Announcements
Charitable Trusts: Donating to California Charities
By California Attorney's General Office
Jul 5, 2005, 09:47

Taking time to learn about a charity before you donate can go a long way to making sure that the nonprofit organization and cause match your intentions. However, researching charities can be daunting when you consider that there are more than 700,000 federally recognized nonprofit organizations - nearly 150,000 of them in California - and no official "seal of approval" issued.

To help Californians in making important personal decisions on charitable giving, Attorney General Bill Lockyer offers a variety of resources here. These resources include guides for charitable giving and searchable databases to learn about specific charities and commercial fundraisers in the state.

For charities and commercial fundraisers, we have forms and other information available to help them comply with state laws. We also have information to help nonprofit organizations conduct charitable fundraising raffles and for the review of the corporate transactions involving the sale or purchase of nonprofit hospitals. We offer a Guide to the Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004 which applies new requirements in the conduct of charities, commercial fundraisers, fundraising counsels, unincorporated associations and trusts.

California law requires charities and commercial fundraisers to register with the Attorney General's Office and to file financial disclosure reports. All charities must file the Annual Registration Renewal Fee Report, and those with gross revenue or assets of $25,000 or more must file annual Form 990 financial reports with the Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts.

We offer a Guide to the Nonprofit Integrity Act of 2004, the new state law that requires increased accountability in the conduct of charities, commercial fundraisers, fundraising counsels, unincorporated associations and trusts.

As the legal overseer of charities that do business in California, the Attorney General works to protect the interest of all public beneficiaries within his jurisdiction. The Attorney General may conduct investigations and bring legal actions to protect the assets of California charities and insure the assets are used for their intended charitable purposes. The Legislature since 1965 exempted nonprofit schools, hospitals and churches from filing any reports with the Attorney General. However, the Attorney General's Office has jurisdiction to investigate alleged mismanagement of assets belonging to nonprofit schools and hospitals.

Using CHARITIES SEARCH, you can learn more about individual charities located or doing business in California. Through an innovative public-private collaboration with GuideStar, search results now provide additional at-a-glance information on charities and can link you to a database of nonprofit organizations operating in other states. From our web site, you can view IRS Form 990 financial reports that contain valuable information about the programs, activities, finances and priorities of charities. Organizations with gross revenue or assets of less than $25,000 may not have financial reports available for viewing since they are not required to file Form 990 annually.

Using COMMERCIAL FUNDRAISER SEARCH on our Commercial Fundraiser web page, you can look up the financial disclosure reports that commercial fundraisers in California must file with the Attorney General's Registry of Charitable Trusts. These financial reports show if a commercial fundraiser is registered with the state, on whose behalf funds are being raised and how much money raised actually reaches the charity.

Publications available on this web site include guides for charities, annual summaries of commercial fundraising activities, summaries of nonprofit raffle activities and nonprofit hospital transactions.

CHARITIES SEARCH