The Legal Landscape of the Nonprofit Ecosystem

The nonprofit ecosystem is a fairly diverse field in terms of the players, including founders, funders, philanthropists, board members, CEO’s and Executive Directors, professional solicitors to corporate sponsors and partners, event producers and digital fundraising campaign platforms. It is a relatively complex set of rules that requires an industry insider to provide the best legal advice in understanding all the nuances on how this sector functions in connection with the various sets of rules that are different and nuanced and apply to each player in the context of a structure and/ or transaction.

Seton & Associates is an insider. It represents (and has represented) all of the types of players, not just once, but many times over and over. We merged nonprofit organizations, we have created joint ventures for our clients, set up subsidiaries, helped develop arms-length legal transactions for related entities to name a few of the more interesting engagements (example of engagement). Transactions that can be simple, all the way to the super complex. And, we have represented all of the players above.

That being said, the best advice is to know what you don’t know. We provide you the knowledge (without you having to spend twenty five (25) years of learning to get to the same point). We are on the legal forefront of all the current trends in the “doing good” world and share this with our clients continually.

Bring on a team that will work with you (and not for you). We help you understand tax and legal concepts in super easy to understand language. We create flow charts and other educational memorandum to help you grasp the data in ways that are clear and decipherable. Most importantly, we talk to you in your language. We want you to feel good and to feel like you have command of the legal landscape. After all, you have more important things to do than just know the law, you are changing the world, saving lives and helping the distressed.

We advise nonprofit leaders, nonprofit founders, social entrepreneurs, nonprofit boards, philanthropists and many others on establishing and maintaining their nonprofit legal structures and staying in compliance with the multitude of rules and regulations impacting the nonprofit ecosystem. Our clients range from start-ups to fully grown, multi- million dollar operations. Size is not important but impact is. We don’t simply represent our clients, we educate them. There are five (5) main types of nonprofit legal structures. Each one is different and unique and may (or may not) be advantageous depending upon the set of facts. While there are nuances between each of the five (5), there are commonalities. We explain everything.