The passage of Act 127 in 2022 was a prudent legislative response to a perplexing (some may even say absurd) situation. Although the en­actment of Act 127 was not driven exclusively by nonprofits and did not exclusively impact nonprofit service providers, it was a big-win reminder that nonprofits do have lobbying leverage, even when their budgets are lean — and that nonprofits can lose out when they sit silent on the sidelines and don’t self-ad­vocate. When they don’t engage in lobbying, nonprofits not only miss out on opportunities for more impactful collaboration, additional funding and legislative reform in support of their missions, but, as the origin story of Act 127 tells, their silence could also be causing them harm.

In a world rife with cynical self-promotion and self-aggrandizement, the Philadelphia Society of St. Vincent de Paul is a Catholic charity whose sole mission is helping others. The society provides financial assistance, food and encouragement to some of the region's poorest residents, putting biblical teaching into practice. In all, about 1,000 Philadelphia-area volunteers make home visits and provide other assistance, all to establish a personal connection with the people they help. It's simply not their style to write a check and walk away, feeling fabulous about how virtuous they are.

Outside the Bellevue Hotel on an August afternoon, Jose Benitez and Ronda Goldfein were preparing for the hard sell. For months, they had been working quietly on perhaps the boldest undertaking of their long careers at the front lines of Philadelphia's worst public health crisis. Now came their most audacious pitch yet: to turn around the city's astonishing opioid death rate by opening a site where people in addiction could use drugs in the presence of medical staff, be revived if they overdose, and then be connected to treatment, housing, and other services that could turn around lives and communities blighted by drugs.

The Philadelphia Activities Fund was supposed to be a city-run nonprofit that provided financial support for community organizations. It presented itself as such for decades, since its founding by then-Mayor Ed Rendell in 1994. But four years ago, the fund made headlines with the discovery that it was not, in fact, a nonprofit. A 2019 Inquirer report found that the IRS had revoked PAF’s charity status in 2010 for failing to file tax returns since at least 2007 — a fact that board members weren’t aware of until told by The Inquirer.

Charitable organizations – those 501(c)(3) public charity NGOs, which typically function with the support of the government by way of funding, tax exemptions, and fee-for-service contracts – serve a vital role in our communities as they provide (and supplement) government services. But the NGO/government relationship has its challenges – as well as its bystanders.

It wasn’t long after Morgen Cheshire was named a partner at Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis L.L.P. that she realized she would soon face a wrenching decision. Making partner at a big firm is a dream for many young lawyers, and finally she was there. In that role, Cheshire wanted more than anything to represent the rich tapestry of foundations, institutes, and other nonprofits that call Philadelphia home — she had been working hard to develop that client base.

Over the years, I’ve concluded that there is not a non-profit way to practice law. We in-house lawyers for non-profits do all the things other in-house counsel do. But, while they might have to deal with the Securities and Exchange Commission, we spend time with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). And our corporate cultures tend to be different because profit is not our motive. Otherwise, we have pretty much the same roles in our respective organizations.