The Evolving Law of Nonprofit Organizations: Do Current Trends Make Good Policy?

Abstract

The law of nonprofit organizations is currently in a state of flux. Virtually all forms of law that bear on nonprofits - organizational, fiscal, and regulatory - look considerably different than they did several decades ago. These changes are largely a response - sometimes thoughtful, sometimes misguided - to important changes in the nonprofit sector itself. In turn, these changes in the legal environment are likely to induce further changes in the nature of nonprofit institutions. My objective here is to provide some perspective on these developments by describing the basic patterns of evolution in the law, by analyzing the changes in the nonprofit sector that have stimulated this evolution, and by evaluating the wisdom of continuing to follow the particular paths along which the law has been evolving.