Law Commons^™

How Environmental Lawyers Cope With Challenges In Nonprofit Legal Centers, Rachel R. Cohen

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Amidst our environmental crisis, environmental lawyers at nonprofit legal centers (NPLCs) play an important role in advocating for, revising, and enforcing the environmental laws which shape human behavior as it relates to environmental health. With a goal of protecting the environment and public interest through the law, these lawyers deal with few resources and personal environmental concerns in addition to all the common challenges of lawyering such as long hours and general stress. Due to their unique position in protecting the future of our environment’s health, it is essential that environmental lawyers at NPLCs can sustain their motivations to do …

The Pro Bono Collaborative Project Spotlight: Rwu Law Alums Providing Pro Bono Through The Pbc (September 20, 2018), Roger Williams University School Of Law

Pro Bono Collaborative Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Disruptive Philanthropy: Chan-Zuckerberg, The Limited Liability Company, And The Millionaire Next Door, Dana Brakman Reiser

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Legislation Meets Tradition: Interpretations And Implications Of The Volunteer Protection Act For Nonprofit Organizations As Viewed Through The Lens Of Hermeneutics, Patricia Groble, Nicholas C. Zingale, Joseph Mead

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Volunteers enable nonprofit organizations to reach more clients and more effectively fulfill their missions. However, the good done by these volunteers may be offset by their careless behavior. Rising fears that resulting lawsuits and monetary damages would deter potential volunteers from volunteering caused Congress to enact the Volunteer Protection Act. This research studies court decisions to ascertain whether the law fulfills its purpose and considers the implications of these interpretations for nonprofit managers. It also tests the usefulness of the hermeneutical approach to legal interpretation and to determine how the Act has changed as a result of these court decisions.

Law School News: 'Force Multipliers': Ri Tenant Stablization Project Aims To Help Eviction And Homelessness Issues For Low-Income Tenants 04-06-2018, Michael M. Bowden

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Law’S Facilitating Role In The Field Of Social Enterprise., Evelyn Brody

All Faculty Scholarship

A Review of Dana Brakman Reiser and Steven A. Dean. Social Enterprise Law: Trust, Public Benefit, and Capital Markets. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017, 216 pp., $44.95 (hardback) ISBN 978-0-19-024978-6To appreciate the contribution of Professors Dana Brakman Reiser and Steven A. Dean in their pathbreaking volume on social enterprise law, we must begin by recognizing what we are not discussing. As the authors declare: “social enterprises are not charities” (p. 165). By definition, social enterprises are businesses, and thus not subject to the nondistribution constraint so familiar to nonprofit scholars and practitioners. An impact investor seeks profit, perhaps limited …

A (Partial) Defense Of Section 501(C)(4)'S “Catchall” Nature, Lloyd Histoshi Mayer

Journal Articles

Internal Revenue Code section 501(c)(4) provides exemption from federal income tax for “social welfare” organizations. The vagueness of this term and the failure of the Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service to interpret it in a manner that would significantly limit that vagueness has led some commentators to criticize this section’s “catchall” nature. While much scholarly attention has been paid to this criticism with respect to the most visible section 501(c)(4) organizations, particularly those involved in political campaign activity and lobbying, almost no attention has been paid to the many less common types of section 501(c)(4) organizations that illustrate that …

Newsroom: From Farm To School 1-2-2018, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Life of the Law School (1993- )

No abstract provided.

Written Testimony Of Philip Hackney For The Hearing On Oversight Of Nonprofit Organizations: A Case Study On The Clinton Foundation (House Of Representatives Committee On Oversight, December 13, 2018), Philip Hackney

Testimony

This is written testimony offered to the House Committee on Oversight's Subcommittee on Government Operations on December 13, 2018: Our nation has tasked the IRS with the large and complex responsibility for regulating the nonprofit sector, but has failed to provide the IRS with resources commensurate with that task. This is important work. Nonprofits constitute a large and growing part of our economy, and they are granted a highly preferential tax status. An organization that abuses that preferential status will obtain a significant and unfair advantage over the organizations and individuals who play by the rules. If we are to …

