Can a non- profit group pay its board members 10% off the top of all fundraising monies?

Thanks for the help!

No, you can't. It's a volunteer position. You are raising money for the program. It may feel like a second job, but it's not.

Board Members should follow the 3 G's!

Get money, Give money or Get out of the way!

However, non-profit groups can have full time paid personnel running the organization. To avoid a conflict of interest, they should not be board members.

And you should check with anyone who is "hired" to do any development for your program. The Association of Fundraising Professionals has some good documents about ethics for development professionals.

Sometimes it is necessary to hire someone to do the fundraising for you. There are ways you can work with this.

This is not true. Board members may be compensated for their actions but not in the way that it was presented in the original post.

I will assume you are out of CA.

However, board members working without compensation in the state of California are given protection by the state for operating on a volunteer basis. For the specific protection you would be giving up, you may consult CA Corporations Code section 5047.5.

If you are not yet incorporated, you may want to look into incorporating in Delaware or Nevada and registering with CA as what’s called a "foreign corporation." These states have the least amount of restrictions on what you can and can not do and is a common practice among many corporations. There is a lot of information on this and a google search will tell you what you need to know.

For legal information about the rules and regulations you must observe when compensating a board of directors and general operations of running a Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation consult Part 2. of the CA Corporations Code.

www.leginfo.ca.gov has the codes in its entirety…hope this helps.

-Dan Lukehart