20th Annual Institute on Advising Nonprofit Organizations in Colorado
April 2011
20th Annual Institute on Advising Nonprofit Organizations in Colorado
Co-sponsored by the Business and Taxation Law Sections of the Colorado Bar Association
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
- Governance/Best Practices
- Employment Law - New Applications and Interpretations in Response to Changes in the Workplace
- State and Local Tax Issues of Importance to Nonprofit Organizations and Their Donors
- Innovative Educational Models to Meet Challenging Needs
- Religious Organizations: Governance Structures and Unique Tax Issues
- Religious Organizations: The Epic Confrontation Between the Anti-Discrimination Principle and the Association Principle
- Religious Organizations: Child Abuse Reporting and Pastoral Confidences
- Private Foundations: Rules, Restrictions and Opportunities
- Developments at the Federal and State Level Affecting Exempt Health Care Organizations
- Affordable Housing
Program Description
As in recent years, this year's Institute includes a Thursday afternoon primer designed to introduce practitioners to more general aspects of the laws governing the formation and operation of nonprofit organizations, applying for and maintaining tax-exempt status, the distinctions between public charities and private foundations, and charitable giving rules and techniques.
The morning of Friday's all-day Advanced Program will focus in depth on four areas that are both timely and of long-standing interest - an annual update of recent federal and state tax law developments, a survey of various outside pressures that seek to impose increasingly rigorous standards on the administrative and governance practices of nonprofit organizations, emerging issues of employment law that affect nonprofit organizations, and the availability of state and local tax exemptions in a time of worsening governmental budget shortfalls.
The keynote luncheon speaker, a legislator, educator, and education policy advisor, will survey more recent initiatives and innovations that are emerging to address the challenges that confront public education.
Friday afternoon's program will be divided into two tracks, each focusing on specific industries within the nonprofit sector. One track will explore the current legal challenges faced by health care institutions, affordable housing providers, and private foundations. The second track will concentrate on religious organizations, including a discussion of their diverse governance structures and practices, unique tax issues applicable to them, and the tension between antidiscrimination legislation and religious association, and the clergy's dilemma regarding reporting child abuse.
Agenda
Morning Session Moderated by:
Peter C. Guthery, Esq.
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
8:00 a.m.
Registration & Continental Breakfast
8:30 a.m.
Welcoming Remarks
Peter B. Nagel, Esq.
Peter B. Nagel, PC
Denver, Colorado
and
William Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass LLC
Denver, CO
8:35 - 9:25 a.m.
2011 Tax Update
This presentation will survey tax law developments occurring within the past 12 months, with a view towards alerting practitioners to those that have the most immediate or lasting impact on the activities of tax-exempt organizations. The presenter will select a limited number of such developments for a more intensive discussion of their background and context within the evolution of the tax laws that affect exempt organizations generally.
Presented by:
Peter B. Nagel, Esq.
Peter B. Nagel, PC
Denver, Colorado
9:25 - 10:15 a.m.
Governance/Best Practices
The Internal Revenue Service entered the arena of “best practices” a few years ago and today's Form 990 seeks information on the organization's governance and administrative policies including: conflicts of interest; whistleblowers; document retention/destruction; executive compensation; disclosure of tax returns and governing documents to the public; review of the 990 by the organization's governing authority; and reimbursementof expenses. In addition, a number of independent organizations such as the Better Business Bureau and Guidestar are seeking more and more information as to an organization's “best practices”. The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants continues to tinker with its financial standards for nonprofits as it encourages its view of best practices. This program will provide insight on responding to the outside forces which seek to guide the governance activities of tax exempt organizations.
Presented by:
William Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass LLC
Denver, Colorado
10:15 - 10:30 a.m.
Break
10:30 - 11:20 a.m.
Employment Law
Some of the biggest changes in employment law of late stem from new applications and interpretations of old laws in response to changes in the workplace. Discrimination has taken on some new forms (e.g. based on genetic information), and retaliation claims now outnumber other types of discrimination claims. In addition to the fundamentals, this program will bring you up to date on the latest developments in the field of employment law.
Presented by:
Susan M. Schaecher, Esq.
Stettner Miller PC
Denver, Colorado
11:20 - 12:10 p.m.
State and Local Tax
State and local tax issues are often overlooked in the startup phase of nonprofit organizations, but can have a vital impact on the financial stability of those organizations as their operations mature. This session will focus first on several incentives that exist at the state level for funding charitable organizations and will then concentrate on the challenges of obtaining and maintaining the available exemptions from property taxes and from sales and use taxes, especially when those taxes serve as the principal source of funding for increasingly cash-strapped state and local governments.
Presented by:
Norman H. Wright, Esq.
N H Wright & Associates LLC
Greenwood Village, Colorado
12:10 p.m.
Questions and Answers - Panel
12:25 - 1:30
Keynote Luncheon Presentation
“Innovative Educational Models to Meet Challenging Needs ”
Presented by:
State Senator Michael Johnston
Presidential Policy Advisor
High School Principal of Alternative Schools
Denver, Colorado
Religious Organizations Track
Moderated by:
William Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass LLC
Denver, Colorado
1:30 - 2:20 p.m.
