Nonprofit Administration and Management Commons^™

The Limits Of Charity Fiduciary Law, Evelyn Brody

Evelyn Brody

Trustees of charitable trusts and directors of nonprofit corporations operate under legal regimes designed for their for-profit cousins. In the absence of private beneficiaries or shareholders to look after their own interests, however, charity fiduciaries frequently escape accountability for their self-dealing and neglect or mismanagement. Few charities have members endowed with voting rights, and state attorneys general have limited resources to devote to monitoring the nonprofit sector. Similarly, at the federal level, the Internal Revenue Service is a tax collector, not a policing agency (although its new powers to tax excess benefits will undoubtedly draw it further into charity operations). …