Bruce R. Hopkins is a senior partner with the law firm of Polsinelli Shalton Flanigan Suelthaus PC, in its Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. offices. He specializes in the representation of charitable and other nonprofit organizations, including private foundations. His practice ranges over the entirety of legal matters involving nonprofit organizations, with emphasis on legal matters pertaining to private foundations, fundraising law issues, charitable giving (including planned giving), the formation of nonprofit organizations, acquisition of recognition of tax-exempt and public charity status, unrelated business planning, application of intermediate sanctions, use of nonprofit and for-profit subsidiaries, nonprofit organizations' involvement in joint ventures, and review of annual information returns.
Mr. Hopkins served as chair of the Committee on Exempt Organizations, Tax Section, American Bar Association; chair, Section of Taxation, National Association of College and University Attorneys; and president, Planned Giving Study Group of Greater Washington, D.C. He received the 2007 Vanguard (Lifetime Achievement) Nonprofit Lawyer Award, presented by the Committee on Nonprofit Corporations, Section of Business Law, American Bar Association.
Mr. Hopkins is the series editor of Wiley's Nonprofit Law, Finance, and Management Series. In addition to
Private Foundations: Tax Law and Compliance, Second Edition, he is the author of
The Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations, Ninth Edition; Planning Guide for the Law of Tax-Exempt Organizations: Strategies and Commentaries; The Tax Law of Unrelated Business for Nonprofit Organizations; The Tax Law of Associations; The Tax Law of Charitable Giving, Third Edition; The Law of Fundraising, Third Edition; Nonprofit Law Made Easy; Charitable Giving Law Made Easy; 650 Essential Nonprofit Law Questions Answered; The First Legal Answer Book for Fund-Raisers; The Second Legal Answer Book for Fund-Raisers; The Nonprofits' Guide to Internet Communications Law; The Law of Intermediate Sanctions: A Guide for Nonprofits; The Legal Answer Book for Nonprofit Organizations; The Second Legal Answer Book for Nonprofit Organizations; The Nonprofit Law Dictionary; Starting and Managing a Nonprofit Organization; A Legal Guide, Fourth Edition; and is the co-author, with Jody Blazek, of
The Legal Answer Book for Private Foundations; and with Thomas K. Hyatt, of
The Law of Tax-Exempt Healthcare Organizations, Second Edition. He also writes
Bruce R. Hopkins' Nonprofit Counsel, a monthly newsletter, published by John Wiley & Sons.
Jody Blazek is a partner in Blazek & Vetterling LLP, a Houston CPA firm focusing on tax and financial services for exempt organizations and the individuals who create, fund, and work with them. BV serves over 300 nonprofit organizations, providing financial reporting, tax compliance, and planning services.
Jody began her professional career at KPMG, then Peat, Marwick, Mitchell &Co. Her concentration on exempt organizations began in 1969 when she studied and advised clients about the Tax Reform Act that completely revamped the taxation of charities and created private foundations. From 1972 to 1981, she gained nonprofit management experience as treasurer of the Menil Interests, where she worked with John and Dominique de Menil to plan the Menil Collection, the Rothko Chapel, and other projects of theMenil Foundation. She reentered public practice in 1981 to found the firm she now serves.
She is the author of six books in the Wiley Nonprofit Series: IRS Form 1023 PreparationGuide (2005); IRS Form 990 Tax PreparationGuide for Nonprofits (2004); Tax Planning and Compliance for Tax-Exempt Organizations, Fourth Edition (2004); Financial Planning for Nonprofit Organizations (1996); and Private Foundations: Tax Law and Compliance, Second Edition (2003) and The Legal Answer Book for Private Foundations (2002), both co-authored with Bruce R. Hopkins.
