Foundations & Nonprofit Organizations

The client journey

Wherever you are in the life of the organization.

Most nonprofits move through the same four chapters — only the cause changes. Pick the chapter you’re working through.

▍ 01 / Founding & Recognition

From a mission to a recognized 501(c)(3).

Most nonprofits are formed by people closer to the work than to the law. We handle the incorporation, IRS recognition, initial bylaws, and the conflict-of-interest framework so the founders can focus on programs, not paperwork — and so the documents that will govern the next ten years are sound from the start.

→Washington nonprofit incorporation
→501(c)(3), (c)(4), and (c)(6) recognition (Form 1023, 1024)
→Initial bylaws, conflict policy, and document retention
→State charitable-solicitation registration
→Founding-board orientation and fiduciary-duty training

▍ 02 / Governance & Compliance

A board that knows what it owes — and what it doesn’t.

Most board issues are not crises — they’re small drift over time. We refresh bylaws and policies, train new directors on fiduciary duty, and quietly clean up the governance record so when something does come up — a tough vote, a sensitive grant, an unhappy donor — the board has clean ground to stand on.

→Bylaws review and refresh
→Conflict-of-interest and gift-acceptance policies
→Board orientation, training, and meeting minutes
→Form 990 review and Schedule L analysis
→State charitable-solicitation compliance

▍ 03 / Programs & Operations

The day-to-day legal work of running a real organization.

Contracts with vendors and partners, staff and volunteer agreements, grant agreements with both directions of money, real-property questions, and the steady stream of questions that come from running programs in the real world. We act as general counsel to nonprofits that don’t need a lawyer on staff but want one a phone call away.

→General counsel role for the executive team
→Grant, vendor, and program-services contracts
→Employment, volunteer, and independent-contractor agreements
→Real-property leases, purchases, and facilities issues
→Risk management and insurance review

▍ 04 / Growth, Mergers & Legacy

When the organization is bigger than its founders.

Mergers between mission-aligned nonprofits, executive-director transitions, capital campaigns, planned-giving structures, and the long-arc question of how the organization continues when the founders step back. These are the moments when good documents — built earlier — pay for themselves many times over.

→Nonprofit mergers and affiliations
→Executive-director transitions and succession planning
→Capital-campaign and major-gift structuring
→Planned giving, charitable trusts, and donor-advised funds
→Endowment governance and spending policies

Counsel for the missions worth doing well.

Wherever you are in the life of the organization.

From a mission to a recognized 501(c)(3).

A board that knows what it owes — and what it doesn’t.

The day-to-day legal work of running a real organization.

When the organization is bigger than its founders.

The attorneys you’ll actually work with.

Caleb Stewart

David Tall

Paul Spencer

Dennis Brislawn

Thomas Hansen

James Clark

View all attorneys

Recent work.

A scholarship foundation launches with a $4M founding gift.

Two affiliated nonprofits combine into one.

Founding executive director steps back after twenty-five years.

Full 990 and governance refresh for a long-running foundation.

Running a nonprofit and want a steady hand on the file? Let’s talk.