Category: Non-Profits

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Nonprofit Compliance Reporting Checklist

In representing small, mid-size, and even larger nonprofits, we often find the array of periodic compliance reporting can get lost. Sometimes this occurs because an individual is named the contact person for notifications, and that staff person or volunteer is no longer working. While most delinquent filing issues are fairly easy to fix, a pattern of noncompliance can cause issues over time, especially if you find yourself faced with other legal issues. Here’s a handy, though not absolutely comprehensive, checklist to help keep you on track, designed with 501(c)(3) public charities in mind.

  • IRS Form 990. Every 501(c)(3) organization must file a 990 in some form or another, even if you have no activity at all during a tax year. Larger organizations will file the full 990, and this rarely slips through the cracks. This is a big, complicated form, and we strongly recommend using a tax professional to complete or at least review prior to filing. Smaller organizations can file the 990EZ, which is much easier to complete and can be done by competent staff. Organizations with less than $50,000 in receipts during any year can file the 990-N, sometimes referred to as the 990 postcard. It is a very simple form, with just a few questions, and is filed on line. IMPORTANT NOTE: Even if you have $0 in revenues, you must file the 990-N every year. No exceptions. Failure to do so will result in loss of your 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. Our friends at the IRS are completely on top of this, so don’t think they’re not watching!
  • State Attorney General Filings. Nonprofit organizations are governed in most states by the state attorney general’s office, with powers arising out of their general authority over consumer protection. The reasoning here is that nonprofits are custodians of charitable funds for the benefit of the public, so the attorneys general oversee the nonprofits on this basis. In Ohio as in several other states, there is an annual filing regarding fundraising, which is required regardless of whether or not you do any fundraising. The attorney general’s office will also get involved if you seek to remove or change donor restrictions or designations on gifts.
  • Secretaries of State. You should also be aware of the need periodically to file a statement of continued existence or similar filing with your secretary of state’s office, confirming you are still in business at some level. Changes in your structure, including mergers or dissolutions, are also dependent on approval by the secretary of state.
  • Other State Compliance. Depending on the type of fundraising you do, you may have filings with your state department of insurance for charitable gift annuities, or with your state tax authority for certain types of charitable trusts.
  • Sales Tax. Yes, you may need to collect, remit and and report sales tax on items sold in your gift shop or cafeteria if you sell to the public on a regular basis.

State attorneys general are taking a greater interest in the management of nonprofits, with Ohio being among the most proactive in compliance and enforcement. Particular areas of interest include adherence with board fiduciary duties, conflicts of interest, self dealing and related party transactions, investment management, and accurate/adequate disclosure of the use of charitable funds.

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A Note from BauerGriffith

We are living in difficult times – the coronavirus pandemic, wildfires, global warming, racism, and a lot of rancor, political and otherwise. This year, 2020, can’t be over soon enough. Please know that what is important to you is important to us. We are here for you.

Stacy and Nancy

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A Guide to Standing Committees for Nonprofits — Other Committees

Over the last several installments in this series, we’ve examined the typical array of standing committees of a nonprofit board. Standing committees are generally those that align with a director’s specific fiduciary duties relating to governance, conflicts of interest, high level strategy determinations, and various aspects of fiscal management. But boards, through a well organized committee structure, can be very helpful in other areas as well.

A well written code of regulations will give your board the authority to create other committees to support the work of your organization. I generally recommend these other committees not be designated as standing committees, but that should not create a perception of decreased importance for their work. Program, policy, external relations, and other committees that give more direct support to the work of your organization’s staff can increase your organization’s effectiveness by helping staff prioritize activity and by using loyal board members in a more hands on role. More than other committees, the focus and roles of these types of committee will change, sometimes frequently, based on the needs of the organization, hence my reluctance to designate them as standing committees.

Some basic tips to ensure other committees operate effectively include:

  • Review their charters annually to ensure their tasks align with the current work plan or strategic plan
  • Ensure open lines of communication with board leadership
  • Recruit experts to serve on subject matter committees (which can be a great tool for cultivating new board members)
  • Allow staff members in various levels of leadership to interact with the committee

In addition to standing and regular committees, subcommittees with a very particular focus on an issue or program element can also be an effective way to utilize talent and expertise on your board, recruit non-board volunteers to assist, or to create advisory groups to help your staff resolve sticky issues. Often work groups or task forces, established on a temporary basis, can provide excellent support for time limited projects, like crises, events or advocacy issues.

