Frequently Asked Questions

Nevada Nonprofits is a statewide, member-based organization focused on public policy advocacy, collaboration and practical resources that help organizations advance their missions.

This new association serves as a unifying voice for Nevada’s nonprofit sector, bringing organizations of all sizes, missions, and service areas together around shared priorities and opportunities.

Our goal is to create a strong network where nonprofits connect, collaborate, and influence public policy. Nonprofits are an important sector that is critical to Nevada’s economy and serves a variety of community needs. Nevada Nonprofits ensures the nonprofit perspective is represented in important policy conversations and decisions affecting our State and communities.

Together, we can build a more connected, informed, and influential nonprofit community—where organizations are supported individually while creating greater impact collectively.

Nevada is one of the few states that does not have a statewide nonprofit association, leaving a void for nonprofit advocacy and influence as a sector. The state’s nonprofit sector is also under-resourced compared to similar regions nationwide and for our population and service level demands.

Nevada Nonprofits was founded to ensure that Nevada’s nonprofit sector has a seat at the table when public policy decisions are made. Nonprofits are essential partners in addressing community needs, delivering services, creating economic opportunity, and strengthening quality of life, yet too often the sector lacks coordinated representation in policy discussions. Nevada Nonprofits was created to provide a unifying voice for nonprofit organizations around shared priorities, to educate policymakers about the sector’s role and impact, advance policies that support nonprofits, and build the collective voice needed to address statewide challenges. Through advocacy, research, and collaboration, the association works to strengthen both individual organizations and the nonprofit sector as a whole.

Nevada Nonprofits supports organizations of all sizes, whether you’re a small organization looking for practical public policy and advocacy support or a large organization looking to build consensus with other organizations and influence systems-level policy issues. Membership connects you to resources, relationships, advocacy and opportunities that take significant effort to build alone.

Nevada Nonprofits advocates for public policies that strengthen the nonprofit sector’s ability to serve communities, address critical needs, and contribute to Nevada’s economic and civic well-being. The association focuses on issues that affect nonprofits broadly rather than advancing the interests of individual organizations or specific causes.

Our policy priorities include things like:

• Nonprofit Sector Sustainability: Policies that strengthen the financial health, operational capacity, and long-term viability of nonprofit organizations.
• Government Contracting and Grants: Fair, transparent, and efficient funding processes, including timely payments, reasonable reporting requirements, and equitable access to public funding opportunities.
• Workforce Development and Talent Retention: Strategies that help nonprofits recruit, retain, and develop a skilled workforce, including solutions to compensation, benefits, and professional development challenges.
• Charitable Giving and Philanthropy: Policies that encourage charitable giving, strengthen philanthropic partnerships, and promote investment in Nevada’s communities.
• Nonprofit Regulation and Accountability: Balanced regulatory frameworks that protect the public interest while reducing unnecessary administrative burdens on nonprofit organizations.
• Civic Engagement and Community Participation: Policies that encourage volunteerism, community engagement, and collaboration among nonprofits, government agencies, businesses, and residents.
• Data, Research, and Sector Awareness: Efforts to improve understanding of the nonprofit sector’s economic and social impact and ensure policymakers have access to reliable information when making decisions.
• Cross-Sector Community Challenges: Ensuring nonprofits shape policy areas where we already play a significant role, including health and human services, education, housing, behavioral health, workforce development, community development, and quality of life.

The association is being developed through a first-of-its-kind collaboration of key organizations and sector leaders that provided funding for Nevada Nonprofits, including:

• CEO Exchange (Las Vegas)
• Community Foundation of Northern Nevada (Reno)
• Engelstad Foundation (Las Vegas)
• Nevada Community Foundation (Las Vegas)
• Nevada GrantLab (Las Vegas)
• Nevada HAND (Las Vegas)
• Nevada Nonprofit Center (Reno)
• United Way of Northern Nevada and the Sierra (Reno)
• United Way of Southern Nevada (Las Vegas)

A strong nonprofit sector needs more than individual organizations working independently. It needs a dedicated, full-time champion focused on advancing the interests of the sector as a whole. Nevada Nonprofits was created to fill that role.

