Charity / Non-Profit Law

Abstract: Since 2020, the novel Corona pandemic had negatively affected the people’s economic situation in Jordan. The Jordanian government procedures to contains the spread of the virus from movement restriction, border closures, and lookdown have forced companies to shut down their businesses completely or partly and lay off workers or reduce their remuneration. Some of these companies that had been negatively affected was nonprofit Companies. Nonprofit Companies in Jordan have faced a decrease in financial returns as a result of the reduced amount of donations and an increase in demand of the services they provide, especially those that provide health services. As a result, non-profit companies operating in Jordan had adopted new approaches and mechanism of working to survive and to still be relevant in the Jordanian society. This research article primarily focuses on the impact of the Corona pandemic on non-profit companies operating in Jordan in terms of financials, strategies and the impact of the Jordanian defense law on the situation of the labor working in these institutions. The research has reached to several results that highlight the impact of the Corona pandemic. Corona pandemic had and still has a significant impact on non-profit companies from an economic and legal point of view.

Abstract: This study theoretically addresses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on accountability and the role that can be played by non-profit community initiatives in this context. This is done by discussing the accountability concept from the perspectives of institutional logics, and social capital. Drawing upon unstructured literature review and the desk research method, secondary data (e.g., social media, websites, and published reports in least-developed countries (LDC) such as Egypt, Bangladesh, and Ethiopia) were used to provide a broad understanding of the dynamics influencing the accountability process during the pandemic time. This study suggests that there will be a central dominant healthcare logic during the pandemic time, contributing to the emergence of social accountability where non-profit associations take the lead. This study has implications for researchers, shareholders, and policymakers by enhancing their understanding of the accountability process during crisis time.

Abstract: As the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe in the spring of 2020, thousands of grassroots, participatory, and often social movement-connected community efforts to help feed, shelter, and care for one another through the crisis were launched, many of which identified their projects as ‘mutual aid.’ This article presents an overview of mutual aid and gives an introduction to the legal issues being confronted by mutual aid groups. It begins by presenting a history of mutual aid practices, principally in the U.S. context, situating mutual aid within the political framework of anti-authoritarian activism. It then gives an overview of common legal issues being confronted by COVID-19 mutual aid groups, including questions related to: (1) risk, liability, and entity formation and structure; and (2) raising and distributing money and goods, and how these activities may be taxed. It concludes by arguing that mutual aid groups should not limit their visions to short-term disaster response but instead seek to maintain and grow their networks to build long-term grassroots power.

Abstract: This is a preliminary guide to legal issues that impact groups engaged in mutual aid. It is targeted to groups that have been responding to the COVID-19 crisis in New York, but has information that may be relevant for groups engaged in mutual aid in other contexts and other places. It gives legal information on topics including: risk of liability; questions around governance and incorporation; safety policies, liability waivers, and insurance; banking and mutual aid; funding mutual aid and taxation of mutual aid; crowdfunding regulations; and food storage and safety rules.

Abstract: This is a revised version of a webinar presentation for a program at the East Delta University, Bangladesh. At first, it underlines the possibility of a debate on the rationality of ‘unscientific lockdown’ that is to harm those people more who are likely to be affected less by the virus, especially in Bangladesh. The discussion then suggests six possible factors to define the post-COVID-19 world and its trajectories, that would create opportunity as well as challenges for Bangladesh. Characterising the non-profit sector with available six legal forms and their varied regulatory mechanisms and the overarching ‘Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Ordinance of 1977 (amended in 1982), the work argues, referring to the related theories, that there may not be one uniform form of management or leadership. It is to be contingent upon the size, purpose, age, and (sources) of fund of the organisation. It proceeds further to analyse why all organization are to focus on “efficiency” as a core dimension of management, while the public sector needs to consider “outcome equity”. The government should acknowledge the contribution of the non-profit sector and let it function to offer goods and services for the disaffected “majority” without exploitation or profiteering in the guise of non-profit, but with enough regulation to ensure fairness and state security. As such, in the uncertain post-COVID-19 world, where the private sector is likely to shrink or lose face, the NPOs’ management basics should be self-regulation without any bias or division because the government and society would need them collectively more in ensuring outcome-equity. The work is based on the authors’ previous comprehensive works on the non-profit sector and other secondary sources of information and data, as cited and listed at the end.

Abstract: Among the many issues being raised in the course of the recent COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is the ability of charities to respond to crises and to fulfil their fiduciary and moral duty to apply donations effectively and for the purposes intended. This article notes the problems encountered by charities, in China and elsewhere, and argues that the present crisis should be seen as a call to arms for the tech industry, which has the relevant know-how and resources to radically change the landscape of crisis response and the management of donations through the implementation of blockchain and artificial intelligence tools that are already in common commercial use. Fundamental changes are needed to the structure and method of how such crises are handled. The time for global technologists to develop, on a collaborative basis, borderless solutions to issues of common humanitarian concern is now.

