Brief Bifurcation of State Regulation of Charities
Subtitle
Divided Regulatory Authority Over Charities and Its Impact on Charitable Solicitation Laws
Cindy M. Lott, Nathan Dietz, Marcus Gaddy
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In 27 United States jurisdictions, the attorney general is the sole state-level regulator of charitable organizations and charitable solicitation. In the other 24 jurisdictions, state-level charity regulation is split between two entities: the state attorney general and another state agency, most commonly the secretary of state. This division of regulatory authority is called “bifurcation.” This paper provides background information and data on bifurcated structures for state charities regulation and illustrates the potential utility of considering bifurcation in research on other state-level areas of charitable regulation. We explore several areas of state-level regulation of charitable solicitation (fundraising) through the lens of bifurcation and identify how bifurcation may affect regulatory patterns using our Index of Charitable Solicitation Regulatory Breadth. These approaches to understanding the regulatory context at the state level may have broad applications for research on charities and for jurisdictions considering different models of oversight.
Research Areas Nonprofits and philanthropy
Tags Nonprofit data and statistics
Policy Centers Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy