Ideally, less than 50%. If it's more than that, you end up with a situation where it is tempting for everyone to vote themselves overly-generous salaries, because who is going to stop it if most of the board is paid staff? From an IRS perspective, it's not that it WILL happen...it's simply that it can.
Our 501(c)3 has a clubhouse. We use it for our meetings and events. When we are not using it we rent it out and use that money to pay our mortgage. Can we rent our clubhouse to a political candidate (we would not promote the event, just allow it? And if so, can we offer a discounted rate or is there a reason they must pay the going rate? Thank you.
As long as you're not endorsing the candidate, you should be able to rent to their event. What you choose to charge them doesn't really concern any regulatory matter. The bigger concern is your rental activity in general. Revenue generated by a nonprofit that isn't directly tied to the purpose of the organization, assuming it's ongoing revenue, can be considered Unrelated Business Income (or UBI). While not illegal, it's taxable and requires tracking on a separate set of books. Rental income is often an exception to this rule, but not short term rentals like what you're doing. I would be concerned that your rental activity is a taxable revenue stream, and if you're not reporting it properly, you could have a big issue to deal with.
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How much of the board can be a working board that also works as staff? In a public 501c3
Ideally, less than 50%. If it's more than that, you end up with a situation where it is tempting for everyone to vote themselves overly-generous salaries, because who is going to stop it if most of the board is paid staff? From an IRS perspective, it's not that it WILL happen...it's simply that it can.
Our 501(c)3 has a clubhouse. We use it for our meetings and events. When we are not using it we rent it out and use that money to pay our mortgage. Can we rent our clubhouse to a political candidate (we would not promote the event, just allow it? And if so, can we offer a discounted rate or is there a reason they must pay the going rate? Thank you.
As long as you're not endorsing the candidate, you should be able to rent to their event. What you choose to charge them doesn't really concern any regulatory matter. The bigger concern is your rental activity in general. Revenue generated by a nonprofit that isn't directly tied to the purpose of the organization, assuming it's ongoing revenue, can be considered Unrelated Business Income (or UBI). While not illegal, it's taxable and requires tracking on a separate set of books. Rental income is often an exception to this rule, but not short term rentals like what you're doing. I would be concerned that your rental activity is a taxable revenue stream, and if you're not reporting it properly, you could have a big issue to deal with.