A nonprofit organization (abbreviated "NPO", or "non-profit" or "not-for-profit") is an organization whose primary objective is to support some issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes. Nonprofits may be involved in an innumerable range of areas relating to the arts, charities, education, politics, religion, research, or some other endeavor.
The difference between nonprofit and for-profit organizations
Most experts consider that it is the legal and ethical restrictions on the distribution of profits to owners or shareholders which fundamentally distinguish nonprofits from commercial enterprises. A more precise term is 'not-for-profit', rather than 'nonprofit', and this is often used in legislation and texts.
Nonprofits generally do not operate to generate profit, a characteristic widely considered to be the defining characteristic of such organizations. However, a nonprofit organization may accept, hold and disburse money and other things of value. It may also legally and ethically trade at a profit. The extent to which it can generate income may be constrained, or the use of those profits may be restricted. Nonprofits, therefore, are typically funded by donations from the private or public sector, and often have tax-exempt status. Private donations may sometimes be tax-deductible.
Additionally, a nonprofit organization may have members as opposed to shareholders.
Nature and goals
Nonprofit organizations often are charities or service organizations; they may be organized as a not-for-profit corporation or as a trust, a cooperative, or they may be purely informal. Sometimes they are also called foundations, or endowments that have large stock funds. Most foundations give out grants to other nonprofit organizations or fellowships to individuals. However, the name foundations may be used by any not-for-profit corporation -- even volunteer organizations or grassroots groups. A nonprofit may be a very loosely organized group, such as a block association or a trade union, or it may be a complex structure such as a university, hospital, documentary film production company, or educational book publisher.
In many countries applying Germanic or Nordic law (e.g. Germany, Sweden, Finland), nonprofit organizations typically are voluntary associations, although some have a corporate structure (e.g. housing corporations). A voluntary association usually is founded upon a principle of one man–-one vote. A large, nationwide organization usually is organized as a league: the local level has a town- or county-level association with natural person membership, these associations being members of the national association. This is perceived to give the local level maximal autonomy, while it also protects the organization from the financial blunders of any single association. The organization of such leagues (e.g. trade union or a party) may be extremely complex. Often separate laws are regulating usual, "idealist" associations (anything from a sports club to a trade union), political parties, and religious denominations restricting each type of organization to its chosen field.
Legal aspects
Most countries have laws that regulate the establishment and management of nonprofit organizations, and which require compliance with corporate governance regimes. Most larger organizations are required to publish their financial reports detailing their income and expenditure for the public. In many aspects, they are similar to business entities though there are often significant differences. Both nonprofit and for-profit entities must have board members, steering committee members, or trustees who owe the organization a fiduciary duty of loyalty and trust. A notable exception to this involves churches, which are often not required to disclose finances to anyone, not even its members if the leadership chooses.
Formation and structure
In the United States, nonprofit organizations normally are formed by incorporating in the state in which they expect to do business. The act of incorporating creates a legal entity enabling the organization to be treated as a corporation under law and to enter into business dealings, form contracts, and own property as any other individual or for-profit corporation may do.
Nonprofits can have members but many do not. The nonprofit may also be a trust or association of members. The organization may be controlled by its members who elect the Board of Directors or Board of Trustees. Nonprofits may have a delegate structure to allow for the representation of groups or corporations as members. Alternately, it may be a non-membership organization and the board of directors may elect its successors.
A primary difference between a nonprofit and a for-profit corporation is that a nonprofit does not issue stock or pay dividends, (for example, The Code of the Commonwealth of Virginia includes the Non-Stock Corporation Act that is used to incorporate nonprofit entities) and may not enrich its directors. However, like for-profit corporations, nonprofits may still have employees and can compensate their directors within reasonable bounds.
Some critics of corporations argue that when corporations donate to charities to reduce taxes, the companies whitewash their reputations, sometimes benefitting in terms of marketing and public relations purposes. In some countries, e.g. in civil law United states, the idea of deductible donations is not endorsed as it is considered to violate popular sovereignty. In a democracy, the people, i.e. the parliament, arguably should be able to decide where the tax money goes. Some people believe that when donors indirectly decide on the use of their taxes, the donors are engaging in an act that should be the privilege of parliament, not of individuals. In countries where donations are not tax-deductible, the state may assume a larger role in supporting nonprofit organizations.
Tax exemption
In many countries, nonprofits may apply for tax-exempt status, so that financial donors may claim back any income tax paid on donations and so that the organization itself may be exempt from income tax. In the United States, after a recognized legal entity has been formed at the state level, it is customary for the nonprofit corporation to seek tax-exempt status concerning income tax. That is done by applying to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The IRS, after reviewing the application to ensure the purpose of the organization meets the conditions to be recognized as a tax-exempt organization (such as a charity), issues an authorization letter to the nonprofit granting it tax-exempt status for income tax purposes. The exemption does not apply to other Federal taxes such as employment taxes.
Issues faced by nonprofits
Capacity support is an ongoing problem faced by nonprofits that rely on external funding to maintain their operations, largely because nonprofit organizations have little control over their source(s) of revenue. Increasingly in the United States, many nonprofits rely on government funds to support their operations, often through grants, contracts, or customer-sided subsidies, such as vouchers or tax credits. The form of revenue is quite significant, as it influences the reliability or predictability with which the organization can hire and retain staff, sustain facilities, or create programs. Increasingly, there are few sources of revenue that allow nonprofits to develop their organizational capacities.
On the Internet
Many nonprofit organizations use the .org top-level domain when selecting a domain name to differentiate themselves from more commercially focused entities which typically use the .com space. In the traditional domain categories as noted in RFC 1591, .org is for "organizations that didn't fit anywhere else" in the naming system, which implies that it is the proper category for non-commercial organizations if they are not governmental, educational, or one of the other types with a specific TLD. It is not specifically designated for charitable organizations or any specific organizational or tax-law status, however; it encompasses anything that does not fall into another category. Currently, no restrictions are enforced on registration of .com or .org, so you can find organizations of all sorts in either of these domains, as well as other top-level domains including newer, more specific ones which may fit particular sorts of organizations such as .museum for museums. Organizations might also register under the appropriate country code top-level domain for their country.
Organizations with local, regional, or national chapters might give them sub-domain addresses in a hierarchical structure, such as florida.example.org for the Florida chapter, and Miami.florida.example.org for the Miami group within the Florida chapter. However, in some cases local chapters register separate domains such as miamiexample.org, which can produce inconsistency in the naming structure; if they do not coordinate their naming, another chapter might get an inconsistent name such as example-fortlauderdale.org.
Laws
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