Welcome to your daily briefing on nonprofit developments in Montana. Today we're covering 4 key stories including updates on malta nonprofit headlines, background & context. Let's dive in.
1 story
Community foundations across Montana have unveiled grant opportunities for local nonprofits for 2025, encouraging organizations to review eligibility and application guidelines.
This is a key moment for nonprofit professionals to explore funding options that could support their initiatives in the coming year.
Reach professionals in this market
3 stories
The IRS-recommended COI policy requires (1) annual disclosure by all directors and key employees, (2) a process for review of any disclosed conflict, (3) recusal procedures, and (4) documentation in board minutes. Policies that have only the disclosure form without the review and recusal process do not satisfy the recommendation.
A weak COI policy is a Schedule L disclosure waiting to happen, and Schedule L disclosures correlate with future IRS examination selection.
Negligent-screening claims arise not from failing to have a screening policy, but from failing to follow the policy that exists. A documented policy with inconsistent enforcement is harder to defend than no policy at all, because the deviation is evidence of negligence.
Insurance carriers tighten coverage on organizations with screening-process gaps. The cost of consistent enforcement is small; the cost of a single uninvestigated incident can close the organization.
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.
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