State Oversight of Charities: NASCO Annual Report; Karen Kunstler-Goldman Award for Excellence

Two recent developments highlight the continued increasing importance of state oversight of charities. 

First, the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) issued fifth annual report, for 2024. Covering the period from September 2023 to September 2024, the 29-page report provides a non-comprehensive coverage of state activities in the following areas:

1. Enforcement cases:
        Deceptive Solicitations (10 cases)
        Governance (25 cases)
        Estates and Trusts (12 cases)
        Other (1 case relating to director derivative suit standing)
2. Transactions, dissolutions and winding up – review and enforcement (8 examples)
3. Registration and registration enforcement activities (5 examples)
4. Outreach efforts (16 examples) and published guidance (5 examples)
5. Regulations adopted (5 examples) and legislation enacted (7 examples)

Second, NASCO announced the creation of the Karin Kunstler-Goldman Award for Excellence in the field of charity oversight and regulation and the presentation of the inaugural award to its namesake, who is the longtime Deputy Bureau Chief in the New York State Attorney General’s Charities Bureau.

Lloyd Mayer