Fundraising rules in New York

Registering a charity or school

A charity must register with the New York Attorney General's Charities Bureau before soliciting in the state and then file an annual financial report, while the solicitation law does not apply to religious organizations or to charities run by or connected with one, an exclusion that stays in place when a paid fundraiser is hired, unlike the small-charity exemption for groups raising under $25,000 a year, which ends once a paid fundraiser or fundraising counsel is used. Neither the statute nor the Charities Bureau settles whether a particular religious school, such as a parish, diocesan, religious order or independently governed Catholic school, falls inside that religious exclusion, or whether a nonpublic school qualifies for the separate exemption for schools that file annual financial reports with the New York Board of Regents, so both exemptions are unresolved for schools.

Professional solicitors

A paid third party that solicits for a charity or runs a solicitation for it registers with the New York Attorney General before acting, as does each individual it pays to ask for gifts. It files each charity contract within ten days of signing, discloses in each solicitation that a paid fund raiser is soliciting, and files a closing statement within 90 days after the contract ends. The statute ties these duties to charities required to register, while the Attorney General's regulation requires registration before any fundraising activity in the state, so whether they reach a fundraiser whose only New York clients are religious or otherwise exempt is not settled by the statute or the Charities Bureau.

Fundraising counsel

A paid consultant who plans, manages or advises on a solicitation but never asks for gifts or handles the money registers with the New York Attorney General as fundraising counsel before acting and files each charity contract within ten days of signing, and because New York's paid fundraiser category also covers anyone paid to plan or manage a solicitation, the two categories overlap. The same unsettled question about clients that are only religious or otherwise exempt applies to counsel.

References

• Charity search (Attorney General Charities Registry; exempt religious organizations may not appear)
• Paid fundraiser campaign results (Attorney General Pennies for Charity reports)
• Attorney General charities search home
• IRS Tax Exempt Organization Search

Regulator: Office of the New York State Attorney General, Charities Bureau