Welcome to your daily briefing on nonprofit developments in Arizona. Today we're covering 6 key stories including updates on arizona nonprofit headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
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Harbor Compliance provides comprehensive solutions and free resources to help manage fundraising, tax exemption, license renewals, and other nonprofit compliance activities.
Arizona nonprofit professionals can streamline their compliance workload and reduce administrative risk using these tailored tools and resources.
OneAZ Credit Union has launched its 2026 Community Impact Grant program to invest in nonprofit partners across Arizona and drive long-term prosperity in the communities it serves.
Arizona nonprofit professionals now have a new funding opportunity through a local financial institution explicitly committed to improving lives statewide.
Since 1980, the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona has distributed more than $200 million to regional nonprofits and educational institutions across program areas including animal welfare, arts and culture, community development, education, environment, health and human services.
Arizona nonprofit professionals can tap into this established funding source that has consistently supported the region's charitable sector for over four decades.
Reach professionals in this market
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Donor-restricted gifts must be tracked separately and used only for the restricted purpose; using them for general operations — even with intent to "pay back" later — is a fiduciary breach and an audit finding. The most-common fact pattern: cash-flow shortage in operations, restricted-grant balance available, transfer "borrowed" with no formal repayment plan.
State attorneys general have authority over restricted-gift compliance and have pursued individual board members and executives. Auditors are required to disclose restricted-fund violations in the management letter.
Form 990 is required to be made public by the filing organization on request and is indexed by ProPublica and others within weeks of filing. Sections most boards underestimate: Schedule J (top-staff compensation), Schedule L (transactions with interested persons), and Schedule O (narrative explanations that "soften" other answers). Donors and reporters read these.
Items that read fine in management's narrative often read very differently in print. Pre-filing review by a non-finance board member catches optics issues that a CFO will not.
Unrelated business income tax applies when an activity is regularly carried on, is a trade or business, and is not substantially related to the exempt purpose. Common surprises: corporate-sponsored events with naming rights that look like advertising, affinity credit-card royalties that include co-marketing services, and gift-shop sales of items unrelated to the mission.
UBIT exposure can cost both tax and exempt status if the unrelated business becomes substantial. The line between sponsorship (excluded) and advertising (included) is narrow and case-specific.
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