online fundraisingLast week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) hosted “Give & Take: Consumers, Contributions, and Charity,” a conference exploring consumer protection issues in the changing landscape of charitable giving. Day One of the conference kicked off with introductory remarks by Acting Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection Tom Pahl, as well as Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman (Day Two was not open to the public). Some of our readers may recognize General Coffman’s name because she was a panelist at Venable’s 2016 Advertising Law Symposium, where she also expressed her state’s strong interest in combatting charitable solicitation fraud. Government enforcers are clearly paying more attention to this industry, as we have written before.
Continue Reading Highlights of the FTC and NASCO Conference – Give & Take: Consumers, Contributions, and Charity

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) and the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) convened for their 2016 Annual Conference in Washington, DC this week. The “Public Day” of the conference, held on Monday, October 16, provided an opportunity for nonprofit leaders, professional counselors and advisers, and academics to learn about “the evolving world of state charities regulation,” which was the theme of this year’s conference.

The public session included informative panel discussions on non-traditional models of philanthropy; regulation of donor-advised funds, endowments, and restricted gifts; top issues in corporate governance and the importance of nonprofit board education; new tools for the nonprofit sector; current trends in cybersecurity and how to handle data breaches; and the collaboration between the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and regulators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in the historic civil suit against four cancer charities in 2015. The final panel of the public session featured state attorneys general of the NAAG Charities Committee discussing how the regulation of charities has evolved over time and what to expect in the years to come.

Below are some highlights of the Public Day of the 2016 NAAG/NASCO Annual Conference: 
Continue Reading Highlights of the 2016 NAAG/NASCO Charity Regulators’ Annual Conference