Don’t forget, your committee structure should be determined after a thorough examination of your staff structure and needs for board support. Don’t create committees just to give your board something to do. Create committees to help your staff get their work done effectively.

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A Guide to Standing Committees for Nonprofits — The Development Committee

I may be biased, since I’ve been both a professional and volunteer fundraiser at various points in my career, but I think the Development or Fundraising Committee is, next to the Governance Committee, the most important standing committee of a nonprofit board. After all, if nobody is raising money, none of the other committees have anything to do! But while this committee is vitally important to the financial sustainability of your organization, it can also be the most challenging committee to manage and implement.

In developing a strategy to mobilize an effective Development Committee, I suggest we start with two premises or principals. The first premise is that fundraising is the responsibility of the whole board; every member, without exception, should play some role in raising funds for your organization. The second premise is that the primary responsibility of the Development Committee is to create and foster a culture within your organization that allows your full board to feel empowered, confident, and (dare I say) comfortable with their role in the fundraising process.

To me, this means the Development Committee is not created to be the small group of board members who do all of the asking during your various campaigns and initiatives. At the end of the day, they may be those people, but that shouldn’t be the primary reason people are asked to sit on the Development Committee. A structure like this will likely give the impression that the rest of the board isn’t needed in the fundraising process. Rather, consider these primary areas for your Development Committee to assist staff:

  • Create a development plan that is reflective of the goals and needs of your the organization
  • Communicate and cultivate buy in for the organization’s case for support among the full board
  • Create tools and resources for the board to use in their own individual fundraising efforts
  • Allow each board member to identify the specific tasks and roles they will play in the fundraising process
  • Create a sense of accountability for achieving those tasks and roles

Consider this sample description of the Development Committee:

Development Committee

The Development Committee shall: (a) review, approve, and support goals and strategies for, and oversee the progress of, the Corporation’s fundraising initiatives, including the Annual Fund, major and planned gifts, capital, endowment, and comprehensive campaigns, and events, in consultation with the Finance Committee; (b) support and assist the Development Office in its efforts to engage members, donors and supporters in the activities of the Corporation, and to cultivate, solicit, and steward donors; and (c) work with the Governance Committee to ensure that new Directors understand and accept their responsibilities in fundraising and development.

Some things to note:

  • I encourage you to state specifically the relationship between the Development Committee and the Governance Committee, to ensure fundraising is part of the recruitment, training, and board evaluation process.
  • I also encourage you to state specifically the relationship between the Development Committee and the Finance Committee, so that the contributed revenue goals in your budget are well thought out, well supported numbers informed by the needs of the organization and the donor resources available.
  • Remember that solicitation is only one relatively small part of the donor cycle. Encouraging and empowering board members to cultivate and steward donors can increase board involvement in fundraising and open the door to more good opportunities for staff to solicit.

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Competitions and Contests — Legal and Practical Considerations

Competitions, contests, drawing, raffles, auctions — all are frequently used tools in a nonprofit organization’s fundraising arsenal. What we may forget, though, is that both the IRS and state governments have laws and regulations applicable to these types of activities, which must be considered before launch. In addition, like campaigns or other fundraising initiatives, there are practical considerations to be addressed to ensure your efforts achieve the desired results.

The benefits of competitions, contests, drawings, raffles and the like include:

  • ability to reach new markets, raise visibility, create excitement
  • tapping into a revenue source other than philanthropy
  • for competitions, the opportunity to seek new ideas or creative input to address issues related to the organization’s mission

Challenges to watch out for include:

  • need for comprehensive, explicit rules, which you cannot change midstream
  • ability to publicize to the right audience to ensure your pool of entries will achieve your desired goal
  • no ability to cancel
  • requirement that all prizes be awarded, regardless of ultimate quantity or quality of entries
  • requirement of a public benefit (i.e., fundraising for your charitable mission or the development of a response to an issue of broad consequence)
  • conflicts of interest between competition applicants and judges
  • limitations on employee and related party participation

Rules relating to contests and competitions, where winners are selected based on merit or skills based criteria, and raffles or drawings, where winners are selected based on chance, will be subject to different rules and regulations by state and local governments. Those rules and regulations can include required disclosures, as well as registration and reporting requirements.

If your organization wants to consider a contest, competition, drawing or other event of this type, be sure to allow three to four months for planning. Also be sure to include a marketing and communication strategy, as well as clear goals and objectives for your event.

McKinsey and Company authored an excellent article on competitions and philanthropic prizes, which we commend to your reading. You can find it by clicking here.

