Your nonprofit’s mission is important. Let’s Go Legal is here to help you achieve it and stay compliant in the process. Get started on a road to compliance by thinking of your nonprofit like a car. Just like a car, you need to register your nonprofit and know how to operate the organization. There are state and federal rules of the road to follow. Your nonprofit needs money and resources (fuel) to power the organization. The people in the car matter too, these are your nonprofit’s valuable workers. Lastly, similar to cars, every organization has a unique look and feel as well as special materials that you may want to protect.
Upcoming Let's Go Legal Events
Let's Go Legal Guide
Start by downloading the Let's Go Legal guide that includes checklists, activities, and reflection questions. As you work through the guide, watch the video for each chapter. Find templates and other documents to help put what you learned into practice in the document vault, and check out the interactive LGL graphic. Keep on learning with other resources and upcoming workshops on nonprofit legal topics.
Download the GuideWhat We Cover in Let’s Go Legal
Introduction
Start by outlining important legal considerations for nonprofits. You will get an overview of the content covered in the following five chapters.
State Law
To become official, a nonprofit must first register with the state. The organization needs to stay compliant with state corporation law and other state law requirements, including filing corporation and charity reports every year.
Federal Law
Nonprofit organizations who want their revenue to be exempt from federal income tax and want to be eligible to receive tax-deductible contributions must follow additional federal rules.
Fundraising
When a nonprofit accepts other people’s money for a charitable purpose, the organization agrees to abide by laws that require such money be spent on the purposes for which it was intended. There are state and federal rules that tell a nonprofit how to communicate about money received, how to account for the money, and what kinds of fundraising an organization can conduct.
Employment Law
People engaged in the work of an organization help move the mission forward. An organization’s valuable workers may include paid employees, volunteers, interns, and independent contractors, and each type of worker has a role and legal compliance considerations.
Intellectual Property
Nonprofits use a name, logo, website, and special materials that communicate who the organization is and share ideas that are intangible. Whether shared on websites, used in print materials, or captured through unique research on the issues the organization addresses, protecting the ideas and products of a nonprofit is vital. Likewise, it is important that nonprofits are careful about how the ideas of others are used in their activities.
Document Vault
We’ve collected valuable resources, tools, and links for you and your organization in our Let’s Go Legal document vault.
2022 Washington Nonprofit Handbook
Articles of Incorporation Template – Members
Articles of Incorporation Template – Without Members
Bylaws Template – With Members
Bylaws Template – Without Members
Chapter: Employment Law – Guide
More Resources
Bolder Advocacy
National Council of Nonprofits
Washington State Office of the Secretary of State Corporations and Charities Division
Communities Rise
Stanford Law School Nonprofit Corporation Forms and Documents
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries
Continue Learning
Starting a Nonprofit
Workers in Nonprofits
Tax Basics for Nonprofits
Liquor, Cannabis, Gambling…and Your Fundraising Event
Upcoming Events
ONLINE: Tools for Running an Effective Nonprofit Series
ONLINE: Tools for Running an Effective Nonprofit Series