Don Harris

September 30, 2018

Board Meeting Minutes: A Critical Component of Corporate Compliance

It’s that time again: the meeting of the Board of Directors. Working professionals, experts in their respective fields, pillars of the community, sharp, focused, intelligent people with innovative ideas and strong wills, getting together with the common goal of directing their organization toward attaining lofty ideals and objectives…and somebody must step back from it all and write everything down. If your eyes started to glaze over just from thinking about having to take the meeting minutes, then you don’t need me to tell you that keeping the minutes is probably the most tedious, onerous, and thankless task of any board […]

April 9, 2018

Quarterly Compliance Report: May 15th is an Important Compliance Filing Deadline for Many California Charities

For most taxpayers, April 15th looms large as a tax filing deadline. However, for most California nonprofit public benefit corporations who have been recognized as tax-exempt under California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 23701d and Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)3 (“California Charities”) May 15th is also a critical tax and regulatory compliance deadline. For California Charities whose accounting years ended on December 31, 2017, May 15, 2018 is the filing deadline for the following requirements from the California Franchise Tax Board, Internal Revenue Service and California Attorney General’s Office: Franchise Tax Board (FTB): California Return of Tax-Exempt Organization to Franchise Tax Board […]

February 18, 2017

Musings from an Old Soul: No One Owns a Nonprofit Corporation

Musings from an Old Soul: No One Owns a Nonprofit Corporation This is the first of a series of “Musings from an Old Soul” blog posts about basic nonprofit formation and operational issues. I was innocently adding Splenda to my Ethiopian coffee when he uninvitedly took a seat and said, “I want to start my own nonprofit. Can you help with that?” [I’m thinking: “Oh boy, here we go.”] I say: “So tell me more.” He says, “I want to start my own nonprofit to help senior citizens reduce energy costs through energy efficient home improvements and replacement appliances. I ask, “Do you have any prior […]

February 10, 2017

Black History and the Origins of Transaction-Based Down Payment Assistance

Black History and the Origins of Transaction-Based Down Payment Assistance Across the nation, people seeking down payment assistance to purchase homes now have numerous options. In fact, there are currently hundreds down payment assistance programs available nationwide. Most of these programs are “Transaction-Based,” meaning that the funds used to provide down payment assistance to the home buyer are somehow derived from the real estate transaction itself. This was not always the case. Prior to the creation of what is now referred to as “Seller-Assisted” down payment assistance, government grants or funds from family members were the almost exclusive source of down […]