Selected 2019 Developments in Nonprofit Organizations Law and NPO Committee Highlights

Steven Chiodini

Steven Chiodini is an attorney at Adler & Colvin in San Francisco, where his practice focuses on the corporate and tax law of exempt organizations, including fiscal sponsorship. He also specializes in the area of social enterprise. Before joining Adler & Colvin, Mr. Chiodini practiced general corporate law at Proskauer Rose in New York.

In 2019, the California Attorney General made significant updates to the registration and reporting obligations surrounding charities and charitable fundraising in California. Tania Ibanez, Senior Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Charitable Trust Section, presented a comprehensive overview of the proposed changes at the Nonprofit Organizations Committee’s January 2019 meeting. The newly updated forms for charity, raffles, and professional fundraiser registrants are available on the Attorney General’s website at https://oag.ca.gov/charities/forms and took effect on February 1, 2020.

Effective as of January 1, 2019, the Nonprofit Corporation Law was amended to further clarify how directors on the board of nonprofit corporations may serve ex officio under the bylaws or articles (that is, by virtue of occupying a specified position within or outside the corporation). The amendment specifically addressed, among other things, how the terms of directors holding ex officio seats are affected by the director’s resignation or removal from the board.¹