Non-Profit Organizations: Law and Policy

The casebook, Nonprofit Organizations–Law and Policy, by Marilyn Phelan and Robert Desiderio, is a comprehensive coverage of the laws relating to the nonprofit sector. It describes the possible organizational structures for nonprofit organizations, sets out the rules and procedures to organize and operate a nonprofit organization, discusses the fiduciary obligations of directors and trustees as well as the penalty taxes for failure to follow certain Federal standards of care, and covers all the Federal tax laws relating to the obtaining and maintaining of tax exempt status for nonprofit organizations as well as the taxation of nonprofit organizations. Chapters are devoted to an explanation of the tax laws that determine public charity versus private foundation status for charitable organizations and the laws applicable to charitable giving, including the regulation of charitable solicitations and application of the cy pres doctrine. The casebook includes chapters on the general and specialized laws applicable to several diverse types of nonprofits, such as charitable organizations generally, but also churches and other religious organizations, schools, hospitals, social clubs, trade and professional organizations, political organizations, and homeowners’ associations. These chapters address First Amendment constraints applicable to religious organizations, freedom of association, antitrust laws applicable to nonprofit organizations, and problems relating to dissolving nonprofit organizations, including a discussion of legal issues relating to the conversion of nonprofit hospitals to for-profit entities. The casebook will provide law students the expertise needed to represent the growing number of nonprofit organizations.