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STATE FUNDRAISING REGULATION• A series of organizations or activities that are exempt from some or all ofthe statutory requirements• A process by which a professional fundraiser, professional solicitor, and/or commercial co-venturer registers with, and reports to, the state• Recordkeeping requirements. applicable to charitable organizations,professional fundraisers, professional solicitors, and/or commercialco-venturers• Rules concerning the contents of contracts between a charitable organizationand a professional fundraiser, professional solicitor, and/or a commercialco-venturer• A series of prohibited acts• Provision for reciprocal agreements among the states as to coordinatedregulation in this field• A summary of the powers of the governmental official having regulatoryauthority (usually the Attorney General or Secretary of State)• A statement of the various sanctions that can be imposed for failure tocomply with this law (such as injunctions, fines, and imprisonment)These elements of the law are generally applicable to the fundraising charitableorganization. Nevertheless, several provisions of law are directed at the fundraisingprofessional or the professional solicitor, thus going beyond traditionalfundraising regulation.§ 24.2 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVEUntil the mid-1950s, the matter of fundraising practices was not addressed bystate law. At that time, not much attention was paid to those practices from thelegal perspective. Some counties had adopted fundraising regulation ordinances,but there was no state or federal law on the subject.This began to change about 50 years ago as part of the disclosure and consumerprotection movements. North Carolina was the first state to enact a fundraisingregulation law. Others soon followed, however, generating a series oflaws that came to be known as charitable solicitation acts. New York was the secondstate to enact one of these acts, and this law became the prototype for themany that were to follow.The New York law and its progeny involved a statutory scheme based onregistration and reporting. Charitable organizations are required to registerin advance of solicitation and to annually report; bond requirements camelater. Subsequently, forms of regulation involving professional fundraisersand professional solicitors were developed. Exceptions evolved, disclosurerequirements expanded, and a variety of prohibited acts (see below) wereidentified.Today’s typical charitable solicitation statute is far more extensive than itsforebears of decades ago. When charitable solicitation acts began to develop (asnoted, beginning in the mid-1950s), the principal features were registration andannual reporting requirements. These laws were basically licensing statutes. 628