For a good analysis of the considerations behind charitable auctions, check out this article from Blue Avocado, a magazine of the Nonprofits Insurance Alliance.

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A Guide to Standing Committees for Nonprofits — The Investment Committee

Last week we discussed the role of the Finance Committee for nonprofit organizations. Now we’d like to take a quick look at the Investment Committee, which generally has responsibility for overseeing the invested assets of an organization.

An Investment Committee can provide a good check and balance to ensure that restricted or reserved assets are properly stewarded for their intended purpose. The most common type of assets in this category would be your endowment, whether it’s a true endowment or a board restricted fund. An endowment is meant to have some degree of permanence, so it’s important to make sure the assets aren’t depleted just to balance the budget or cover routine expenses. In addition to an endowment, organizations sometimes have an investment account with less formal restrictions, but that operates more like a savings account may to an individual.

The Investment Committee:

  • Creates an investment policy to reflect the risk tolerance of the organization and provide guidance on the general portfolio makeup of the account
  • Creates a spending policy to clarify how much of the account can be drawn each year and how that amount is determined
  • Monitors the performance of the organization’s investments
  • Helps moderate the conflicting desires to create a large reserve fund that can provide consistent support to the operating budget through the yearly draws, and the desire to spend the money to balance budgets and expand programming

The following is a sample description of the Investment Committee:

The Investment Committee shall: (a) recommend policies to the Board concerning the management and use of the Corporation’s assets, including its endowment funds; (b) review and assure compliance with such policies that are adopted by the Board; (c) select a professional investment advisor to assist the Committee with periodic evaluations of the investment performance of assets, asset allocation, selection and monitoring of investment managers, and the execution of its responsibilities; (d) select and monitor the performance of investment managers and custodians; (e) for planning and budgeting purposes, recommend a policy for determining the annual transfer of funds from the any endowment funds to the operating or program budget; (f) report to the Board at least annually on the management and performance of endowment assets versus relevant benchmarks; and (g) if authorized by the Board, develop policies and guidelines for, and monitor the performance of, investments in any retirement or pension plan for the benefit of the Corporation’s employees.

The Investment Committee can be a good place for non-board volunteers to serve in an advisory capacity, even as voting members. As part of your board’s overall duty to manage the organization’s finances, though, it is important that any policies created by the Investment Committee be recommended to and approved by the full board.

The Investment Committee can be chaired by a vice chair of the board, or the assistant treasurer, or another officer or board member. However, if your treasurer chairs your Finance Committee, make sure he/she does not also chair the Investment Committee, in order to preserve the value of the checks and balances this committee is meant to create.

If you’re managing a smaller organization and have been reading this blog series, you may have begun to feel that I have suggested more standing committees than you have members of your board. Certainly there is room for overlap in the committee membership, and as I mentioned above, the Investment Committee is a place where non-board member volunteers can be effective. If you do have invested assets, though, I strongly recommend against operating with a combined Finance and Investment Committee. It may be possible to combine the duties of the Investment Committee with the Executive Committee. You may also want to make the Investment Committee a “committee of the whole”, which means your full board would take on these responsibilities.

Creating your investment and spending policies is very important work, and in a future post, we’ll take a look at some of the big questions to be considered when establishing these guidelines for your organization.

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A Guide to Standing Committees for Nonprofits — The Finance Committee

The next three standing committees we’ll examine are very closely related. These are the Finance Committee, the Audit Committee, and the Investment Committee. Sometimes the names of these committees are interchanged or combined, so as we move forward, make sure to focus on the function of the committees, not the names, to sort out the structure that will be best for your organization.

The Finance Committee is the group that has principal responsibility for your organization’s budget and financial performance. It is generally chaired by the organization’s Treasurer. The budget process will be the focus of the committee toward the end of the fiscal year. In close consultation with staff, the organization’s Treasurer and the committee will look at last year’s performance and determine new targets for income and expenses. The process isn’t really any different for a nonprofit organization than it is for any for profit business, and should produce a well reasoned, well supported projection of the next fiscal year’s full financial picture based on past financial and performance history.

I always recommend that the whole organization have a deep involvement in the budgeting process. Staff in your program areas will have the best information on the need for your organization’s services, be they social services, education, performing arts events, or anything else. The budget process is time for them to examine what resources they need to to their jobs, what the need is in your community for those services, and what the community can and will pay for them. Understanding this information will help them engage in meaningful discussions of what expenses will be needed, and what earned or contributed income is likely for the next year. Your organization’s development staff will also have an important role in the discussion, as they will be able to assess the extent to which the philanthropic community will support the services your program staff suggests.

