Nonprofit Legal Alerts

Nonprofits may be subject to the laws and regulations of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) related to safety in the workplace. This article provides an overview of OSHA, the federal agency that regulates workplace safety, injury and illness recordkeeping and reporting requirements, OSHA inspections and penalties, OSHA requirements that are generally applicable to nonprofits, tips on establishing an effective safety program, and requirements for temporary employees.

Most nonprofit and governmental programs targeted at homeowners require that owner-occupiers have clear title to their home, which is especially difficult for those who live in homes inherited from family members. This webcast will provide an overview of the following:

– What clear title and heirs property means;
– Potential resolution strategies for heirs property owners;
– Resources for owners dealing with heirs property and other title issues; and
– The importance of requiring estate planning as part of nonprofit housing programs.

This webcast is recommended for housing nonprofits and nonprofits with a large homeowner client base.

Presenters:
Georgia Heirs Property Law Center’s Executive Director Skipper G. StipeMaas, and Legal Programs Director Joann E. Johnston

Please click on this link to view the webcast.

The Building Generational Wealth webcast series is offered by the Generational Poverty Law Project, a partnership between Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta, Atlanta Legal Aid Society, and Georgia Heirs Property Law Center and funded by The Junior League of Atlanta.

The IRS is launching a sweeping effort to advise taxpayers about the importance of doing a “paycheck checkup” as soon as possible to ensure that they are withholding properly from their paychecks. It is highly recommended that employers, including nonprofit corporations, share this information with their employees as soon as possible. Please see this link for an article providing additional information you should share with your employees so they can determine if they are withholding correctly from their paychecks.

The Georgia Department of Early Care and Learning (DECAL) requires that “all programs providing group care for children” obtain either a license or an exemption from licensing. You cannot simply assume that your program is exempt.

If you operate a child care program in Georgia, you must either obtain a license or an official determination that the program is exempt from licensing rules. Ignoring these requirements can lead to fines or even prosecution for operating an unlicensed facility. This article provides information about Georgia licensing requirements, and how to obtain an exemption if your program is eligible to receive one.

Prior to 2014, many nonprofits in Georgia, particularly those that work with vulnerable populations including children, the elderly, and victims of violence, did not permit weapons on their premises. In 2014, the Safe Carry Protection Act was adopted in Georgia, and significantly limited the ability to restrict gun carrying by licensed gun owners. This law affected nonprofits that had such restrictions, and particularly those that were located in government buildings or leased property from a municipality, county or the State of Georgia. This article, which describes the rules regarding restrictions on gun carrying as set forth in the Safe Carry Protection Act, has been updated to address a 2018 decision in favor of the Atlanta Botanical Garden, which may allow gun restrictions to be put in place by nonprofits leasing government property if they meet certain criteria.

Click here to read the article.

Nonprofits, like all organizations, collect and create information that is valuable to the organization and important to maintain in confidence. Examples include client information (including personal and medical information), donor information, personal information (about board members, volunteers, or employees), as well as other business and financial information that needs to be protected. This article outlines five steps organizations should consider in protecting their confidential information.

Just like any workplace, a nonprofit organization has workers who aid the nonprofit in the pursuit of its goals. These workers are the nonprofit’s most valuable asset, and their performance will often determine the organization’s overall success.

The attached articles address recent legal developments and answer three important questions for the nonprofit employer:

– Is a nonprofit’s worker an employee or an independent contractor?
– Are the nonprofit’s employees classified correctly as exempt or nonexempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act?
– Can the organization have unpaid interns?

Click here to read the articles: Guidance for Nonprofits Seeking to Use Unpaid Interns and Proper Worker Classification in the Workplace: Avoiding Misclassification Issues.

Just like any workplace, a nonprofit organization has workers who aid the nonprofit in the pursuit of its goals. These workers are the nonprofit’s most valuable asset, and their performance will often determine the organization’s overall success. However, is a nonprofit’s worker an employee or an independent contractor? Is there a difference? Does it matter?

A nonprofit will often treat paid workers as contractors – it is easier and there are less administrative and tax burdens. However, most paid workers are actually employees, and must be paid as such in order to avoid significant legal liability for the organization. This includes payment of overtime and minimum wage.

This article discusses how to determine whether to pay a worker as an employee or an independent contractor, and what the differences are under Georgia and federal law. First, we will review how employee and independent contractor classifications are interpreted by the United States Department of Labor (USDOL), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Georgia Department of Labor (GDOL). Then, we will examine the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) to help determine whether an employee is exempt from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements. Included within this article are links which lead to USDOL guidelines.

Guidance for Nonprofits Seeking to Use Unpaid Interns

Unpaid interns are often an asset to nonprofits, bringing with them a desire to learn and a passion for the cause of the organization. Although unpaid internships can benefit all involved and are generally permissible in the nonprofit arena, nonprofits should approach these relationships with some degree of caution, taking care to ensure that the primary benefits of the internship accrue to the intern, rather than to the organization. Care must be taken to ensure the required criteria for unpaid internships are met. If the criteria are not satisfied, interns could be employees of the organization who are covered by the minimum wage and overtime requirements of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). In January of 2018, the United States Department of Labor (US DOL) updated its test for determining when an internship can be unpaid. This article provides guidance about how to determine if your interns can be unpaid under the new test adopted by the US DOL.

There were many proposals in the House and Senate tax reform bills that could have affected small §501(c)(3) nonprofit clients, and now that the dust has cleared and the bill has become law, here are the main changes that could affect Pro Bono Partnership of Atlanta clients.