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Nonprofit & Social Enterprise

Lane Powell’s Nonprofit Practice – Representation of Tax-Exempt Organizations and Their Founders

Our multidisciplinary team handles a wide range of legal needs for nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations (referred to collectively as “charitable organizations”) and their founders, including formation, governance, corporate, commercial, litigation, tax, intellectual property, employment, environmental, data privacy and security, finance, and real estate issues.

Our clients include both individuals and entities wishing to form charitable organizations, as well as the charitable organizations themselves. The charitable organizations include private foundations, private operating foundations, and public charities exempt from income tax under IRC 501(c)(3) as well as trade associations and social welfare groups that support a broad array of charitable, educational,  scientific, religious, and other charitable purposes. 

We assist our clients in obtaining and maintaining tax-exempt status, and offer advice on optimizing formation, ongoing operations, and compliance. Operational and compliance  issues may include governance structure, domestic and international grantmaking, engaging in commercial activity, organizing for-profit operations, spinning out IP to be developed and commercialized, joint ventures with for-profit businesses, minimizing unrelated business taxable income, tax-exempt financing, and navigating the self-dealing and other complex rules applicable to private foundations. We also represent charitable organizations in audits and inquiries by the Internal Revenue Service, state and local taxing authorities, and state Attorneys General, and provide advice regarding charitable registration and reporting requirements.

Donor/Founder Representation

We operate at the intersection of private wealth and philanthropy, counseling individuals, multi-generational families, family offices, and family owned businesses regarding the structure, formation, funding, and operation of appropriate entities in order to assist them in translating their aspirations and vision into positive impact.

We advise high net worth individuals on philanthropic giving during life and at death. Charitable giving at death adds an extra layer of complexity to estate plans. We assist clients who have chosen to devote a portion of their wealth to charitable causes by creating the necessary estate plans that ensure the assets they would like to pass to charity can do so in a tax and mission effective manner. 

Charitable Organization Representation

We support charitable organizations in developing policies and controls to assure adherence to applicable laws, regulations, and policies. We are experts in helping clients navigate the complex rules imposed on private foundations and the restrictions under which they must operate to avoid excise tax, penalties, and public disclosure of violations which might damage a charitable organization’s or individual’s reputation.  

Our attorneys have extensive experience advising charitable organizations on all aspects of development and planned giving, including preparation of gift acceptance, endowment and conflict of interest policies and structuring significant gifts (including charitable remainder trusts, charitable lead trusts and gifts of real property). Simply put, we take on highly technical, highly complex legal compliance issues, thereby allowing  the founders and their families, board members, and staff to focus their complete attention on executing the organization’s vision and fulfilling its mission.

Social Enterprise and Impact Investments

We advise clients on the rules regulating investments by charitable organizations. Our team has worked on a wide variety of cutting-edge social enterprise, social impact, and venture philanthropy structures, new hybrid LLC/foundation models, program-related investments (PRIs), mission-related investments (MRIs), technology transfer from nonprofit institutions to startup ventures, and government relations.

Dispute Resolution and Advocacy

Our litigation team brings broad experience to the representation of charitable organizations who face a variety of legal challenges ranging from employment issues to intellectual property disputes to corporate governance challenges. We also represent charitable organizations in advocacy litigation, helping them to bring actions as plaintiffs to advance their missions, whether it be protecting the environment, assisting immigrants, or ensuring that state and local governments operate within the boundaries of the law.

Contacts

  • Jenifer A. Jewkes
    D.206.223.7090
    jewkesj@lanepowell.com
  • Jamie R. Lanier
    D.206.223.7716
    lanierj@lanepowell.com

Related Practices & Industries

  • Corporate, Securities, and M&A
  • Government Law
  • Intellectual Property Transactions
  • Private Client Services
  • Startups & Emerging Companies
  • Tax

Get to Know Us

Experience

  • HealthLink Formation of Legacy Health System With Good Samaritan Corporation
    Advised HealthLink and its affiliates in a combination transaction with Good Samaritan Corporation, resulting in the formation of Legacy Health System.
  • New Avenues for Youth Joint Venture to Build and Operate the Dorothy Lemelson House & New Meadows Program
    Advised New Avenues for Youth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the prevention and intervention of youth homelessness, on a joint venture to build and operate the Dorothy Lemelson House & New Meadows Program.

Our Insights

  • August 16, 2022Publication
    Washington Nonprofit Handbook: How to Form and Maintain a Nonprofit Corporation in Washington State
    Communities Rise
  • January 1, 2020News
    Lane Powell Elects New Shareholders in Portland and Seattle
    Firm Announcement
  • August 21, 2019News
    Manlove Joins Business Department
    Firm Announcement
  • May 28, 2019Event / CLE
    SOLD OUT Nonprofit & Social Enterprise Seminar: New Ways of Doing Good
    Lane Powell Seminar | Seattle
  • May 15, 2019News
    Wolfstone Elected to Portland Japanese Garden’s Board of Trustees
    Awards & Honors
  • February 14-15, 2019Event / CLE
    Practical & Inspired Planned Giving Seminar
    Lane Powell and del Prado Philanthropy | Seattle
  • September 27, 2018Event / CLE
    How NOT to Run a Foundation: Lessons From the Trump Foundation Lawsuit
    Northwest Planned Giving Roundtable Annual Conference | Portland, Oregon
  • August 31, 2018News
    Lanier Authors Chapter in Wayfind Legal Nonprofit Handbook
    In the News
  • August 15, 2018News
    The Best Lawyers in America© 2019 Recognizes 62 Lane Powell Attorneys
    Awards & Honors
  • February 8-9 2018Event / CLE
    Practical & Inspired Planned Giving Seminar
    Lane Powell and del Prado Philanthropy | Seattle
  • February 6, 2018News
    Silvey Elected to Multnomah Athletic Club Board of Trustees
    Awards & Honors
  • December 21, 2016Publication
    Merging Wisely: Best Practices for Structuring Successful Nonprofit Mergers
    NWLawyer
  • November 2, 2016Publication
    Private Foundations: Taking Them Beyond Checkbook Philanthropy
    Seattle Business Magazine
  • December 30, 2014News
    Lane Powell Announces New Shareholder MacLeod
  • October 22, 2014News
    French and Poplawski Author Chapters in Oregon Statutory Time Limitations Legal Guide
  • October 2, 2014Event / CLE
    Oregon Benefit Companies: Merging Profit and Public Benefit CLE
    Multnomah State Bar | Portland, Oregon
  • August 2014Publication
    Residential Trust Deeds and Mortgages; Foreclosure
    Oregon State Bar’s Oregon Statutory Time Limitations Guide

Before proceeding, please note:  If you are not a current client of Lane Powell PC, please do not include any information in this email that you or someone else considers to be confidential or secret in nature.  Prior to the establishment of a lawyer-client relationship, unsolicited emails from non-clients containing confidential or secret information cannot be protected from disclosure.

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