All organizations interact with people and therefore carry some amount of risk. Generally, potential risk for nonprofits falls into three basic categories: corporate compliance, employee and HR compliance, and programming/events. It’s important to consider risk in all three categories and take appropriate steps to mitigate that risk in advance.

One of the things we talk to nonprofit clients about a lot is taking a proactive approach to legal matters. A proactive approach means you address any potential legal problems before they happen or as soon as you see them happening instead of waiting until they become bigger issues.

There are a lot of nonprofit organizations in Oklahoma and across the United States. Some are well-established and extremely successful, while others struggle through their first few years and eventually close down completely. As nonprofit lawyers, we know that nonprofit failure isn’t due to lack of heart.

It’s good for companies to give back to the community and be socially responsible. But it comes with some caveats, and every nonprofit organization needs to know the difference between sponsorship and advertising.

So how exactly do you distinguish between sponsorship and advertising, and more importantly, why does it matter?

The nonprofit space includes organizations of all sizes, from large national and international organizations with hundreds of employees to tiny startups with one employee or no paid staff at all. They’re all working hard to solve an issue or serve a specific population, but it takes money to do so.