Singlepoint Pilot Registration Program Is Good News

In September the National Association of State Charity Officials (NASCO) announced a pilot program in eight states that will ease some of the burden of the current multi-state registration system.

The program is called Singlepoint Website. It is “a unified electronic registration system that will allow nonprofit organizations and their professional fundraisers to comply with every state’s registration requirements at one online location.” You can read NASCO’s summary of the pilot program here.

NASCO’s pilot project is the first step towards what hopefully will be a nationwide single-point online disclosure system as an alternative to the expensive and cumbersome multi-state registration system.

As reported in the January 25, 2008 Chronicle of Philanthropy, I had proposed such an online program. NASCO first attacked the idea, claiming it could not be done, or at least effectively.  State and charity budgetary problems finally made NASCO come around.

NASCO’s program is unlikely to be as efficient and inexpensive as the one that I had proposed in 2008, but the pilot program is at least a step in the right direction.

The eight states participating in the pilot program are Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri and New Hampshire.

As the summary says, “NASCO and its partners are reaching out to the nonprofit sector to join with us to implement these common sense efficiencies that will significantly benefit the sector and the public.”