 Susan Lutzker's favorite area of practice is
representing nonprofit organizations, an outgrowth of her 20 years as
in-house attorney at the headquarters of the National Trust for
Historic Preservation, a federally-chartered nonprofit organization
charged with mobilizing and leading the private preservation movement
in the United States. She particularly enjoys helping nonprofits expand
their sources of support beyond traditional fund raising to
entrepreneurial activities that are consistent with their nonprofit
status. She also regularly advises clients on tax-exemption compliance
issues, intermediate sanction regulations and other issues of "insider"
involvement, corporate sponsorships and other unrelated business income
issues, the interrelationships among related taxable and tax-exempt
organizations, and fiscal agency arrangements. She has also taught WALA's
class on organizing nonprofit businesses.
For 20 years Arnold
Lutzker has been general counsel for the Cultural Alliance of
Greater Washington. www.cultural-alliance.org In this capacity he
has helped to guide the organization through major expansions of its
activities, including the creation and expansion of its popular
TicketPlace, negotiation and documentation of its leases, union
negotiations, and health insurance for member organizations. He is also
a board member of Filmfest DC, Washington, DC's annual international
film festival. www.filmfestdc.org
- Helping the Lili Claire Foundation, an L.A.
based charitable organization that assists families of children with
neurogenetic disorders, to strengthen its governance and expand its operations nationally. www.liliclairefoundation.org
- Performing corporate audits for nonprofit organizations, including doing federal tax and state compliance reviews, responding to IRS audit requests, creating corporate policies on conflict of interest, gift acceptance and document retention, and advising on changes to governing body structure, corporate policies and executive compensation review.
- Obtaining tax-exempt status for 29 low-income
housing organizations formerly part of a group exemption.
- Counseling a national nonprofit organization that specializes in strategic repositioning on social and public policy issues in connection with contracts, licensing and intellectual property rights management.
- Organizing a charitable corporation for
developing country vaccine manufacturers, including helping them to
clarify their objectives and unique operating needs as an organization
with international focus.
- Representing the Palace Arts Foundation in
negotiating licensing, merchandising and publishing agreements for the
international exhibition Palace of Gold & Light: Treasures
from the Topkapi, Istanbul.
- Advising a member of a nonprofit organization
fighting expulsion from its membership.
- Guiding an organization created to make
scientific publications available in reasonably priced online
aggregations through its formation and development of model agreements
with publishers, subscribers and consultants.
- Writing regular newsletter articles for and
providing online answers to members of an association of educators on
copyright questions they encounter in classroom teaching.
- Advising nonprofit organizations on dissolution issues and disposition of assets.
- Structuring relationships between affiliated organizations and insider transactions with attention
to state self-dealing statutes and IRS intermediate sanctions rules.
- Negotiating and documenting fiscal agency arrangements.
- Applying for District of Columbia property tax exemption for property owned by one organization and
used by another.
- Advising on unrelated business income tax issues related to rental income from debt-financed property
and income from affinity credit card arrangements.
- Persuading an IRS examiner to classify an applicant as a 509(a)(3) supporting organization rather than a
501(c)(2) title holding corporation and to grant exemption retroactively.
- Creating employment agreements and employee handbooks.
- Negotiating and documenting gifts, grants and loans by nonprofit organizations.
- Applying for tax exemption on behalf of a nonprofit organization serving as co-general partner with
a for-profit entity in a limited partnership.
- Advising nonprofit clients on directors and officers insurance and indemnification issues.
- Reversing an IRS examiner’s decision not to recommend an organization for 501(c)(3) exemption
based on the examiner’s perception that an independent appraisal of the rental arrangement with the insider was
inadequate evidence of fairness of the transaction.
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