In large organizations, this staff budgeting process will likely be coordinated by the executive director. However, when staff has made their initial budget recommendations, a robust discussion with senior staff and the Finance Committee should follow to balance not only the organization’s priorities but also the budget.

Once the Finance Committee is satisfied with the budget, a recommendation is made to the full Board for approval, since establishing and monitoring the budget is one of the primary duties of a board of directors. If possible, keep the Board updated on challenges during the budgeting process. When you present the final recommended budget to the board, I strongly recommend you include a narrative description with your spreadsheets, describing why each line item, or at least each group of line items, is increasing, decreasing, or staying the same compared to prior years. I find most boards want to see at least 3 years of past performance, meaning budgets and actual performance for each year, in order to understand the trajectory of the organization.

I understand this all sounds very formal and cumbersome, and if you’re leading a smaller nonprofit, you may not think it’s really necessary. However, I’d like to suggest that the process of establishing a budget really is the same, no matter the size or type of organization. For smaller budgets or organizations focused on a single line of business, the process may not take as long, but staff involvement is very important, and having a board committee dig into budget and performance is crucial for sustainability and success.

Remember, a budget is only an aspirational expression of your organization’s financial situation at the beginning of a fiscal year. Equally important is regular monitoring of actual performance compared to budget. This monitoring, along with regular reporting to the full board, is the second primary responsibility of the Finance Committee. In my experience, board members like to see regular, monthly updates, along with same time last year benchmarking to judge progress. To the extent possible, regular monthly or quarterly projections of where you’ll be at fiscal year end relative to budget are also extremely important, and allow you to communicate both good news (perhaps a new, large gift or grant or contract for services), and bad news (a loss of regular or anticipated funding) to the full board in a timely and meaningful way.

A caution for staff: Board and committee members who are unfamiliar or uncomfortable with formal financial reporting often request staff to prepare budgets and updates in many different formats, I believe in an effort to help them understand the reports they’re reviewing. Some want more information, some less. Some what spreadsheets, some want graphs. Some want dashboard style reporting, others just want the P&L. Listen to their concerns, adopt a standard form of reporting, and try to stick to it. Spend some time, or have your committee chair spend the time, teaching board members how to read the reports you are generating, to avoid spending time reformatting your reporting every month. (Yes, I have seen that happen.)

I’m often asked what kind of volunteers will make good Finance Committee members. Accounting expertise is helpful, but often your business office or outsourced CPA can advise on these technical issues. I like to see savvy business people who are used to the budgeting and financial monitoring process in their own business as members of this committee. I also strongly recommend a member of the development committee sit on the Finance Committee. Without that voice, it’s just too tempting for the contributed income line item to be whatever number is needed to balance the budget.

Another frequent question is whether non-board members can serve on the Finance Committee. In general, I recommend against this. I feel it is very important that the individuals setting and monitoring the organization’s finances be members of the board with the fiduciary duties of care and loyalty. That said, it is quite appropriate to use non-board volunteers for advice and counsel if your board does not have sufficient expertise in financial matters. These volunteers should not, however, be voting members of the Finance Committee.

The following is a sample job description for the functions of a typical Finance Committee:

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee shall: (a) review and make recommendations to the Board concerning the Corporation’s annual operating budget; (b) review and make recommendations to the Board concerning the Corporation’s annual capital budget; (c) monitor compliance with and variances from the budgets during the course of each year; (d) ensure that the Corporation’s financial reports provide accurate and timely information to the Board; (e) review proposed financings and borrowings, and make recommendations to the Board with respect thereto; (f) review the Corporation’s risk management and  insurance needs and policies, and make recommendations with respect thereto; (g) assist the Corporation’s Chief Financial Officer with long-term financial planning; and (h) review and approve fiscal policies, including those relating to check signing authority, accounts receivable collection, and management of accounts payable.

You’ll see this job description includes risk management, which we have not discussed in this blog. Some organizations make risk management a staff responsibility, which is quite appropriate. Including this activity in the responsibilities of your Finance Committee may depend on the expertise you have on your board.

You’ll also see that this job description does not include investment management, which I recommend, for organizations with investable funds, be housed in an Investment Committee, the subject of our next blog installment.

