Schedule a Nonprofit Legal Health Checkup

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Communities Rise is not currently offering Nonprofit Legal Health Checkups to the general public. Please check back to this page in the future to see if we are offering this service again. In the meantime, you may be interested in our free monthly legal clinics. Feel free to reach out with any questions via our contact form.

What is a Nonprofit Legal Health Checkup?

The Nonprofit Legal Health Checkup is a free, 90-minute appointment with an attorney with the goal of evaluating the general “legal health” of your organization, based on a wide range of different legal topics, including nonprofit corporate law, nonprofit tax law, contract law, employment law, intellectual property law, and more. Your appointment may uncover legal issues that you were not aware of, and you will walk away with a specific list of steps to strengthen your organization.

About this Form

This page is a secure form to schedule a free Nonprofit Legal Health Checkup Appointment with from Communities Rise.

This page is a secure form to schedule a free Nonprofit Legal Health Checkup Appointment with from Communities Rise. For some of the information requested by this form, we realize you may have already provided some of this information to Communities Rise as part of the cohort program. Even so, please provide this information again in this form, so that our attorneys have everything they need to advise you.

To protect attorney-client privilege, please keep the details of your legal matters confidential between your organization and the CR legal team. DO NOT SHARE the details of your legal matters with your Capacity Building Coach.

Please reserve at least 25 minutes to fill out this form.

If you need to step away and complete this form later, then click the button at the bottom of each page labeled “Save & Finish Later.” You will receive a unique link that will allow you to continue preparing your form at a later time without losing your progress.

Is the Right Person Preparing This Form?

The person who is preparing this application should have proper authorization to seek legal help on behalf of their organization. Typical examples of those with proper authorization include a board member or the executive director. If you are a volunteer who is not serving on the board of directors and you do not hold an officer position, then you may not be the correct person to fill out this form on behalf of the organization.

If your organization has not been legally created yet, then please make sure you have permission from each co-founder to seek legal advice on behalf of the group.

The person who is preparing this form should generally be one of the individuals who is participating in the Cohort program on behalf of your organization. If your organization has not been legally created yet, then please make sure you have permission from each co-founder before fillig out this form.

I am properly authorized to apply for legal services on behalf of my organization.(Required)

I agree.

Gather Documents and Information

Before we schedule your legal health checkup, I will ask you to please gather all of the following documents and information. You will be able to upload these documents using this form, or you can send them to us later.

Please retrieve a copy of your organization’s IRS determination letter, if your organization has received one. This is the letter confirming your 501(c)(3) status was approved.
Please prepare a list of the names, emails, phone numbers, and street addresses of the organization’s current Board of Directors.
- If you are a new nonprofit organization that hasn’t been created yet, then please prepare this list for all of the co-founders of your new organization.
- Street addresses may be a home addresses or business address. All nonprofit corporations are legally required to maintain a current list of the addresses of its board members.
Please retrieve a copy of your organization’s most recently filed federal tax return (usually Form 990-N, Form 990, or Form 990-EZ).
Please retrieve current copies of your Articles of Incorporation, Bylaws, and all formal policies or procedures enacted by your organization, if such documents exist.
Retrieve a copy of the meeting minutes from your most recent board meeting.
Retrieve current copies of all contracts and agreements currently in effect between your nonprofit organization and other parties, such as employment contracts, contracts with outside consultants, partnerships with other organizations, grant agreements, fiscal sponsorship agreements, non-disclosure agreements, settlement agreements, real estate leases, volunteer waivers, etc.

I have gathered all of the above documents and information, to the best that I could.(Required)

I agree

Consents and Acknowledgements

In order to receive legal services from Communities Rise, you must, on behalf of your organization, agree to each of the following:

I. General Acknowledgements(Required)

1. APPLICATION FOR LEGAL ADVICE. An individual (the “Individual Applicant”) submits this application for the purpose of obtaining legal advice from a licensed attorney. The Individual Applicant affirms to Communities Rise (1) that the Individual Applicant is seeking legal advice for and on behalf of a small business, nonprofit organization, or community-based organization (the “Client Organization”) and (2) that the Individual Applicant is properly authorized to seek legal advice for and on behalf of the Client Organization. Communities Rise will only serve the legal needs of the Client Organization and not the personal legal needs of the Individual Applicant. If the Individual Applicant does not speak English, then this application has been adequately translated to a language understood by the Individual Applicant.

2. SHORT-TERM LIMITED LEGAL SERVICES. If Communities Rise approves this application, then Communities Rise will arrange for one or more attorneys (collectively, the “Attorney”) who will advise the Client Organization during the clinic appointment. By attending clinic, the Attorney and the Client Organization form a very limited, short-term, attorney-client relationship with each other. This attorney-client relationship is limited to only the 60-minute legal clinic appointment and the subsequent delivery of any final notes to the Client Organization summarizing the advice provided at the clinic appointment. The Attorney is not available to advise the Client Organization on any legal matters outside of these limited circumstances, and the Attorney will NOT represent the Individual Applicant or the Client Organization before any court or tribunal since Communities Rise provides only transactional legal services and not litigation services. If the Attorney nevertheless provides additional legal services outside of these limited circumstances, then the Client Organization understands that such support is a one-time exception and does NOT create or evidence any ongoing or prolonged attorney-client relationship, absent any writing from the Attorney or Communities Rise explicitly stating a change to the limitations of this attorney-client relationship.

