Formation, Transactions, Mergers & Affiliations

Hemenway & Barnes clients benefit from our extensive experience advising nonprofit organizations throughout their life cycle. We regularly assist our clients with:

• Determining whether a business or nonprofit structure would best enable them to achieve their goals
• Evaluating whether a new organization may qualify as a 501(c)(3) charity, 501(c)(4) social welfare organization, political committee or other type of tax-exempt organization
• Designing and implementing governance structures
• Procuring tax-exempt status and advising on compliance with state and federal requirements

We also represent private foundations, public charities and other nonprofit organizations in all facets of merger and affiliation transactions. We offer our nonprofit clients knowledgeable insights and hands-on support regarding:

• Organizational assessment and transaction structuring
• Due diligence investigations
• Coordination with regulatory agencies, funders, licensors, accreditors, vendors and other partners
• Post-merger governance and organizational planning

Hemenway & Barnes also represents for-profit businesses in merger and acquisition transactions. Learn more here.

Representative Experience

• Established a public charity to provide safety consulting advice to underserved regions of the world, including partnerships with multinational organizations and funding sources.
• Negotiated a complex integration, including extensive coordination with local and state governmental organizations, of a cultural nonprofit with a larger charity to ensure the financial stability of and enhance the programmatic offerings for both organizations.
• Represented educational organizations in the spin-off of a program into a separate nonprofit and in a subsequent merger.
• Guided a state college through the process of creating a nonprofit supporting organization by an act of legislature to acquire and operate property for benefit of the college.
• Advised a nonprofit human services client on a merger with a local recovery home.
• Represented a well-known private foundation in the spinoff of a successful program into its own, separate operating charity.
• Represented a large university in its affiliation with a local college, including integration of operations and facilities, and coordination with regulatory agencies.
• Assisted in the merger of two community healthcare organizations.