Marnie Berk, director of pro bono programs for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest

Pointing to the current "immense pressure and hardship" faced by nonprofit organizations "as a result of the twin public health crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism," the New York Lawyers for the Public Interest has released a 2020 tool kit of guides laying out instructional legal information—on a range of topics—for nonprofits.

"Countless nonprofits are facing budget cuts and declines in other previously reliable funding sources coupled with heightened demand for their support and services as a result of the pandemic," said Marnie Berk, director of pro bono programs at NYLPI, in an email. "That's where the … Nonprofit Toolkit comes in," she said. "It offers essential legal guidance often inaccessible to nonprofits under normal circumstances and even further out of reach today."

The free, or "pro bono," guides, which the civil rights advocacy group began publishing in 2012, are especially aimed at giving "low-income communities" who might not otherwise have access to private legal advice "vital information for launching or running a successful nonprofit organization," according to a news release about the 2020 series of guides put on by the group.

The release, which in its title notes the guides offer a "legal resource for newly launching and established nonprofits," also says that the NYLPI believes the legal guides serve "to support and strengthen small to midsize nonprofit organizations, especially those that serve Black, Indigenous, or People of Color (BIPOC) or are led by BIPOC."

"These guides provide a base coat of legal information for leaders of new or thriving nonprofits to allow them to advance their critical work to create social change," Berk said in the release.

"Legal services can be expensive and far out of reach for many organizations," she also said, adding that "we are working to level the playing field for nonprofits of all kinds to make an impact."

The development of the guides was "made possible" with support from private law firms who contributed to the 2020 guides, the organization says. Those "partners" included Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, Ropes & Gray, DLA Piper and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, and Cooley, the organization states.

The "full list of topics" covered by the legal-information guides, which are available via this NYLPI's Nonprofit Toolkit link, includes:

• Guidance on commercial leases during COVID-19
• Contracts issues during COVID-19
• What to do when your workforce is working from home
• Nonprofit formation
• Fiscal sponsorship
• Working with pro bono counsel
• Intellectual property
• Advocacy and lobbying
• Labor and employment
• Social enterprise formation

The decades-old group, which at the bottom of Monday's news release described itself as working to "combine the power of law, organizing, and the private bar to make lasting change where it's needed," also said that its "Pro Bono Clearinghouse" arm "further builds capacity at nonprofits by working closely with other nonprofit organizations and private law firms to host free biweekly workshops and webinars that cover and expand upon the topics covered in the nonprofit guides."

"In 2012 NYLPI published its first free guide to provide legal information about starting a nonprofit," the group noted. "Since then, the Pro Bono Clearinghouse has surveyed leaders from local nonprofits about legal pain points and challenges, and in response, has crafted informational guides."