21/04/2011 06:33
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Notations on Non-profits Newsletter
An Open Letter to Readers
For those of you who know me, sitting down in
one spot, eyes glazing over in front a screen, is not
exactly my idea of fun. But I have really enjoyed
blogging over the last few months and am absolu-
tely estatic (evidenced by my use of italics) about
this newsletter. It’s been a loooong time coming.
But I will need the help of you all to ensure that it’s
something of value. After all, sitting down to write
this, and clogging up your email with yet another
tastefully designed newsletter, will not be worth it
if it doesn’t help. So I’ve made edition numero uno
fairly light. A proverbial toe in the water. Tell me
what you like, what you don’t like. What would you
like to see? What issues would you like addressed?
If there is an operational issue making you border-
line homicidal, why not send it to me? I’m here to
help, so feel free to let me know what it it is exactly
you all could use help with. And on that note, enjoy!
At Your Service,
Click here to send your feedback
Erin McClarty
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March’s Most Popular Post
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ment?
Do you collect the addresses of donors and suppor-
ters? Financial information? Check images? Per-
joliprint
sonal information such as family size and income?
Now the important question, do you have a means
of ensuring that people don’t go posting this infor-
Printed with
mation on the internet, talking to their friends or
blabbing to the press?
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The answer is probably not. If there is one thing I’ve
seen systematically missing in many organizations,
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We now have phones the size of candy-bars that
can take photos and neatly package these pictures
for distribution all over the world in a matter of se-
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address or bank information has been disclosed by
one of your people who do you think they’re going
to come after? Yup, you.
So why not try to mitigate this with a couple sheets
of paper? Anytime you have volunteers around per-
sonal or sensitive data, it doesn’t hurt to have them
sign an agreement guaranteeing that they will not
disclose that information to anyone else. Of course
there is the possibility something will slip through.
But the point is to distance your organization from
any wrongdoing should anything happen to go
wrong. And by having this paper in place, you tell
the world that you don’t tolerate that kind of beha-
vior. That you take the protection of personal data
seriously, and are intent on keeping such sensitive
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a leg to stand on in court.
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before, here’s a few considerations to get you star-
ted.....
1. Sit down and determine what you want to be
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but try not to be too broad either (I know). In other
words, list out things so its clear what your position
is, but make clear that this list «includes, but is not
limited to....» those things listed. This gives you a
little leeway in case you forget to list, or can’t think
of, something. Without a true grasp of what consti-
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meaningless. Make sure that whatever you come
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Notations on Non-profits Newsletter
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tently throughout.
2. At this point, you might also want to decide
whether you want to address media requests. What
should someone do if the media contacts them? Do
you want them to give a blanket statement or not
respond at all? Who should your people direct the
media to?
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used. Do you want to allow use to broadly encom-
21/04/2011 06:33
own rules governing what organizations can merge
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merge under Chapter 10 of the Business Organiza-
tions Code, subject to a few limitations. One of these
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corporation may not merge into another entity if the
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the merger, lose or impair its charitable status.» The
rest of the limitations can be found in Section 10.010
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tion Mergers. Note, Texas, like many other states,
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not be used? Are there certain uses that you believe
should be prohibited (i.e. unauthorized solicitation
or personal use?)
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closed to? If anyone has a question as to whether
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they are allowed to disclose it to a certain person,
who can they ask?
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Click here to send your feedback
should never be disclosed. Drive home that failure
to adhere to your policy could lead to irreparable
damage to donor relationships, loss of respect in
the community and possible civil/and or criminal
liability.
Read More Here........**
**I did in fact post an example, be sure to check it out.
joliprint
Q&A
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A: Loved the short question. And in keeping, the
short answer is yes. But of course, each state has its
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and schedules may also be required, however, this
will all depend on whether you plan to have one
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or a 990-N (depending on the amount of the organi-
zation’s gross assets and gross receipts) as well as a
Schedule N. The IRS website does a really good job
of walking organizations through this (under the
Charitable Organizations tab). Note, there is a time
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with the appropriate person in a timely manner.
Recent Case
In keeping with the merger discussion I thought
this case would be interesting. Especially because
it involved two local Girl Scout Council’s.
Apparently, the two council’s merged and the attor-
ney for one of the council’s argued he could not give
the other certain paper-work because of attorney-
client privilege. Attorney-client privilege is just that,
a «privilege» clients have that enables an attorney
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themselves and the client. However, the Court held
that the attorney did have to hand everything over.
It’s reasoning was that, under Oklahoma law, when
corporations merge the rights of the merged corpo-
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us1.campaign-archive2.com

Notations on Non-profits Newsletter

ration no longer exist. Consequently, all its rights,

powers, assets, debts and privileges vest in the newly
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new Girl Scout Council inherited all the other Girl
Scout Council’s prvileges (such as the attorney-client
privilege) and therefore entitled to see everything.

To make matters simplier, the Court also pointed

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that all assets, properties, and privileges would be
transferred to the surviving corporation without
reservation (and with no exclusion concerning
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The case is Girl Scouts-Western Oklahoma Inc. v.

Barringer-Thomson, Okla., No. 108676 and the case
can be found here.
Click here to send your feedback
joliprint
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