Consumers Union Nonprofit Conversions
Corporate Structures Nonprofit Health Inc. Conversions 101
About Contact Publications
Community Involvement
Community Involvement
Site Map

Take Steps to Ensure Public Disclosure

Communities can take steps to limit violations of the public interest that sometimes occur when nonprofits convert.

Secure Public Notice Early On: Receiving public notice at the outset of a conversion process will help ensure sufficient time for communities to organize and review the transaction.

Advocates should:

  • Get regulators to agree to provide public notice as soon as they learn of a proposed conversion;
  • Get regulators to maintain a database of interested individuals, organizations, news reporters, and others in order to notify them of a potential conversion when that information becomes available;
  • Identify themselves and be sure they are added to the regulator’s database;
  • Make the media aware of the conversion and keep them informed of developments;
  • Seek legal advice to determine whether a nonprofit “restructuring” (e.g. joint venture, creation of a subsidiary) is really a conversion that requires full oversight by the public plus regulators or the courts.

Advocate for Public Access to Conversion-Related Documents: There are several ways to ensure that conversion documents are made available to the public. While regulators and policymakers can and should be allies in this effort, community organizations cannot solely rely on regulators.

Advocates should:

  • Initiate legislation that requires full public disclosure of a nonprofit conversion proposal and ensure that it explicitly overrules any state laws that would otherwise shield such documents from the public;
  • Pressure regulators to rule in favor of public disclosure when faced with the task of interpreting state law on confidentiality (Click to read examples of successes)
  • Submit public records act (e.g., Freedom of Information Act) requests for documents from federal, state, or local government sources;
  • Obtain all documentation that the law requires be made available directly from the nonprofit, including I.R.S. Form 990s, Annual Reports, etc;
  • Renew and revisit all public record requests as the conversion proceedings move forward in order to obtain updated documents;
  • Engage reporters in the attempt to release documents.