The Center is working to ensure that state lawmakers listen to the voices of nonprofit leaders and include provisions to address the nonprofit sector's needs in the second round of COVID-19 recovery legislation expected later this month. 

You can help right now by joining more than 400 other nonprofits in adding your signature to the North Carolina Nonprofit Letter to State Legislators, which spells out six concrete steps state legislators can take to help charitable organizations and the communities they serve:

Please take one minute to sign on to the North Carolina Nonprofit Letter to State Legislators to show your organization's support for this additional relief for nonprofits. We will list each nonprofit’s name and county (but not contact information) on the letter. Thank you if your organization has already signed on to the letter!

On Monday, Governor Roy Cooper signed into law two COVID-19 response bills that unanimously passed the NC Senate and NC House of Representatives last Saturday. One bill ( H.B. 1043) appropriates $1.5 billion in funding for immediate state needs related to the COVID-19 crisis. The other bill ( S.704) makes a variety of policy changes to help North Carolina respond to and recover from the pandemic. Many provisions in this COVID-19 legislation are important to nonprofits, including:

For more details on nonprofit provisions in the state COVID-19 recovery bills, see the Center’s summary of the legislation.

One of the provisions in the COVID-19 Response Act ( S.704) would ensure that unemployment insurance (UI) related to COVID-19 would not be charged to the UI accounts of recipients’ “base period employers.” This provision codifies language from Executive Order No. 118, which Governor Roy Cooper issued in March. Based on the Center’s analysis of the provision and conversations with state officials, this means that self-insured nonprofits in North Carolina will not be liable for the cost of UI claims by employees that they have had to lay off or furlough due to COVID-19. 

This provision could help prevent thousands of North Carolina nonprofits from incurring significant new costs stemming from their unexpected, unavoidable, and unwanted decision to lay off or furlough staff due to COVID-19. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Center has been advocating for the federal and/or state government to hold harmless these self-insured nonprofits for these UI costs.  

Last week, the Center posted an analysis of the recent DOL guidance on the implementation of a provision in the CARES Act that provides federal funding to cover half of the cost of self-insured nonprofits’ COVID-19 related UI claims. We remain concerned that this DOL guidance may require the state to take further action to avoid unintended expenses for self-insured nonprofits and the state Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. The Center will continue to advocate for all necessary federal and state policy changes.

Yesterday, 30 U.S. Senators, including Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC), sent a letter to Senate leadership urging them to make three improvements to the CARES Act to provide relief for nonprofits:

Last week, 144 members of the U.S. House of Representative sent a similar letter to House leadership asking them for additional COVID-19 relief for nonprofits in the next federal stimulus bill. Congresswoman Alma Adams (D-NC), Congressman G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), and Congressman David Price (D-NC) were a part of the House letter. If these requests seem familiar, it’s because they are the same points that were raised in a recent letter from 461 North Carolina nonprofits (quite possibly including your own organization!) to our congressional delegation.

Last week, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) rejected the transfer of the .org registry to Ethos Capital, a newly-formed for-profit company. Advocacy from many nonprofits and government officials was critical in ICANN’s decision, which will help protect the .org registry from being taken over by a private equity firm that could have significantly increased the cost of nonprofits’ web domain names.

On Tuesday, Governor Cooper issued Executive Order No. 138, which eases some of the restrictions from North Carolina’s “stay at home” order and begins the first phase of re-opening the state’s economy. While the “stay at home” order remains in place, most retail businesses can open at 50% of capacity with social distancing measures in place, starting at 5 p.m. today. The order includes a few notable provisions for nonprofits:

To learn more about the changes in the “stay at home” order, you can check out Governor Cooper’s FAQs and the interim guidance from the NC Department of Health and Human Services.

Last month, the IRS extended until July 15, 2020 the filing deadline for Form 990, Form 990-T, and other nonprofit tax returns and information returns typically due on May 15, 2020. The IRS took this action through a combination of a new notice related to COVID-19 and previous IRS guidance for extension of filing deadlines during federally-declared disasters. Many nonprofits with May 15 filing deadlines for their 990s already were planning to file for automatic extensions.

The North Carolina Pro Bono Resource Center has launched a new remote clinic designed to help small businesses and nonprofits navigate the legal issues they are experiencing due to COVID-19. The program is available to nonprofits affected by the COVID-19 crisis that have 25 or fewer employees. 

The program offers pro bono assistance with a variety of COVID-19 related legal issues including: 

Your nonprofit can schedule an appointment with an attorney by filling out a client screening form online.

A complete and accurate count in the 2020 U.S. Census is important for nonprofits since it will help ensure that North Carolina has full representation in Congress and access to federal funding that supports the work of many nonprofits. Because nonprofits are trusted messengers that often serve hard-to-count communities, it is important for all nonprofit organizations to spread the word about the importance of completing the 2020 Census. Nonprofit’s engagement in Census outreach is particularly critical since North Carolina continues to lag behind other states in our Census response rate. As of Tuesday, North Carolina’s response rate was 53.1%, well below the national average of 57.3% (see the U.S. Census Bureau’s map of response rates for more details).

This week, National Voter Registration Day (September 22) launched its partner sign-on for 2020. National Voter Registration Day is a great opportunity for nonprofits to ensure that their staff, volunteers, and community members are registered to vote. Sign up today to join the nationwide effort to register hundreds of thousands of voters on September 22. As an official partner, your nonprofit will receive a free voter registration kit and access to other opportunities to support your nonpartisan voter registration work.