Nonprofit & Tax-Exempt Organizations

McGuireWoods’ nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations practice team represents a broad range of nonprofits, tax-exempt, and charitable organizations, including private foundations, family foundations, corporate foundations, community foundations, universities, schools and other educational institutions, hospital and health care organizations, medical research organizations, museums, trade associations, churches and religious institutions, and publicly supported organizations. We provide comprehensive advice on all issues these entities may face, including organizational, compliance, planning, governance, reporting and tax issues. We also are a full-service firm, and, for many of our nonprofit clients, we provide a variety of other services, and, if necessary, litigation support. As a full-service law firm, McGuireWoods has the ability to meet clients’ legal service needs with a team of lawyers experienced in the operations and needs of nonprofit and tax-exempt entities.

Our team has extensive experience providing clients with legal services related to:

• Federal and state tax laws generally applicable to exempt organizations, including publicly supported organizations
• Tax issues associated with lobbying and advocacy, with a particular emphasis on the special rules that apply to private foundations
• Grant agreements
• Corporate and governance matters
• Charitable solicitation rules
• Investments including structure, tax treatment, and securities laws compliance
• Charitable giving and planned giving techniques
• Treatment of impact and mission-related investments
• Review and drafting of vendor and other contracts
• Unrelated business taxable income matters related to general activities as well as investment activities
• Joint ventures with nonprofits and for-profits
• Labor and employment matters, including employment contracts, immigration, executive compensation, retirement and other benefits, and worker classification advice
• Intellectual property, software, technology, and data privacy
• Real estate matters, including the leasing and acquisition of real estate
• Trust and estate matters

The team consists of a core group of experienced lawyers whose practices focus on the special legal needs of nonprofit, tax-exempt and charitable organizations. In addition to their work on behalf of clients, our lawyers are committed to developing and communicating best practices within the nonprofit sector. Our group includes a member of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Advisory Board for Tax Exempt Organizations and Government Entities, a Tax Notes publisher and member of the board of the Exempt Organizations Tax Review, a member of the advisory board and North American editor for the International Journal of Not-for-Profit Law (IJNL), and a former tax law professor at both the University of Richmond School of Law and the American University Washington College of Law.

Drawing on the resources of our full-service firm, we also counsel clients on issues involving fundraising and development, grantmaking, labor and employment, executive compensation, employee benefits, intellectual property, software and technology, and lobbying and political campaign activities. Our corporate and finance attorneys represent clients in related party structures and joint ventures, bond financing, and other major transactions.

The nonprofit sector is a growing segment of the U.S. economy. With increasing complexity of the tax and regulatory environment at the national, state, and local levels, nonprofits are likely to continue finding themselves in the government’s crosshairs. Our lawyers have closely followed the legislative scrutiny exempt organizations have faced in recent years, including the implications of the recent tax law changes impacting nonprofits.