The Ongoing Overhead Myth and the Dangers of Overly Zealous State Legislators | Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

The Ongoing Overhead Myth and the Dangers of Overly Zealous State Legislators | Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly: "Likely in response to this strong opposition, AB 2855 was amended in early April to instead require that all subject charitable nonprofits include a “prominent link” on the home page of their websites, and a corresponding web address on all documents soliciting charitable contributions, that directs visitors to the California Attorney General’s website. The amended version of AB 2855, in turn, requires the Attorney General to “develop and publish on the Attorney General’s Internet Web site, which contains information about charities, informational materials containing consumer rights and protections and charity resources to allow donors to become informed about a charity before making a decision to give” by no later than July 1st, 2017.

While possibly a slight improvement over the initial version, the amended AB 2855 still raises significant concerns for subject nonprofits and the sector as a whole, and has continued to draw significant and loud opposition. (CalNonprofits in particular has continued to oppose what it is calling the “Warning Label Bill” and has sent an additional letter to the Chair of the Assembly committee that was considering AB 2855.) In addition to the burden that the required additions to websites and solicitation documents would place on organizations, AB 2855 is also completely vague with respect to the nature of the information that will be included on the Attorney General’s website to “inform” donors about such nonprofits. Moreover, AB 2855 arguably compels speech in an unconstitutional manner by dictating specific content to be included on nonprofit websites and documents and seems ripe for challenge on this basis."



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