Faith-based organizations face intensified threats now that the federal government has endorsed a secular view of marriage through the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA), which lacks clear and meaningful protections for religious organizations. This resource provides information and checklists in 6 key areas where your organization might be at risk following the passage of RMA.

Many vendors include provisions in their contracts and user agreements empowering the vendor to unilaterally cut service to faith-based organizations based on subjectively assessed violations of ambiguous hate speech policies. Protect your organization by negotiating for provisions that provide reasonable protection for free speech and religious exercise. This resource gives sample language and a case study of an organization that successfully navigated this challenge.

Faith-based nonprofits will likely face more lawsuits and government actions challenging religious freedom after Congress passed the Respect for Marriage Act (RMA) repealing the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. The RMA impacts faith-based organizations in two specific situations. Both relate to interactions between the faith-based organizations’ work and the state and federal government. The threats to faith-based organizations remain despite language in the RMA purporting to protect religious freedom. Both supporters and skeptics of the RMA agree that the RMA’s religious freedom language has no “meaningful effect.” Below are key questions and “known unknowns” related to the RMA’s impact on faith-based nonprofits.

At first glance, the voting requirements in a nonprofit’s bylaws may not seem an exciting topic. Most nonprofits have not seriously considered their bylaws, perhaps because they have inherited old bylaws, copied the bylaws of another company, or even originated their bylaws from a quick internet search! If any of these scenarios applies to your organization, your organizations’ bylaws may include director voting requirements not tailor-made to your preferences or the specific needs of your organization. Taking just a few minutes to read and think through some key provisions within your bylaws may save you from major issues down the road.

Two recent decisions from federal district courts threaten to upend well-established and historically grounded understandings of the interplay between federal tax-exempt status and federal antidiscrimination laws.