Governance Structures and Unique Tax issues
This seminar will discuss the changing landscape with respect to accommodations in federal, state and local tax codes for religious organizations and ministers. The discussion will include recent cases and regulatory decisions in Colorado which have narrowed some accommodations, and the recent findings of Senator Grassley regarding abuses of federal tax provisions by certain religious media organizations. The seminar will also discuss the various tests used by courts to determine whether an organization or activity qualifies for a religious accommodation, and the relationship between religious exemptions and charitable exemptions.
Presented by:
Stuart J. Lark, Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
and
Hugh Jones, Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
2:20 - 3:10 p.m.
The Epic Confrontation Between the Anti-Discrimination Principle and the Association Principle
This presentation examines the right of associations, and especially religious associations, to staff themselves with like-minded people of faith; the right of employees and clients to be free of class-based discrimination; and what happens when those two rights conflict. Such conflicts most often involve religion-based, gender-based, and sexual orientation-based discrimination.
Presented by:
L. Martin Nussbaum, Esq.,
Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
3:10 - 3:25 p.m.
Break
3:25 - 4:15 p.m.
Child Abuse Reporting and Pastoral Confidences
The presenter will also explore Colorado child abuse reporting requirements along with complications that arise from confidential pastoral communications common in most ministries.
Presented by:
L. Martin Nussbaum, Esq.,
Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
4:15 - 4:30 p.m.
Q & A Discussion
4:30 p.m.
Adjourn
Industry Track
Moderated by:
Peter C. Guthery, Esq.
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
1:30 - 2:20 p.m.
Private Foundations
Private foundation boards usually reflect the interests of a limited number of donors, rather than the broad interests of the public. For this reason, Congress decided that private foundations were more susceptible of abuse and created a comprehensive set of rules and restrictions applicable only to private foundations to address this concern. This session will begin with an overview of those restrictions, which are enforced through a system of excise taxes, and will continue with a more in-depth discussion of restrictions that are often the subject of inadvertent violations, including the prohibition on self-dealing and the restrictions on grant-making. The session will end with planning issues and opportunities unique to private foundations.
Presented by:
Stephanie M. Tuthil, Esq.
Tuthill & Hughes LLP
Denver, Colorado
2:20 - 3:10 p.m.
Health Care
This section will focus on the new developments at the federal and state level affecting exempt health care organizations. Included in the presentation will be a discussion of Accountable Care Organizations and the challenges for health care entities attempting to create ACO's, health care exchanges and Colorado's development of an exchange, latest trends in contracting with insurance companies and ERISA plans including health reform changes to participant rights.
Presented by:
Ellen E. Stewart, Esq.
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
3:10 - 3:25 p.m.
Break
3:25 - 4:15 p.m.
Affordable Housing
Housing is not, intrinsically, a charitable activity, and this session will begin with a brief summary of the guidelines that Section 501(c)(3) organizations must adhere to if they engage in the provision of affordable housing. The speaker will then describe the more common alternatives for financing affordable housing projects, including the low-income housing tax credit, tax-exempt bonds, and HUD loans and insurance, followed by a dissection of a typical affordable housing deal, how it might be structured and the roles of its participants.
Presented by:
J. William Callison, Esq.
Faegre & Benson LLP
Denver, Colorado
4:15 - 4:30 p.m.
Q &A and Panel Discussion
4:30 p.m.
Adjourn
Planning Committee
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
John Valentine, Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Denver, Colorado
Moderators
Peter C. Guthery, Esq.
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
William E. Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass LLC
Denver, Colorado
Faculty
J. William Callison, Esq.
Faegre & Benson LLP
Denver, Colorado
State Senator Michael Johnston
Presidential Policy Advisor
High School Principal of Alternative Schools
Denver, Colorado
Hugh Jones, Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Stuart J. Lark, Esq.
Holme Roberts & Owen LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Peter B. Nagel, Esq.
Peter B. Nagel, P.C.
Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
L. Martin Nussbaum, Esq.
Rothgerber Johnson & Lyons LLP
Colorado Springs, Colorado
Susan M. Schaecher, Esq.
Stettner Miller PC
Denver, Colorado
Ellen E. Stewart, Esq.
Berenbaum Weinshienk PC
Denver, Colorado
Stephanie M. Tuthill, Esq.
Tuthill & Hughes LLP
Denver, Colorado
William Walters, III, Esq.
Kelly Garnsey Hubbell & Lass LLC
Denver, Colorado
Norman H. Wright, Esq.
N H Wright & Associates LLC
Greenwood Village, Colorado
Video Replays: June 3, 2011
Denver: CLE Classroom, 1900 Grant Street, Suite 300
Grand Junction: 1250 East Sherwood Drive
Colorado Springs: 421 South Tejon Street, Suite 100
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 | $299.00 |
| CBA | $259.00 |
| Non Member | $259.00 |
| Non Member | $259.00 |
| CORP | $239.00 |
| TAX | $239.00 |
| Non Member | $239.00 |
| New Lawyer | $219.00 |
- General Credits: 8.00
- Ethics Credits:
- EDI Credits:
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