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Full-Text Articles in Law
Empowering Employees To Prevent Fraud In Nonprofit Organizations, John M. Bradley
Empowering Employees To Prevent Fraud In Nonprofit Organizations, John M. Bradley
All Faculty Scholarship
This Article examines the significant problem of fraud within nonprofit organizations and demonstrates that current anti-fraud measures do not adequately reflect the important role employees play in perpetuating or stopping fraudulent activity. Psychological and organizational behavior studies have established the importance of (1) participation and (2) peers in shaping the behavior of individuals within the organizational context. This Article builds on that research and establishes that to successfully combat fraud, organizations must integrate employees into the design, implementation, and enforcement of anti-fraud strategy and procedures. Engaged, empowered employees will be less likely to commit fraud and more likely to dissuade …
Strengthening Charity Law: Replacing Media Oversight With Advance Rulings For Nonprofit Fiduciaries, Linda Sugin
Strengthening Charity Law: Replacing Media Oversight With Advance Rulings For Nonprofit Fiduciaries, Linda Sugin
Faculty Scholarship
This Article considers three urgent challenges facing the charitable community and its state regulators: too little fiduciary duty law for nonprofits, the rise of media enforcement of wrongdoing in charities, and an inherent tension in the state’s dual role as enforcer and protector of the nonprofit sector. It analyzes whether the scarcity of law is really a problem by comparing nonprofit organizations with business organizations and concludes that charities lack the selfenforcement mechanisms of businesses and therefore need more government guidance. It evaluates whether the media has made governmental supervision obsolete and expresses skepticism about the press displacing state oversight. …
What Went Wrong: Prudent Management Of Endowment Funds And Imprudent Endowment Investing Policies, James J. Fishman
What Went Wrong: Prudent Management Of Endowment Funds And Imprudent Endowment Investing Policies, James J. Fishman
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
Most colleges and universities of all sizes have an endowment, a fund that provides a stream of income and maintains the corpus of the fund in perpetuity. Organizations with large endowments, such as colleges, universities, and private foundations, all finance a significant part of their operations through the return received from the investment of this capital. This article examines the legal framework for endowment investing, endowment investing policies, their evolution to more sophisticated and riskier strategies, and the consequences evinced during the financial crisis of 2008 and beyond. It traces the approaches to endowment investing and chronicles the rise and, …
What We Talk About When We Talk About Tax Exemption, Philip Hackney
What We Talk About When We Talk About Tax Exemption, Philip Hackney
Articles
Under the Internal Revenue Code, certain nonprofit organizations are granted exemption from federal income tax (“tax-exemption”). Most tax-exemption rationales assume tax-exemption is a subsidy for organizations such as charities that provide some underprovided good or service. These theories assume there should be a tax on the income of nonprofit organizations but provide no justification for this assumption. This article contributes to the literature by examining the corporate income tax rationales as a proxy for why we might tax nonprofit organizations. The primary two theories hold that the corporate tax is imposed to: (1) tax shareholders (“shareholder theory”), and (2) regulate …
The Fatal Design Defects Of L3cs, Daniel S. Kleinberger
The Fatal Design Defects Of L3cs, Daniel S. Kleinberger
Faculty Scholarship
This article argues that the L3C is an unnecessary and unwise contrivance, and it's very existence is inherently misleading. The notion that an L3C should have privileged status under the Internal Revenue Code (known as the Code) for access to tax-exempt foundation resources is inescapably at odds with the key policies that underpin the relevant Code sections, and L3Cs are not on track-let alone on a fast track-to receive special status under the Code. An ordinary limited liability company (LLC) can perform precisely the same functions proclaimed of L3Cs. In addition, because of technical flaws, the L3C legislation adopted to …
The Attack On Nonprofit Status: A Charitable Assessment, James R. Hines Jr., Jill R. Horwitz, Austin Nichols
The Attack On Nonprofit Status: A Charitable Assessment, James R. Hines Jr., Jill R. Horwitz, Austin Nichols
Articles
American nonprofit organizations receive favorable tax treatment, including tax exemptions and tax-deductibility of contributions, in return for their devotion to charitable purposes and restrictions not to distribute profits. Recent efforts to extend some or all of these tax benefits to for-profit companies making social investments, including the creation of the new hybrid nonprofit/for-profit company form known as the Low-Profit Limited Liability Company, threaten to undermine the vitality of the nonprofit sector and the integrity of the tax system. Reform advocates maintain that the ability to compensate executives based on performance and to distribute profits when attractive investment opportunities are scarce …