Members will not simply receive services from Nevada Nonprofits; they will help set the agenda, identify priorities, and shape the organization's direction. Through member surveys, listening sessions, annual meetings, and regular outreac, Nevada Nonprofits will create multiple, ongoing opportunities for members to provide input throughout the year. Member engagement ensures that programs, advocacy efforts, research initiatives, and member services reflect the issues that matter most to Nevada's nonprofit community.

As a membership association, Nevada Nonprofits provides a consistent and credible voice for the sector, ensuring nonprofits are represented in public policy discussions, funding conversations, and statewide initiatives. While individual organizations are focused on delivering their missions, a statewide association can monitor emerging issues, build relationships with policymakers and stakeholders, respond to legislative and regulatory changes, and advocate for solutions that benefit the broader nonprofit community.

A full-time champion also serves as a convener, bringing together nonprofit leaders, government agencies, foundations, businesses, and community partners to address shared challenges and identify opportunities for collective action. By coordinating efforts and amplifying the sector’s voice, the association helps nonprofits achieve outcomes that would be difficult to accomplish independently.

In addition, Nevada Nonprofits invests in the long-term strength of the sector by providing research, resources, training, networking opportunities, and timely information that help organizations operate more effectively and sustainably.

Through a shared membership model, nonprofits gain access to expertise, representation, and influence that single organizations may not be able to maintain efficiently on their own. Together, members gain a dedicated advocate working every day to elevate the sector’s impact, amplify its influence, and ensure nonprofit perspectives are considered in decisions that affect Nevada’s communities.

Joining Nevada Nonprofits is easy by visiting: Become a Member.

Membership dues are based on organizational operating revenue and are tiered to make joining affordable and accessible for organizations of all sizes.

Yes, through our sponsorship program. If you are not a nonprofit organization you can also support Nevada Nonprofits through sponsorship. Please visit: Sponsorship for more information.

Customized sponsorship opportunities are also available upon request. Please contact LisaC@nevadanonprofits.org to develop a sponsorship opportunity that suits your organization.

Nevada Nonprofits is focused on policy advocacy because public policy shapes the environment in which nonprofits operate and serve their communities. Government decisions influence funding, contracting, workforce development, tax policy, charitable giving, reporting requirements, and countless other factors that affect an organization’s ability to fulfill its mission. When nonprofits have a voice in these decisions, they are better positioned to deliver services, respond to community needs, and create positive outcomes.

Policy advocacy also recognizes that nonprofits are more than service providers. They are employers, economic contributors, community leaders, and subject matter experts with firsthand knowledge of the challenges facing Nevada’s residents. Nonprofits work daily on issues ranging from health and education, child welfare, housing, workforce development, the arts, environmental stewardship, civic engagement, animal welfare, community development and much more. As a result, they offer valuable insights that can help policymakers develop more effective and sustainable solutions.

Nevada Nonprofits serves as a nonpartisan advocate for the nonprofit sector as a whole. Rather than promoting the interests of any single organization, the association works to advance policies that strengthen the capacity, sustainability, and effectiveness of the sector. This includes educating policymakers, convening stakeholders, providing research and data, and elevating the collective voice of nonprofits on issues that affect their ability to serve communities.

A focus on policy advocacy also allows the sector to address root causes, not just symptoms. While nonprofits provide essential services and support, many of the challenges they confront are influenced by public policy decisions. By engaging constructively in the policymaking process, nonprofits can help shape systems and policies that improve outcomes for entire communities.

Ultimately, Nevada Nonprofits believes that a stronger nonprofit voice leads to better public policy, more effective community solutions, and a stronger Nevada. Advocacy is not separate from the nonprofit mission. It is a critical tool for ensuring that nonprofits can continue making a meaningful difference in the lives of the people and communities they serve.

