Nonprofit legal screenings
We provide pro bono, confidential screenings to assess the legal health of a nonprofit organization. During the screening, we provide legal advice on governance, risk, and compliance matters. We also provide an individualized scorecard that reflects the legal health of the nonprofit. Further, we offer a leadership level training that addresses any legal gaps or exposure.
Screenings include:
Corporate Law and Governance
Understand the roles, responsibilities, and proper activities of a nonprofit board
Evaluate potential liabilities of board of directors
Operate within the law and its own bylaws
Review of charitable registration, state, and federal reports
Employment and Volunteer Issues
Review laws that apply (or don’t apply) to volunteers
Review job descriptions for employees
Evaluate distinctions between employees and independent contractors
Financial Oversight & Internal Controls
Comply with fundraising laws and regulations
Gifts, conflict of interest, and other policies
Appropriate reporting to the IRS and donors
Understand permissions and prohibitions on political activities
When needed, we connect clients with attorney referrals by jurisdiction and practice areas. For former clients, we offer access to a range of legal resources. We also provide ongoing legal workshops, ranging in topic from advocacy to governance.
Request a consultation for a nonprofit legal screening
Please note, a consultation does NOT create an attorney-client relationship.
Continuing legal education
To build capacity amongst lawyers, we provide ongoing continuing legal education (CLEs) about nonprofit laws, governance, diversity, equity, and Muslim Americans. We also work with lawyers to provide support for legal screenings across jurisdictions. For clients needing legal representation beyond our program, we connect them with attorneys by practice area and jurisdiction.
Attorneys wishing to join our referral list should complete this form
Research
In addition to building legal capacity, we also engage in rigorous research. Our research meets IRB guidelines and includes surveys, focus groups, and interviews. The research design is participatory and community informed.
Surveys go through multiple rounds of review and input from community leaders and researchers. Our research provides an opportunity to better understand Muslim American nonprofits. It also allows us to participate in the exchange of ideas to better our society.
We invite Muslim American nonprofits to participate in this research by emailing us at [email protected].