Anyone familiar with the Wiley series of publications on law, accounting, management, and
fundraisingfornonprofitorganizationsknowsthatyourauthorhasapassionforwritingabout
the federal and state laws applicable to charitable and other types of nonprofit organizations.
One of the reasons for this compulsion is the challenge of capturing—and then keeping up
with—this vast body of complex and intricate rules, particularly in the federal tax area. Thanks
to Congress and the state legislatures, the Internal Revenue Service, and other government
agencies, there is always a wider ange and deep flow of topics to write about.
There is another challenge underlying the zeal for this type of writing. It is what I call the
“interpretive” function. That is, it is not enough to simply write summaries of the law and keep
those summaries current—the challenge is to write in a way that the nontechnical reader (as
well as many lawyers and accountants who do not often dwell on the subjects can understand.
This observation is not meant to be denigrating to someone who is not a tax lawyer or an
accountant; it is simply recognition of the fact that the law is so convoluted and mangled, and
so filled with cross-references and unintelligible phraseology, that the average person needs an
interpreter to wade through it. To state the matter less delicately, some of these laws are not
readily understandable at first reading.
Anyone familiar with the Wiley series of publications on law, accounting, management, and
fundraisingfornonprofitorganizationsknowsthatyourauthorhasapassionforwritingabout
the federal and state laws applicable to charitable and other types of nonprofit organizations.
One of the reasons for this compulsion is the challenge of capturing—and then keeping up
with—this vast body of complex and intricate rules, particularly in the federal tax area. Thanks
to Congress and the state legislatures, the Internal Revenue Service, and other government
agencies, there is always a wider ange and deep flow of topics to write about.
There is another challenge underlying the zeal for this type of writing. It is what I call the
“interpretive” function. That is, it is not enough to simply write summaries of the law and keep
those summaries current—the challenge is to write in a way that the nontechnical reader (as
well as many lawyers and accountants who do not often dwell on the subjects can understand.
This observation is not meant to be denigrating to someone who is not a tax lawyer or an
accountant; it is simply recognition of the fact that the law is so convoluted and mangled, and
so filled with cross-references and unintelligible phraseology, that the average person needs an
interpreter to wade through it. To state the matter less delicately, some of these laws are not
readily understandable at first reading.