Advocacy is a general term for actively supporting or recommending something. It could be an idea, a program, a regulatory change or speaking for a group or interest that doesn’t typically or isn’t able to speak for itself. Nevada Nonprofits is focused on advocating for nonprofit organizations as a group to remove barriers that affect nonprofits, make operating easier, more cost effective and support them to better achieve their individual missions.

Advocacy does not just happen during legislative sessions. Advocacy is routine, daily actions like educating decisionmakers, engaging stakeholders, and mobilizing communities. Examples may be things like running social media awareness campaigns, meeting with local elected officials, agency staff, publishing research, and organizing events to build coalitions, aligning messaging and amplifying community impact to achieve greater influence. Because nonprofit organizations don’t all have staff support to engage in routine advocacy in addition to serving their core mission, associations, much like a chamber of commerce, handle advocacy as a cost-effective way to benefit the whole sector at a low cost per organization.

The Florida Nonprofit Alliance provides a helpful explanation:

“Advocacy encompasses a wide range of activities designed to influence public opinion and policy.”

“Lobbying is a form of advocacy that attempts to influence specific legislation. Nonprofits can, and often should, lobby at all levels of government. The federal government supports lobbying by 501(c)3 organizations through the 1976 Lobby Law and 1990 IRS regulations.”

Not at all. Many organizations have their own lobbyist for specific issues that pertain to them individually, but still participate in coalitions like a Chamber of Commerce, the American Bar Association, the League of Cities or Association of Counties to amplify the voice of many members and represent the group. Associations are also able to facilitate dialogue as a neutral representative to achieve better mutual understanding of impacts of decisions and avoid potential negative impacts. Associations create a “middle space” between members and decisionmakers.

Lobbyists for individual organizations and associations often work together to understand impacts of decisions and collaborate to educate policymakers of the overall impacts on the sector, using specific examples from individual organizations, validating each perspective.

Nevada Nonprofits won’t lobby for a specific organization’s needs; our advocacy efforts must benefit the sector broadly, rather than a single organization. Because we represent a collective group, favoring one member may alienate another and the broader membership base. We advocate for the sector’s interests overall and work to shape favorable policies and regulations and prevent harmful ones.

Momentum already exists for policy and legislative changes that support the nonprofit sector and Nevada Nonprofits will maintain this focus full-time. Thanks to nonprofit advocacy and legislator support during the 2025 legislative session, AB 442 was passed and took effect in July 2026. AB 442 established requirements around delayed state grant payments and expanded the state’s grant administration framework. Nevada Nonprofits will be monitoring implementation of AB 442 and supporting State agencies to implement prompt payment, ensuring they provide an explanation when there is a delay, and will also support nonprofit organizations to submit complete reports that facilitate prompt payment.

Yes. United Way of Southern Nevada is serving as the fiscal sponsor of Nevada Nonprofits. In doing so, UWSN provides in-kind accounting and administrative support to the organization. Any payments made under this agreement, including sponsorship and membership dues, must be paid to UWSN noting the initiative, Nevada Nonprofits.

Source: National Nonprofit Council

The nonprofit sector plays a vital role nationally and locally in creating and sustaining a thriving community. They contribute to economic growth, provide social, cultural and environmental stewardship and deliver critical services. Nonprofits are eclectic, working across a variety of subsectors including arts and culture, sports and recreation, education, housing, the environment, health and the social safety net and civic engagement.

Nonprofits are important to engage in public policy as they are on the front lines delivering services to communities and through their knowledge and expertise can create systems level change when they work together.

True collaboration requires shared risk, resource pooling, and mutual capacity building. Collaboration is important because most problems in today’s world are too large and complex for one business, government agency or sector to solve in isolation. By combining tools, funding, and expertise, groups achieve greater impact when they work together, build consensus and advocate with a unified voice. This is especially important for nonprofits who have to be efficient with resources. Some of the benefits of collaboration include:

• Broader reach
• Enhanced credibility
• Increased efficiency
• Innovation

There are many critical organizations working to build capacity of the nonprofit sector primarily focused on fundraising, grant seeking, general operational support and leadership development. Nevada Nonprofits will not replicate these general services, we will focus on public policy and advocacy that complements what these organizations do.