On Saturday, February 13, 2016, I presented a session called Selected Pitfalls in the Life Cycle of a Charity at the People’s Law School at Baylor Law School.  As I mentioned in my session, I was originally asked to speak on “pitfalls for nonprofits,” which seemed awfully broad.  If we are looking at pitfalls for nonprofits, we would need to decide whether we were talking about the nonprofit universe (which includes both taxable and tax-exempt nonprofits) and, if we are talking about the tax-exempt sector, whether we are talking about charitable organizations or all tax-exempt organizations, etc.  To narrow the focus, I chose to speak on certain pitfalls for charitable organizations and to organize my talk around the lifecycle of a public charity.  Keep in mind that many of the pitfalls for charitable organizations are no different than pitfalls for any other organization.  Specifically, employment issues trip up employers whether they are taxable or tax-exempt, as do many liability issues.  As a result, I chose to focus on issues that are specific to charitable organizations, including satisfying the organization and operational tests, applying for 501(c)(3) status, proper governance and the attorney general’s oversight in relation to governance, the handling of restricted gifts, and like issues.  It is a broad overview, as any of those topics could be presented as a standalone.  For those interested, the paper is available here and the PowerPoint is available here.