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By: For Purpose Law Group

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FPLG 124 May L. Harris Esq. M.A.
Matthew Learned
Linda Rosenthal
Linh Tang

Latest from For Purpose Law Group Blog

Behind its facade as one of San Diego’s most prominent and powerful social-services agencies, Volunteers of America Southwest (VOASW) was poised for a spectacular collapse.  Throughout the month of May 2021, the Voice of San Diego’s Will Huntsberry both documented and accelerated this crumbling from self-inflicted wounds. See Volunteers of America Southwest Accused of Double-Billing, Fraud and Conflicts (May 4, 2021); VA Pulls Funding From Volunteers of America Southwest in Wake of Fraud Allegations …
“…[A] substantial infusion of resources….”  With that remarkable model of understatement, the U.S. Treasury announced the launch of a $350-billion COVID-19 fund “to help turn the tide on the pandemic, address its economic fallout, and lay the foundation for a strong and equitable recovery.” The money was authorized in March 2021 through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) for state, local, tribal nation, and territorial governments. Even the smallest states – for example, Wyoming and…
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“What have the Romans ever done for us?” * — “Reg” aka John Cleese,  Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)   One of the hottest topics in philanthropy today is something you’ve likely never heard of – or imagined possible. “Shared leadership” takes the historical model of organizations and leadership and turns it on its head. Gone is the rigid, top-down, vertical command-and-control hierarchy with a sole “heroic” leader at the helm. So…
“It’s us, your new museum.” In the midst of the pandemic, the 100-year-old San Diego Museum of Man – nestled among a dozen or so major cultural institutions in beautiful Balboa Park – formally announced not just a change of name but also the “promise of a new way of thinking about museums.”  And, according to BoardSource’s CEO, Anne Wallestad, “The Museum of Us in San Diego is a prime “example of purpose-driven board leadership…
About twenty years ago, the BBC took a gamble on a new TV reality show. Each episode opened with the ambush of an ordinary woman going about her daily life while committing horrendous fashion crimes.  “What Not to Wear” became wildly popular, in part because the perpetrators were so clueless when confronted with the evidence against them. Modeling wardrobe items in front of the dreaded three-way mirror, they were blissfully unaware of how…
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For about a year and a half, we’ve been following – and reporting on – “three big juicy” cases making legal headlines. See Recent Court Cases: Philanthropy Related (December 19, 2019) and The Latest on Three Intriguing Nonprofit Lawsuits (April 6, 2021). It was slow-going between the first and second posts; during the pandemic, most courts around the nation closed entirely for a while. But the pace is certainly picking up now.  There are already…
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In early June, “[t]wo key U.S. senators introduced legislation … designed to spur faster payouts from donor-advised funds and foundations, giving new momentum to an effort that has deeply divided philanthropy.” And it’s not just any senators: One is Chuck Grassley (R-IA), the former Chair of the Finance Committee who continues as a member of that influential panel; the other is Sen. Angus King (I-ME), who caucuses with the Democrats. They “have teamed …
It’s 2021, and we’re still talking about The Statute of Charitable Uses of 1601. This landmark legislation – the “birth of the modern law of philanthropy” – is not a mere historic relic, dusted off from time to time to remind us that our American legal roots hark back to the common law of Tudor England.  Deeply relevant to this day “… some five centuries later and an ocean away….” it is…
“The time is the 1590s” in “England of the first Elizabeth….”  It’s a period of social stress: plague, poverty, inflation, malnutrition, property crimes, riots and – of course – religious upheaval.  According to Professor Emeritus James J. Fishman of the Pace University School of Law, that’s a perfect setting for the birth of the law of modern philanthropy.        A Bit of History … In Encouraging Charity in a …
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  On June 10th, 2021, the Nonprofit Organizations Committee of the American Bar Association awarded Mary T. Dowling, Esq. the Outstanding Young Lawyer Award. The award recognizes distinguished service by an attorney in the nonprofit sector who is under the age of 35, or who has been in practice for less than 10 years. “Mary serves her nonprofit clients with the expertise of a lifelong practitioner,” says May Harris, CEO at For Purpose Law Group,…