Legal Webinar: Nonprofit Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dissolutions

Legal Webinar: Nonprofit Mergers, Acquisitions, and Dissolutions

Wednesday, September 10 | 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM | Webinar

Presented by: Don Kramer, Esq., Of Counsel, Montgomery, McCracken with Catherine H. Gillespie of Montgomery, McCracken

Moderated by: Ashley Suhler Tobin, Standards for Excellence Director, PANO

Offered in Partnership with: Nonprofit Issues

*NOTE: PANO does NOT offer CPE & CLE credits for accountants and lawyers.

You MUST REGISTER HERE via Nonprofit Issues if you are interested in these credits.

You can reach them at info@nonprofitissues.com.*

The world has changed since our last webinar on mergers, acquisitions and dissolutions. What was optional thinking for nonprofits in 2024 has become mandatory thinking for many in 2025.

Now more than ever, considering whether and how to merge, affiliate or dissolve is critical. Many nonprofits are seeing cutbacks in federal funding, increased competition for fundraising dollars and efforts to abolish the essence of their work.

This webinar will:

• Review the options with advantages and disadvantages. We will look at mergers, affiliations, bankruptcy, and dissolution for those who can’t afford bankruptcy.
• Discuss alternative legal relationships and the “due diligence” needed to consider a new structure.
• Review the steps, including whether you need approval from the state Attorney General.
• Discuss the steps to dissolve the organization, if nothing else makes sense, while trying to keep the mission alive.

We will discuss these considerations in the context of real-life situations. We will emphasize the need for strategic thinking in advance so the options are thoughtful and not imposed on the organization.

Here is what some of the participants in our prior webinars have said in their evaluations:

• "Another great seminar.... Very clear presentations."
• "I appreciated how practical this was."
• "I came away realizing there is a more realistic way of accomplishing the intended goal."
• "I learned a third possible set up for 'acquiring' a not-for-profit."

Registrants can submit questions before the webinar or during the live program. If we can’t answer them during the program, we typically follow-up with an email after the program.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
HR Directors, Nonprofit Executives

WHAT WILL I GET?
Registrants will receive a copy of the PowerPoint and the Standards for Excellence Educational Resource Packet related to this topic.

If interested in receiving CPE and CLE credits for accountants and lawyers, please REGISTER HERE VIA NONPROFIT ISSUES (Subscriber Price: $75.65 | Regular Price: $89.00). You can reach them at info@nonprofitissues.com. Please note that PANO does not offer these credits.

SINGLE LOGIN COST:
 $45 per person for PANO Members | $100 per person for Not-Yet Members

Terms of Participation
Your purchase entitles you to a single login. Please do not share the login information with others, as it may interfere with your ability to join. If multiple individuals from your organization would like to view the webinar, please purchase separate tickets for each person or consider a group screening ticket (below).

GROUP SCREENING COST (4-10 individuals):
 $150 per group for PANO Members | $333 per group for Not-Yet Members

Terms of Participation
If you have 4-10 individuals interested in attending the webinar, please have one person register selecting one group ticket. You can then enter the names and email addresses of up to 9 other individuals to add to your group ticket. Each person registered will receive their own unique login instructions and may join from wherever is most convenient for them.

This option makes the most sense when you have 4-10 individuals interested in viewing the webinar. For fewer than 4 attendees, a single login ticket for each person is the most cost-effective option. For more than 10 attendees, please email Ashley Tobin at ashley@pano.org to discuss options.

MATERIALS AND LOGIN INSTRUCTIONS:
Materials (PowerPoint and other handouts) and instructions on how to login will be emailed to attendees a few days prior to the date of the webinar.

PANO uses Zoom as our webinar platform; you can familiarize yourself with Zoom and/or join a test meeting prior to these sessions.

All PANO registrants will receive a recording of the webinar.

ABOUT THE PRESENTERS

Donald W. Kramer, Esq., Nonprofit Issues & Montgomery McCracken

Donald W. Kramer serves as chair of Montgomery McCracken’s Nonprofit practice group. Don has more than 45 years of experience dealing with the concerns of nonprofit organizations, not only as a lawyer, but also as a teacher, writer, publisher, and board member.

He has worked with nonprofits of all types and sizes, helping structure startup situations and restructure multiorganizational health and educational systems. He counsels on a wide range of nonprofit corporate structure and governance, private and community foundations, continuing care retirement communities, exempt organization taxation, low-income housing tax credit transactions, real estate, charitable giving, and other nonprofit issues.

Don serves as the editor and publisher of Don Kramer’s Nonprofit Issues®, a national newsletter of “Nonprofit Law You Need to Know,” which he founded in 1989.

Prior to joining Montgomery McCracken in 1972, Don served as deputy development coordinator and assistant to the mayor of Philadelphia.

Catherine H. Gillespie, Montgomery McCracken

Catherine H. Gillespie serves as Of Counsel in Montgomery McCracken’s Business Department. She focuses her practice on health care, with a particular focus on long-term care, higher education and a range of corporate and tax law issues affecting nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations.

Her expertise includes mergers and acquisitions of nonprofit entities, re-structuring relationships between and among organizations and creating documents to reflect the resulting structures. She counsels tax exempt organizations on the process of being sold to for profit businesses and guides the organizations through the often-complicated process.

Catherine regularly obtains 501(c)(3) status for nonprofit clients and subsequently works with them to maintain that status. She regularly advises organizations on Federal and state law compliance and licensure issues.

Additionally, Catherine provides legal expertise by advising clients in the following areas:

• Amendments to Bylaws and Articles to accurately reflect an organization’s internal operations;
• Dissolution of an organization;
• Health care regulatory compliance;
• HIPAA compliance advice to businesses and nonprofits as well as their contractors and subcontractors;
• Real estate tax and sales tax exemptions for 501(c)(3) organizations;
• Negotiate and create, if needed, contracts for the unique needs of charities of various missions and sizes;
• Review admission agreements for various types of health care facilities to ensure compliance with state and federal regulations;
• Provide day-to-day advice and guidance to clients.

She is certified in Health Care Compliance by the Health Care Compliance Association. She has a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan and a Master’s in social work from West Virginia University, both with a focus on gerontology.

Ashley Suhler Tobin, PANO Standards for Excellence Director

Ashley Suhler Tobin is a strategic nonprofit professional with over 16 years of experience in program development, program management and relationship management. As a Licensed Consultant for the Standards for Excellence in Pennsylvania and nationally, she brings deep expertise in nonprofit governance and management for PANO’s Standards for Excellence program.

Ashley’s career includes roles such as Program Development Director at Turning Points for Children and as a consultant for a variety of nonprofits in Pennsylvania. Ashley also ran a nonprofit networking program in Philadelphia called Connecting Coffee.

With a Master of Public Administration with a concentration in Nonprofit Management from The George Washington University, Ashley is dedicated to fostering transparency, upholding ethical standards, and delivering high-impact results.