Christine Mathias, Business and Estate Planning Attorney
Bylaws play an integral role in nonprofit organizations. Simply put, the bylaws are the internal manual for how the nonprofit will run. For proper functioning of the organization, it is important that everyone on the board understands and follows these rules. The document is not filed with the state, but rather maintained within the nonprofit.
Creating a nonprofit organization can be an incredibly rewarding experience. But, it may surprise you to learn that not all nonprofits are treated the same when it comes to taxes. This is important because you want to make sure that your organization can maximize the resources available to support its mission.
Now, if you’ve formed one of these organizations in the past or have donated to a charitable cause, you likely have come across the term “501(c)(3) organization”. This simply means that the nonprofit has been granted tax-exempt status from the IRS, and is eligible to receive important benefits not available to other businesses.