New and Amended Forms for Charities and Commercial Fundraisers

Please note that, effective February 1, 2020, the Attorney General’s Registry of Charitable Trusts will require charities and commercial fundraisers to use new and amended forms. The official forms will be made available on the Attorney General’s website on January 31, 2020.

Before January 31st samples of the new and amended forms (see “Adopted Forms” not for official use), including redline changes, may be found here.

Significant changes to the forms include:

• Charities with annual revenue under $50,000 must file the CT-TR-1 treasurer’s report annually.
• The RRF-1 registration renewal form now requires that charities report noncash donations;
• The CT-1 initial registration form now requires additional information such as:
  • Listing of all dbas and the names that the organization uses or has used
  • Whether the organization’s tax-exempt status has ever been denied, revoked or modified by the IRS or the Franchise Tax Board
  • Whether the organization or any of its officers, directors or trustees been the subject of a court or administrative proceeding in any state regarding any solicitation or registration
  • Whether any of the organization’s officers, directors or trustees have been convicted of any crime involving the misuse or misappropriation of funds or any crime involving deception in the operation of a charity
• Changes were also made to the commercial fundraiser forms and the raffle forms.

In addition to your clients, consider informing the accountants for your clients about these changes.

For your reference, the following is the schedule of the upcoming meetings of the Committee:

• December 19, 2019. Conference Call – Cecilie Read of Jackson Lewis: Classifying Workers in California: Independent Contractors, Volunteers & Employees
• January 16, 2020. Conference Call – Carol A. Bradford, Elizabeth Bluestein and Louis E. Michelson, Ethical Issues and Pitfalls for Non-Profit Boards and Their Advisors
• February 20, 2020. Tania Ibanez, Senior Assistant Attorney General, California Attorney General’s Office, Charitable Trusts Section.
• March 19, 2020. Corporate Filing Q&A. Ellen Yamshon, Attorney with the Business Programs Division of the California Secretary of State

This e-bulletin was written by Louis E. Michelson, Immediate Past Chair of the Nonprofit Organizations Committee.