von Briesen’s Nonprofit and Tax Exemption Section has decades of experience establishing and advising a variety of nonprofit organizations, such as:

• Health care organizations (including hospitals, hospital foundations, and managed care organizations)
• Private and public foundations (including grant-making, operating and corporate and family foundations)
• Educational organizations (including university foundations, charter schools and education foundations
• Public charities (including national and international nonprofits, museums, and supporting organizations, and a variety of local and religious organizations)
• Lobbying and advocacy organizations
• Trade and professional associations
• Service clubs and agencies
• Civic and social clubs
• Athletic clubs and booster programs

In addition to servicing traditional nonprofit organizations, we also work with a variety of for-profit organizations that may have non-profit ties or missions to benefit the public good, including Benefit Corporations and certified B-Corps.  We have extensive experience in negotiating and structuring joint ventures with other exempt or taxable entities and the use of taxable subsidiaries, or disregarded entities in the tax exemption context, as well as a variety of subsidiary and related entity structures for nonprofits.  

Our Nonprofit and Tax Exemption Corporate Work includes:

• Drafting of Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws
• Drafting of various nonprofit records and governance documents, including Conflict of Interest Policies, Nondiscrimination Policies, and Record Retention Policies
• Drafting and negotiating grant, gift and pledge agreements
• Compliance for international grant making
• Preparing and updating employee handbooks and other policies and procedures
• Providing ongoing governance and compliance services
• Planning and implementation of multi-corporate structures 
• Advising on and navigating director duties and conflicts of interest
• Dissolution and wind-up of nonprofit entities
• Advising and representing nonprofits through joint ventures, conversions, and mergers and acquisitions

Our tax specific nonprofit services include:

• Preparation and filing of federal tax exemption applications (including IRS Forms 1023 and 1024)
• Obtaining federal tax IDs
• Preparation and filing of federal tax returns (IRS Form 990)
• Assistance with state charitable registrations, sales and use tax exemption and property tax exemption applications (including for multi-facility health care organizations)
• Advising on unrelated business income tax and excise tax issues 
• IRS and Wisconsin audits 
• Property tax exemption requests and appeals 
• Private letter ruling requests 
• Political and lobbying limitations 
• Public disclosure