3. NO GUARANTEES. This application does not create a contract or agreement requiring Communities Rise to provide legal services, and Communities Rise may reject an application for any reason. Because the outcome of any legal matter is subject to inherent risks and other factors beyond an attorney’s control, Communities Rise and the Attorney have not made, and cannot make, any guarantees or promises concerning the outcome of any matters. Due to the limited scope of the Communities Rise Legal Clinic program, the Attorney relies entirely on the accuracy and completeness of the information provided by the Individual Applicant and the Client Organization, and the Attorney cannot make any independent factual investigations. Therefore, the Client Organization understands its obligations to share all pertinent information with the Attorney in order to receive better legal advice.

4. OTHER ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. The Communities Rise Legal Clinic is a space free from alcohol, drugs, weapons, violence, abuse, and aggressive behavior. Individuals who break this rule may have their appointment cancelled or terminated. The titles and headings of these General Acknowledgements are not legally substantive language and should not be used to interpret or construe the legal meaning of these provisions.

I understand, agree with, and affirm each of the above statements on behalf of my organization.

II. Consent to Limited Disclosures of Confidential Information(Required)

When a small business, nonprofit organization, or community-based organization (the “Client Organization” or “you”) submits this application seeking legal services from Communities Rise (“CR”, “we” or “us”), we will treat any information relating to your request for legal services as private, confidential, and generally protected by attorney-client privilege. We may share your confidential information with others for the purposes listed below in the manner listed below:

1. TO PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. To facilitate our ability to offer you our legal services, you authorize us to share, on your behalf, any information and documents relevant to this request for legal help with the volunteer attorneys who will provide legal services to you and with any volunteers assisting those attorneys. To facilitate our ability to identify and place you with an attorney who has the appropriate expertise, you authorize us to share, on your behalf, a limited, anonymized description of your legal matter with community legal partners of CR, including but not limited to pro bono transactional law firms, CR’s funders that CR partners with to provide transactional legal services, and any volunteer attorneys who may be interested in providing legal services to you.

2. TO PROMOTE OUR CHARITABLE LEGAL SERVICES. Unless you at any time inform us in writing otherwise, we may separately disclose the following information in our public materials: (1) the name of the Client Organization, and (2) an anonymized description of your legal matter. Our public materials include, but are not limited to, our annual reports, fundraising materials, outreach materials, any success stories or articles we may publish about Communities Rise, and any presentations about our work at Communities Rise.

By submitting this form, you authorize and consent to the above limited disclosures. At any time, you may withdraw or limit your consent by communicating with us in writing your intent to do so, but such withdrawals or limitations may make it impracticable to render legal services to the Client Organization. Notwithstanding the foregoing, Communities Rise reserves the right to disclose confidential client information as required or permitted by attorney ethics rules or law.

I understand and consent to each of the above disclosures on behalf of my organization.

Does your organization have a Board of Directors or similar governing body?(Required)

If you have relied on the legal status of your fiscal sponsor, this question asks whether your organization (not your fiscal sponsor) has its own board of directors or similar governing body.

Yes

About the Board of Directors

How many people are on the Board of Directors for your organization?(Required)

For each board member, please provide their contact information below. Please start with the board member who can act as the primary contact for the board—usually the chair, the president, or yourself if you are on the board.

If you would like your organization’s primary contact person to be a non-board member, you will be able to add an Additional Primary Contact Person below.

About the Co-Founders

Because you indicated that your organization is interested in becoming legally registered for the first time, we will refer to the people who currently manage your organization as its “co-founders.”

Remaining Individuals(Required)

Please list the names, emails, phone numbers, and mailing addresses of all remaining individuals who are not already included above.

Additional Primary Contact Person

Would you like to add an additional primary contact person who isn't already included in the list above?(Required)

Yes

Additional Primary Contact Person Details

Name(Required)

First Last

Email(Required)

Phone(Required)

Title or Role in the Organization(Required)

Address(Required)

Street Address Address Line 2 City State / Province / Region ZIP / Postal Code Country

What is a Nonprofit Legal Health Checkup?

About this Form

Is the Right Person Preparing This Form?

Gather Documents and Information

Consents and Acknowledgements

About Your Nonprofit Organization

About the Board of Directors

About the Co-Founders

About the Owners and Managers of Your Organization

Individual #1 (Primary Contact Person)

Individual #2

Individual #3

Individual #4

Individual #5

Individual #6

Individual #7

Individual #8

All Remaining Individuals

Additional Primary Contact Person

Additional Primary Contact Person Details

Financial Information

Statistical Information

About Your Legal Matters

Attorney Ethics Questions

Past Attorney Information

Accommodations and Other Information

Signature