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A Guide to Standing Committees for Nonprofits — The Executive Committee

The Executive Committee of a nonprofit board can have many different forms and functions, often depending on the size or engagement of the board. Today we’ll look at several options and their advantages. First, though, let’s look at some rather universal concepts.

The Executive Committee is generally the body that directly oversees an organization’s highest paid staff member. Hiring, compensation, performance evaluation, and firing decisions are nearly always made by this group, which then informs the board of their decisions or recommendations. Housing these sensitive personnel matters in the Executive Committee provides important perspective and check and balances for your board president, and also confines the discussion of potentially sensitive personal information to a small, trusted group of board members, as opposed to presenting these discussions in the more open setting of a full board meeting.

In addition, the Executive Committee should have a strong voice regarding the agenda of meetings of the full board. In this role, the committee should ensure all important information and items for discussion and decision are included on your board agenda at the appropriate time to meet target dates in the strategic timeline or legal/regulatory deadlines. The Executive Committee should also ensure that any matter presented to your board for decision has been fully investigated and vetted, thereby ensuring your board members have all the information they need to make a decision for the organization.

If your organization has a large board, the Executive Committee can play a very important role in communicating information to and from your organization’s leadership. In this scenario, the chairpersons of each committee of the board, along with the board’s officers, generally comprise the membership of the Executive Committee. These members take decisions about the organization’s strategic direction to the various committees, which then work to implement those decisions in more detail. The members of the Executive Committee also report on their committees’ progress, to ensure continued alignment and to prevent duplication of efforts.

For a smaller board, the Executive Committee may only include the officers of the board, who may occupy a more hands on role in assisting your Executive Director.

Whichever structure makes sense for your organization, think of your Executive Committee as the body that helps coordinate the work of the board to maximize board engagement and effectiveness.

And because the Executive Committee plays such a central and often sensitive role, I recommend all members of this committee be members of your board currently in office. We’ll look at other committees where non-board members can appropriately serve, but the Executive Committee isn’t one of them.

With these concepts in mind, let’s look at another common function of the Executive Committee. Most state laws permit the Executive Committee to act between meetings of the full board, provided their actions are reported to and ratified by the full board at its next meeting. While this power certainly allows decisions to be made quickly and permits the scheduling of less frequent meetings of the full board (which, admittedly, means less work for staff), it may also contribute to less board engagement. There is a danger that, since the Executive Committee is easier to assemble and often consists of the Executive Director’s and board president’s closest colleagues, more and more decision making will be shifted over time to the committee, instead of allowing the full board the opportunity to consider important issues and feel engaged in the work of the organization. I generally recommend that the power of the Executive Committee to act between meetings of the full board be limited to emergency situations.

The following is a sample description of the Executive Committee’s responsibilities:

Membership of the Executive Committee shall be comprised of the officers of the Corporation, the chairpersons of each of the Corporation’s standing committees, and such other individuals as may be appointed by the Chair of the Board, provided that all members of the Executive Committee shall be Directors of the Corporation currently in office. The Executive Committee will serve as the compensation committee and is responsible for hiring and determining compensation for the President of the Corporation.  The Executive Committee, if necessary to meet legal deadlines or obligations or in emergency situations where action is required immediately, may have and exercise all of the authority of the Board of Directors in the management of the Corporation except as such authority is limited by the Articles of Incorporation, the Regulations, or by statute, or as may be limited by the resolution relating to the Committee.  All action taken by the Executive Committee shall be reported at the next full Board meeting.  The Executive Committee may act by a majority of the members of the Executive Committee at a meeting or in a writing or writings signed by all Executive Committee members.

One final comment for smaller organizations — if a board lacks sufficient members to staff all of the standing committees you might like to have, it is possible to have the Executive Committee assume the typical duties of the Board Development Committee, especially when an organization is in its formative years.

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A Guide to Standing Committees for Nonprofits — The Board Development Committee

Most of us are familiar with the concept of a nominating committee, the primary or perhaps only responsibility of which is to nominate new board members and officers for your organization’s board of directors. Typically, the process goes something like this:

A month or two before the annual meeting, the board chair asks for a small group of volunteers to put together a slate of nominees for the board. That group meets to come up with a short list of people they think would agree to serve by looking at their own personal list of contacts. Phone calls are made, simple expectations for board members communicated, and the group gets back together to see who said yes and who said no. If enough candidates said yes to fill the vacant slots, the list is forwarded to the full board, and then voted on at the annual meeting. A similar process is probably used to recruit officers from among the board, generally also elected at the annual meeting. Here ends the responsibility of the nominating committee.

