The Democracy Capacity Project
Democracy Capacity Building - General Corporate Compliance
Help research state law for this democracy capacity enhancing resource series
Posted November 25, 2022
Background & Context
We’re launching a new resource series for grassroots nonprofit organizations working on democracy-enhancing civic engagement and civil rights projects at the state level.
The grassroots groups we serve do amazing work on the ground, but are often quite small and don’t have a lot of experience with the legal aspects of maintaining a corporate entity and staying in compliance with their obligations under both federal and state laws.
Work & Deliverables
We will provide instructions and a data input form and you’ll be asked to research various elements of the state corporations statute as well as various requirements in the following topics:
- Annual state corporate filings requirements
- Basic state corporate governance requirements
- Charitable solicitation licensing
- Basic employment law requirements (like what kind of insurance is mandatory).
NO SPECIFIC PRACTICE AREA REQUIRED
Ideally volunteers for this project will have a familiarity with one or more of the below topics, but we’re also happy to accept volunteers who are less familiar with the materials but want to dig in and search for the answers.
- Familiarity with the corporate statute in the state for which you have volunteered (or familiar in general with the way corporate statutes usually work in multiple states)
- Familiarity with general annual corporate reporting and general business licensing regimes
- Familiarity with charitable solicitation rules
- Familiarity with state laws relating to small business employers. You do not need to be an employment lawyer, but it can be helpful if you have helped clients navigate, for example, setting up their mandatory insurance programs like workers comp, or have helped clients distinguish between employees and independent contractors.
Preparation Phase
- When you apply for this project you'll be given access to the questions you'll be asked to answer.
- You'll also be given access to the outline of the resource so you can see where your work fits in.
- You'll then confirm your interest in the project by requesting a state to work on.
- Volunteers are not guaranteed a particular state, but we'll work with your interests/experience!
Collaboration Phase
Wrap Up
The Democracy Capacity Project
The Democracy Capacity Project is creating critically needed state law resources central to nonprofit grassroots advocacy and integrated voter engagement work at the state and local levels.
The Democracy Capacity Project
The Democracy Capacity Project is creating critically needed state law resources central to nonprofit grassroots advocacy and integrated voter engagement work at the state and local levels.