William E. Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly, Garnsey, Hubbel & Lass LLC
Denver, Colorado
Faculty - Primer
Moderated by:
John Valentine Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Denver, Colorado
Merry H. Balson, Esq.
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
John Valentine Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Denver, Colorado
Adam L. Weitzel, Esq.
Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP
Colorado Springs, CO
Samantha White, Esq.
Pendleton Friedberg Wilson & Hennessey PC
Denver, Colorado
Faculty - Institute
Moderated by:
Peter C. Guthery, Esq., Program Chair
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
Kelly R. Berg, Esq.
Tuthill & Hughes, LLP
Denver, Colorado
Chris Cash
Charities Program Manager
Colorado Secretary of State's Office
Division of Licensing and Enforcement
Denver, Colorado
Doug Cash, MBA, CFE, CFI, CFCI
Manager-Forensic Accounting
Eide Bailly LLP
Golden, Colorado
Cara Greengard-Lawrence, Esq.
Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C.
Denver, Colorado
Mark Grueskin, Esq.
Isaacson Rosenbaum P.C.
Denver, Colorado
Peter C. Guthery, Esq.,
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
Peter B. Nagel, Esq.
Peter B. Nagel, P.C.
Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
William E. Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass LLC
Denver, Colorado
Marla J. Williams, Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Denver, CO
Location Information
CLECI Large Classroom
1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80203
Get directions
1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Denver, CO 80203
Registration Fees
| Non Member | $349.00 |
| CBA | $309.00 |
| Non Member | $309.00 |
| Non Member | $309.00 |
| CORP | $289.00 |
| TAX | $289.00 |
| New Lawyer | $269.00 |
- General Credits: 12.00
- Ethics Credits:
- EDI Credits:
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