Abstract: This paper studies the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the US nonprofit sector. Using a difference-in-differences framework, we leverage variation in the timing of charities’ fiscal years, finding that government intervention helped keep charities afloat during the pandemic. On average, government grants increased 66 percent in the first year of the pandemic and 82 percent in the second. Despite the net increase in their contributions, charities lost employees and made fewer program expenditures in fiscal year 2019. Although the decline in program services proved to be temporary, the pandemic has had a lasting impact on the nonprofit labor market.

Abstract: Waqf is a form of charity which is highly recommended in Islam. In Malaysia, most of the states impose solely on perpetuity property based on Shafiᶜiy school of law view as stated in State Administration of Islamic Law Enactment and State Waqf Enactment. However, there are certain states allowed the implementation of temporary waqf such as Johor, Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, and Sarawak. In 2020, most of the country across the world including Malaysia are affected by deadly disease which is known as COVID-19. The World Health Organization (WHO) declare it as pandemic on January 2020. Malaysia Government has issued Movement Control Order (MCO) as a preventive measures to overcome this contagious disease. Many institutions and employment sectors are ordered to stop their operation temporarily. The negative impact of MCO affected daily life routine, public safety and security, education, and business. Thus, the objective of this paper is to study the concept of temporary waqf from the Islamic perspectives and to explore the advantages of temporary waqf in combating COVID-19. This paper has conducted inductive and deductive methods. In this qualitative research, data has been collected by using library research, observations, and interview. The result of this paper shows that temporary waqf products brought many advantages as compared to perpetuity waqf in combating this pandemic COVID-19.

Abstract: In light of the challenges caused by by COVID-19 for all companies, this article analyses the interaction between temporary insolvent trading relief and directors’ duties, with particular focus on directors of Australian charitable companies.

Abstract: The stakes for proper nonprofit governance are extremely high. Over 1.5 million nonprofits are registered with the IRS, collectively employing 12 million people and accounting for 5.4% of US GDP. Yet while for-profit companies have significant checks on the behavior of boards and management, nonprofit firms lack many of the same types of internal and external governance control mechanisms. COVID-19 is just the latest in a long history of shocks to expose the lack of preparedness and capability of many nonprofit boards in fulfilling their essential governance functions.This Article contributes to the corporate governance literature by identifying aspects of nonprofit governance that create unnecessary risk to nonprofit entities and to society overall. Currently many governance failures that would be corrected in traditional for-profit entities go unaddressed among nonprofits. We make unique contributions to addressing these governance shortcomings by suggesting an enforcement reorientation by both public and private actors. Our novel solutions encompass disclosure, certification, oversight by state attorneys general, and federal actors.

Abstract: May 19, 2021, marked a crucial point in the United States’ fight against the COVID-19 pandemic: sixty percent of U.S. adults had been vaccinated. Since then, Americans have witnessed the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, but its long-term effects are here to stay. Ironically, some are unexpectedly welcome. Among the lasting positive changes is an augmented sense of individual involvement in community well-being. This multifaceted phenomenon has given rise to #BLM allyship and heightened interest in mutual aid networks. In the legal realm, it has manifested with law students, their educators, lawyers, and the American Bar Association (ABA) proposing new educational standards: law schools ought to build a curriculum centered on social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion rather than the traditional fixation of ‘thinking like a lawyer’ law programs. Unfortunately, it has also put volunteerism at odds with government-provided welfare services. This articles addresses this paradox and calls for improved systemic services for a systemic problem, poverty.

Abstract: While the importance of the charitable deduction decreased in the 2017 tax reform, it has returned during the COVID-19 pandemic with the CARES Act. This Article lays out the reasons that the limited above-the-line charitable deduction authorized by Congress during the coronavirus pandemic should remain a permanent feature of U.S. tax law.

Abstract: The COVID crisis that enveloped Wuhan, Hubei Province and some other parts of China in late 2019 and early 2020 might, in another era, have encouraged China to temporarily relax constraints on international aid and engagement. In the current Chinese political environment, such relaxation of constraints wasn’t going to happen. China accepted some overseas aid at the beginning of the COVID crisis, but almost entirely on the restrictive political and legal terms laid down in the Overseas NGO Law and framework enacted in 2016.

Abstract: Technological developments make waqf able to be developed in terms of socialization, fundraising, and management in an effort to improve the economy after the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to identify and analyze the waqf crowdfunding model for post-pandemic economic improvement according to Islamic law and national law. This research is qualitative with a normative juridical approach, using types and sources of legal data including primary legal sources, Law No. 41 of 2004 concerning Waqf, PP No. 42 of 2006, and other regulations. In terms of Islamic sharia, namely the Al-Quran, Al-hadith, fatwas, and the opinions of related scholars, Secondary legal sources are journals, proceedings, theses, dissertations, and books, while tertiary legal sources are interviews with crowdfunding managers and nadzhir waqf. Then the data is collected through library research and then analyzed to see the synchronization stage and conformity with legal norms and principles through descriptive analysis.