Q. How can I gain access to a particular charity’s bylaws and articles of incorporation?
A. One of the initial steps in establishing a nonprofit organization is creating its “articles of incorporation,” detailing, among other things, the name, mission, location, and officers of the new charity.
The organization also creates a set of “bylaws” that outlines the role and size of the board of directors, how its members are chosen, and its governance rules and regulations.
Depending on the charity, gaining access to these documents may be easy or difficult. Some organizations keep copies of their articles of incorporation and bylaws on their Web sites, so that’s a good place to start.
Another resource is GuideStar, which creates reports on individual charities and maintains copies of their informational tax returns. If an organization has amended or updated its bylaws or articles, they are required to attach copies to this form when they submit the annual form to the IRS, says Suzanne Coffman, director of communications at GuideStar.
You might also contact the state in which the nonprofit is incorporated. Most, but not all, charities are required to register with their state government agency (usually with the secretary of state or the attorney general’s office), and, as part of this process, some jurisdictions require copies of a charity’s articles of incorporation or their bylaws.
You can find a list of state agencies and their individual filing requirements at the Web site of the Multi-State Filer Project. Typically an organization is incorporated in the city in which it operates, but not always.
The date and state of incorporation are typically listed in GuideStar’s reports and also in reports from the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, a charity watchdog group in Arlington, Va.
The most direct route to obtaining these documents, however, is to ask the charity for them directly.
“If a charity got a reasonable request, most wouldn’t have any concerns about sharing them,” says Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.
If the charity is uncooperative, ask its officials to provide a copy of the organization’s Form 1023 Application for Recognition of Exemption, which they were required to file with the IRS when the charity was founded.
Organizations must attach copies of both their articles of incorporation and bylaws to this document, and they are required by law to provide copies of Form 1023 to anyone who asks them. In fact, IRS regulations require that certain documents, Form 1023 among them, “be provided immediately in the case of in-person requests and within 30 days in the case of written requests.”
If the organization does not comply, it may be subject to a steep penalty. (For more information on these regulations, go to the charity section of the IRS Web site, click on “EO FAQs,” then “FAQs About the Exempt Organization Public Disclosure Requirements.”)
If you continue to have a problem, you can report the organization to the IRS’s Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Customer Account Services at (877) 829-5500.