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Wagenmaker & Oberly provides legal counsel to NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS across the nation with offices in Chicago and Charleston.

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Handling a Child Abuse Allegation – Webinar Link

September 16, 2022

Effectively handling abuse allegation warrants careful proactive planning, not just reacting when the unthinkable happens. In churches and other childcare settings this means taking critical steps like worker screening, training, attentiveness to legal compliance, and readiness for addressing each situation with its own unique issues. We are pleased to provide access to Church Law & Tax’s on-demand Handling A Child Abuse Allegation in Your Church webinar, which addresses these important issues in a lively Q & A format. W&O’s Partner Sally Wagenmaker served as one of the panelists, along with attorney Rob Showers, attorney Theresa Sidebotham, and Jeff Dalrymple of the Evangelical Council for Abuse Prevention.

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Conflict Resolution

NONPROFIT LAW NEWSFEED

How Congress Could End Tax Breaks For Gifts to Nonprofits With Political Agendas

09/21/2022

Forbes  The recent decision by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, to contribute 98% of his $3 billion business, tax free, to a tax-exempt organization formed to combat climate change comes about a month after the New York Times also reported that the Chicago businessman Barre Seid gave his entire $1.6 billion business, tax free, to a similar organization that will question climate change and advocate for conservative causes.

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Stanford wants 'educational' tax exemption for faculty homes

09/20/2022

Palo Alto Weekly  Stanford University is seeking to reduce its tax burden on two faculty houses by claiming they are used for educational purposes. 

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Federal Judge Refuses to Reconsider Ruling, Maintains Charitable Solicitation Law is Constitutional

08/23/2022

The Gazette A federal judge is standing by his prior determination that Colorado's regulations on charitable solicitations are constitutional, amid a First Amendment challenge to the law itself and to the manner in which Secretary of State Jena Griswold applied it to an Ohio-based company.

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When Can a Ministry Count as a Church

08/15/2022

Christianity Today  The research team counting all the nondenominational congregations in America did not add any marks to their tally when a conservative Christian think tank in Washington, DC, declared itself an association of churches. The reclassification might be meaningful for the IRS, but for the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), it doesn’t count.

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Which Charitable Contributions Are Tax Deductible?

08/12/2022

Buy Side from WSJ  Giving to charity can be a great way to help a cause that’s important to you. If you’re someone who itemizes deductions on your tax return—and follows the rules carefully—you may also be able to cut your tax bill.

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Win for Ted Cruz as supreme court strikes campaign contribution limit

06/01/2022

The Guardian  The six conservatives who dominate the US supreme court ruled in favour of the hard-right Texas senator Ted Cruz in a case seeking to remove limits on campaign finance spending, in a ruling that one dissenting justice said would open the door to “quid pro quo corruption”.

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Aurora lawmakers champion security funding for churches, nonprofit groups

05/31/2022

Sentinel  A law passed in the final week of Colorado’s legislative session gives religious organizations and other nonprofit organizations more money for security upgrades, something that advocates say is a necessity in an era of increasing hate crimes.

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Gov. Youngkin Signs Bill Protecting Donor Privacy

05/16/2022

The Roanoke Star ​In recent years, “cancel culture” has targeted many individuals, businesses, and organizations with the intention of silencing them into submission.

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Lawsuit Challenges IN Law Restricting Charitable Bail Funds

05/13/2022

Public News Service​ The state of Indiana is facing a lawsuit over a new law placing restrictions on charitable bail funds.

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AG Racine Claws Back $750k in Misspent Nonprofit Funds from Trump Organization & Presidential Inaugural Committee

05/12/2022

General Karl A. Racine today announced that the Trump Organization and Donald Trump’s Presidential Inaugural Committee (PIC) will be required to pay $750,000 to the District to resolve allegations that the PIC, the Trump International Hotel, and the Trump Organization illegally misused nonprofit funds to enrich the Trump family.

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How Congress Could End Tax Breaks For Gifts to Nonprofits With Political Agendas

09/21/2022

Forbes  The recent decision by Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, to contribute 98% of his $3 billion business, tax free, to a tax-exempt organization formed to combat climate change comes about a month after the New York Times also reported that the Chicago businessman Barre Seid gave his entire $1.6 billion business, tax free, to a similar organization that will question climate change and advocate for conservative causes.

READ MORE

Stanford wants 'educational' tax exemption for faculty homes

09/20/2022

Palo Alto Weekly  Stanford University is seeking to reduce its tax burden on two faculty houses by claiming they are used for educational purposes. 

READ MORE