Secretary of State Wayne Williams described Colorado’s online registration for charities today as a model for what could be done with a national one-stop shop filing portal for charities.

He and staffer Chris Cash addressed the National Association of Attorneys General’s Charities Committee, which is holding a two-day seminar in Denver. Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman is co-chair of NAAG’s new Charities Committee.

Williams’ talk was briefly delayed because a fire alarm sounded and the Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Building was evacuated. When the group returned, Williams used the event to tout Colorado’s spring weather.

Charity registrations are handled differently from state to state.

In Colorado, the secretary of state administers the registration program while the attorney general has jurisdiction over a broad range of enforcement issues.

“We were the first in the nation to have all charities file electronically,” Williams said.

Williams also talked about the effort by Colorado and other states to establish a system that allows charities that must file in a variety of states to reduce their paperwork.  Cash is vice president of the Multistate Registration and Filing Portal Inc., which is overseeing the effort to reduce the paperwork.

“Because if you serve on a nonprofit board or if you give to a nonprofit you don’t want your money and your time and your staff personnel being devoted to multiple filings in every state,” Williams said. “You don’t want to hire somebody and take those hard-earned dollars that people have given you to make life better for the park or dogs or veterans or whatever that wonderful cause might be to have to go so you can do filings.”

To read more posts by Lynn Bartels, click here to visit her official blog on the Colorado Secretary of State website