Tough Economic Times for Nonprofits a Key Topic for Charity Regulators

The need to protect charities and donors during difficult economic times is a key theme of the annual one-day public meeting of the National Association of State Charity Officials, which will be held in Silver Spring, Md., on Monday.

Eric Carriker, president of the regulators association and an assistant attorney general of Massachusetts, noted that regulators always strive to prevent fraud and the misapplication of charitable assets.

But during tough economic times, Mr. Carriker says, “there are limited resources available to our nation’s nonprofits, and it is important that all of us connected with the nonprofit sector work hard to ensure that assets intended to provide vital services to our communities are effectively used to support those causes.”

Conference topics include “Creation and Regulation of New Fund-Raising Strategies in a Down Economy: Cause Marketing, Internet Fund Raising, Text Messaging, and Facebook”; “How Do You Measure What Is an Effective Charity and How Do You Measure Efficiency?”; “The Role of Government in Oversight of Nonprofit Governance”; and “‘Top 10′ Nonprofit Compliance Issues for State and Federal Regulators.”

Speakers include Tracy L. Boak, director of the Bureau of Charitable Organizations at the Pennsylvania Department of State; Charles Harwood, deputy director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Bureau of Consumer Protection; Robert Egger, president of D.C. Central Kitchen; Lois G. Lerner, a top charity regulator at the Internal Revenue Service; Jason Lilien, head of the New York State Charities Bureau; Michael W. Peregrine, a lawyer in Chicago who advises nonprofit organizations; and Patricia Read, senior vice president of public policy and government affairs at Independent Sector, a coalition of charities and foundations.

Those interested in attending the conference may register at the door and pay the $350 fee.