Beyond Corporate Form: A Response To Dan Depasquale, Surbhi Sarang, And Natalie Bump Vena’S Forging Food Justice Through Cooperatives In New York City, Jonathan Brown

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In their article, Forging Food Justice Through Cooperatives in New York City, Dan DePasquale, Surbhi Sarang, and Natalie Bump Vena (the “Authors”) argue that consumer-owned and worker-owned cooperatives hold promise as a means for advancing policy objectives associated with “food justice,” namely building community wealth and power and providing more affordable access to healthy food in low-income and minority communities. Looking to examples of legislation and policies in other jurisdictions, they advocate for a wide range of policies to promote the viability of cooperatives in New York City, including reforms to cooperative corporation laws and strategies for better allocating funding …

Charitable Subsidies And Nonprofit Governance: Comparing The Charitable Deduction With The Exemption For Endowment Income, David M. Schizer

Faculty Scholarship

Charitable subsidies are supposed to encourage positive externalities from charity. In principle, the government can pursue this goal by evaluating specific charitable initiatives and deciding how much each should receive. Although the government sometimes makes this sort of fine-grained judgment, this Article focuses on two income tax rules that leave the government essentially no discretion about which charities to fund: the deduction for donations to charity ("the deduction") and the exemption of a charity's investment income ("the exemption"). With each subsidy, federal dollars flow automatically as long as charities satisfy very general criteria.

As a result, these subsidies are especially …

Globalization Without A Safety Net: The Challenge Of Protecting Cross-Border Funding Of Ngos, Lloyd H. Mayer

Journal Articles

More than 50 countries around the world have sharply increased legal restrictions on both domestic non-governmental organizations (“NGOs”) that receive funding from outside their home country and the foreign NGOs that provide such funding and other support. These restrictions include requiring advance government approval before a domestic NGO can accept cross-border funding, requiring such funding to be routed through government agencies, and prohibiting such funding for NGOs engaged in certain activities. Publicly justified by national security, accountability, and other concerns, these measures often go well beyond what is reasonably supported by such legitimate interests. These restrictions therefore violate international law, …

Keeping Promises And Meeting Needs: Public Charities At A Crossroads, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

When a charitable organization cannot fulfill the terms of a charitable gift agreement, it must decide whether to keep a promise or meet a need. That is to say, a charitable organization can either preserve original donor intent, adhering to conditions placed on a gift, or it can attempt to modify the terms of the gift in order to budget and spend the funds more effectively. If an institution chooses to keep a promise, it might be stuck with a fund it cannot use because of conditions placed on the money at the time of the gift. In order to …

Board Rooms And Jail Cells- Assessing Ngo Approaches To Private Environmental Governance, Joshua Galperin

Articles

Staff of the Nature Conservancy often find themselves in corporate board rooms. Staff of Greenpeace often find themselves in jail cells. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) prides itself on its non-confrontational, collaborative deal making, partnering closely with corporations like chemical giant Dow and agricultural lightning rod Monsanto. Both Dow and Monsanto, in fact, are members of TNC’s Business Council along with the likes of BP, Shell, and Cargill. Greenpeace, on the other hand, prides itself on direct action, civil disobedience, and non-violent confrontation. Greenpeace has launched combative operations against Dow, Monsanto, and other TNC collaborators. While business partners praise TNC’s cooperative …

The Vatican View On Sport At The Service Of Humanity, Ed Edmonds

Journal Articles

Participation in sport, particularly the opportunity for children to enjoy and learn through play, is a human right and strongly supported by the goals of Catholic social teaching and the efforts of the Olympic Movement and the United Nations. On October 5-6, 2016, the Vatican held the Sport at the Service of Humanity Conference, the first global conference on sport and faith, an initiative promoted by Pope Francis and supported by the International Olympic Committee and the United Nations. This essay focuses on the conference, its vision and goals, and a challenge to use sport to advance human development and …