Introduction Symposium: Nonprofit Law, Economic Challenges, And The Future Of Charities: Introduction, Linda Sugin
Introduction Symposium: Nonprofit Law, Economic Challenges, And The Future Of Charities: Introduction, Linda Sugin
Faculty Scholarship
This Symposium grew out of what I see as the public/private conundrum facing the nonprofit community and the law governing it. Nonprofit organizations are being called upon to better resemble for-profit organizations in a variety of ways. Those calls come from different sources-from donors increasingly interested in results that can be understood in terms parallel to bottom-line assessments to which businesses are accustomed, from cuts in government funding and increased programming that make nonprofits add more businesslike activities to finance their work, and from increasing numbers of for-profit competitors who have been able to mobilize technology and marketing to succeed …
Does Nonprofit Ownership Matter?, Jill R. Horwitz
Does Nonprofit Ownership Matter?, Jill R. Horwitz
Articles
In recent years, policymakers have increasingly questioned whether nonprofit institutions, particularly hospitals, merit tax exemption. They argue that nonprofit hospitals differ little from their for-profit counterparts in the provision of charity care and, therefore, should either lose their tax-exempt status or adhere to new, strict, and specific requirements to provide free services for the poor. In this Article, I present evidence that hospital ownership-whether it is for-profit, nonprofit, or government owned-has a significant effect on the mix of medical services it offers. Despite notoriously weak enforcement mechanisms, nonprofit hospitals act in the public interest by providing services that are unlikely …
The Common Law Power Of The Legislature: Insurer Conversions And Charitable Funds, Jill R. Horwitz, Marion R. Fremont-Smith
The Common Law Power Of The Legislature: Insurer Conversions And Charitable Funds, Jill R. Horwitz, Marion R. Fremont-Smith
Articles
New York's Empire Blue Ccoss and Blue Shield conversion from nonprofic cofor profic form has considerable legal significance. Three aspects of the conversion ma.ke checase unique: the role of the scace legislature in directing the disposicion of the conversion assets, che face chac it made itself che primary beneficiary of chose assets, and the actions of che scace attorney general defending the state rather than che public inceresc in che charitable assets. Drawing on several cenruries of common Law rejecting the Legislacive power to direct the disposition of charitable funds, chis article argues chat the legislature lacked power cocontrol che …
Improving Charitable Accountability, James J. Fishman
Improving Charitable Accountability, James J. Fishman
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
This Article focuses upon a persistent problem of the nonprofit sector--its lack of accountability to the public. Director, officer, and organizational responsibilities will be analyzed. Past and current approaches to secure accountability of charitable assets will be discussed, and a proposal for improving charitable accountability will be suggested through the creation of public-private charity commissions at the state level under the aegis of the attorney general.
Why We Need The Independent Sector: The Behavior, Law, And Ethics Of Not-For-Profit Hospitals, Jill R. Horwitz
Why We Need The Independent Sector: The Behavior, Law, And Ethics Of Not-For-Profit Hospitals, Jill R. Horwitz
Articles
Among the major forms of corporate ownership, the not-for-profit ownership form is distinct in its behavior, legal constraints, and moral obligations. A new empirical analysis of the American hospital industry, using eleven years of data for all urban general hospitals in the country, shows that corporate form accounts for large differences in the provision of specific medical services. Not-for-profit hospitals systematically provide both private and public goods that are in the public interest, and that other forms fail to provide. Two hypotheses are proposed to account for the findings, one legal and one moral. While no causal claims are made, …
Corporate Philanthropy And The Business Benefit: The Need For Clarity, Shelby D. Green
Corporate Philanthropy And The Business Benefit: The Need For Clarity, Shelby D. Green
Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications
The need for clarity or harmony is the subject of this essay. Part II summarizes a philosophical debate between two scholars on the mission of the corporation. Part III briefly traces the historical development of the relevant principles and Part IV examines the actual philanthropic practices of several large publicly held corporations. Finally, Part V considers the continuing significance of the common law rule in light of these practices and urges support for the ALI proposal.