This process gives short shrift to your organization’s need to create and maintain an involved, effective board with the skills and diversity necessary to advise staff on strategy and best practices for your service area. Imagine board and committee meetings where you can pose challenging questions about the overall direction, effectiveness and financial stability of your organization and consistently receive advice and counsel that is relevant and on point. If this kind of dynamic doesn’t sound like your board, I recommend the first place you look is your nominating committee.

The names nominating, governance and board development committee are often used interchangeably. Consider, though, the scope of the work implied by these names. The nominating committee nominates candidates for election. There is often no overarching strategy or planning involved, no assessment of the skills sets needed by the organization, and no long view of succession planning for leadership. A nominating committee is like failing to attend class all semester and cramming for the test the night before — you may pass the test but any long term retention of the information is probably accidental.

A governance committee gets a little closer to our ideal, in that the name implies some ongoing responsibility for monitoring board members’ performance against stated duties. However, often the strategic view of cultivating and recruiting new members to the board is missing.

The board development committee should, ideally, encompass all of these responsibilities. Its members should be carefully chosen from among members of the Board (this generally is not a committee where non-board members serve as volunteers). The responsibility of the board as whole is to set strategy, so the responsibility of the board development committee should include a strategic view of who is on the board, how members are recruited, what training and information members need to be effective, and how board members will be held accountable for their performance.

The following is a sample description of the a board development committee. It is fairly comprehensive, but I have used it for both large and small organizations. If your board is small, the duties of the board development committee can be combined with the executive committee until your board is large enough to support both standing committees.

Membership of the Board Development Committee shall consist solely of Directors of the Corporation currently in office.  The Board Development Committee shall: (a) identify and evaluate candidates for election and re-election to the Board and recommend them for election; (b) identify Directors to serve as Officers and nominate them for election by the Board; (c) approve candidates recommended to serve as Ex Officio Directors; (d) assist the Board in developing a statement of expectations for individual Directors, including standards for committee service and financial support; (e) develop procedures for the cultivation and recruitment of new Directors, including an assessment of skills, expertise and diversity needed to provide strategic direction to staff; (f) create and implement an orientation program for new Directors; (g) consult with the President regarding committee assignments for Directors and other individuals; (h) monitor the procedure by which Directors annually identify and report known and potential conflicts of interest; (i) from time to time, recommend to the voting Directors amendments and revisions to the Articles of Incorporation and the Code of Regulations; (j) develop and implement criteria for, and conduct, annual evaluations of individual Directors and the Board as a whole; (k) engage in succession planning for Board leadership, especially the position of President, and make recommendations to the Board regarding the process and timing of leadership transitions; (l) keep informed of current and emerging best practices in the field of non-profit board governance and operation.

Next time, we’ll take a look at best practices related to the function of the Executive Committee.

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Force Majeure Contract Clauses

COVID-19 has caused us to take a deeper look at many of our business practices, including the physical workplace, business plans, and emergency contingency plans. Business contracts are another area that need review.

Business agreements routinely include boiler plate language, such as a force majeure clause. This language protects the parties in the event of an unlikely circumstance that would significantly impair either or both parties’ ability to perform, such as fire, war, flooding, earthquake and the like. While these clauses have rarely been relevant, the pandemic requires us to take another look.

One of the benefits of force majeure clauses is that they protect a party that is unable to perform from claims of breach of contract and related damages resulting from non-performance. The events listed in force majeure clauses differ from a breach of contract scenario because the party did not choose to not perform, rather circumstances beyond its control caused its inability and thus failure to perform.

If your business cannot perform under a contract due to COVID-19, either because of the virus itself or the government’s response to it (shelter in place orders, quarantine or other governmental restraints), look at your existing contracts to determine whether each has a force majeure clause and, if so, whether it is broad enough to include the current pandemic, and how the parties agreed to proceed in the event the clause is triggered. If there is no force majeure clause, or if it is not broad enough to cover COVID-19, there are other legal defenses that can help you, such as frustration of purpose and impracticability.

And while force majeure clauses and other defenses may be available, the best first strategy is to communicate with the other party to the agreement. Using common sense, issues related to non-performance or inability to perfom can hopefully be resolved without resorting to legal action.

Until now, virus, pandemic, quarantine and the like have not typically been listed in force majeure clauses. Many businesses are taking the time now to update their contracts to include such circumstances as a hedge against future unknowns.