Articles

I just started a nonprofit…what kind of insurance do I need? Part two

By Jess Birken

Looking for part one? Read it here!

So you’ve started a nonprofit, you have everything in place, and you even saw my conversation with Tom Wertish about D&O insurance. All done, right?

Well, not quite. Directors and Officers insurance isn’t the only insurance your nonprofit will need. Tom (my friend over at Novallus Insurance) and I also talked about general liability insurance as a must-have. ALL nonprofits (and for-profits for that matter), no matter the size, location or mission, should have general liability insurance.

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What does “nonprofit” really mean anyway?

By Jess Birken

Time to bust some MAJOR nonprofit myths. Ready?

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Do you really know what lawyers do?

By Jess Birken

A lot of my clients came to me for the reasons you’d expect – something got hosed up, they received a scary lawyer-letter, they were facing a HUGE problem they knew they couldn’t deal with on their own. But to be honest, I wish that wasn’t why they reached out.

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Should your nonprofit have a Workers’ Compensation policy? (Probably.)

By Jess Birken

I know, I know, a lot of nonprofits don’t have workers comp.

Say you don’t have any employees, only 1099 contractors. Or, everything is run by volunteers. Or, the board is the only people involved. Most people would assume that you don’t need worker’s comp is not needed in any of those situations.

BUT in all those cases, you might need to start thinking about Workers’ Comp. Surprised? I was too, until I had a chance to sit down with Tom Wertish from Novallus Insurance.

Read on to learn more!

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Treat your nonprofit idea like your wedding

By Jess Birken

Planning a wedding is often a ton of work (assuming you don’t decide to elope). There are a lot of factors to consider, and usually you don’t even know all the steps. Naturally, we turn to the internet, right?

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THIS can hurt your chances at property tax exemption

By Jess Birken

In my home state of Minnesota, nonprofits can apply for property tax exemption if they use their real estate for mission delivery. Usually this is a faceless process, the nonprofit applies on paper and has to send in its 990s and other materials to the county tax assessor.

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I just started a nonprofit…what kind of insurance do I need?

By Jess Birken

This is a question I WISH more founders asked me!

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What the heck is a B-Corp?

By Jess Birken

A lot of the time, the people I meet with have awesome ideas that just don’t need to be a nonprofit, or sometimes they really shouldn’t be a nonprofit.  And sometimes that can be a hard pill to swallow.

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Down with the overhead pie chart!

By Jess Birken

You know what I’m talking about, the pie chart you see on annual reports from nonprofits all the time that show a lot of money going to “programs” and a small slice going to “overhead” and “fundraising.”

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Do Board Presidents get veto power?

By Jess Birken

One of the things I’ve noticed in my years as the lawyer for nonprofits is the confusion people have about the board chair or board president role. Sometimes clients come in dealing with some sort of board crisis and sometimes that crisis is interpersonal conflict between board members. You might be surprised to know that sometimes the board President or Chair is the root of the problem.

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