Nonprofit Structure: Legal and Regulatory Frameworks

This training will help you understand the legal and regulatory frameworks that shape nonprofit organizations and determine their purpose and benefits. You'll also learn about the primary components of a nonprofit and, through the worksheet learn how to search public records to research your own or any other nonprofit organization.

Recording of the Training

Simple Slideshow

Worksheet

The worksheet provides links and information for performing a search about your nonprofit's public documents and some questions for you to answer. Download the Worksheet

Other Resources

• IRS: Tax information for Charities and other Non-profits: The IRS's landing page for information about nonprofits. Exemption Requirements; Application Process; Life Cycle
• Wikipedia: Types of 501(c) Organizations: A list of all of the different types of organizations that live within the 501(c) statute.
• Craigslist Foundation: Nonprofit Basics Podcasts: A series of great audio recordings on beginning and building a nonprofit.
• Online Book: "A Corporate Form of Freedom" by Norman Isaac Silber: Explores how courts and legislatures have decided which nonprofit groups can pursue their missions as corporations. You can read the entire book online: click the "Preview Book" tab near the top of the page.
• Film: The Corporation: A documentary that outlines the history, structure and influence of corporations, and the impact they have had upon society. While focusing on for-profit corporations, there is a lot of information about how corporations operate.
• Reagan's Legacy: An overview of the shrinking of government spending that would create the vacuum for nonprofits to fill.

Question & Answers

A Nonprofit is to a Community as a ____________ is to a _____________.

Answers contributed by AmeriCorps*VISTA members.