City staff seek input on nonprofit registration; stakeholders push for no fees

Lance Ferrado, director of licensing and code enforcement for the City of Reno, led an online outreach session to solicit public feedback on a potential nonprofit registration program and posted a survey link for stakeholders to complete. Ferrado said the City Council requested the presentation after prior concerns about zoning compatibility and public-safety gaps, and staff will compile survey results and return to Council with draft language, likely in January.

Ferrado told attendees the city counts "a little over 2,000" nonprofits in Reno but only about 317 are registered with the city, and that registries can be incomplete because registrations are voluntary and do not require periodic renewal. He framed the outreach around several questions: should nonprofits be required to register; should a fee be charged (possibly scaled by nonprofit size); should inspections be required for nonprofits that operate from commercial space open to the public; and what confidentiality protections are appropriate.

Several nonprofit leaders urged the city to avoid adding fees. "We're a nonprofit. We're not a business. There's a reason that the federal government gives us tax exemption," said Iris Daley Pappard, executive director of 1 Turkey River, opposing the idea of a business license fee for nonprofits. Jeff Brank of the Center for Nonprofit Business said the city does not need a licensing regime to find nonprofits: "There is existing data already accessible to the city...every nonprofit is required to file a 990 with the IRS," he said, and added that many local nonprofits do not maintain physical facilities.

Other participants offered programmatic and implementation guidance. Nick Sheaker, executive director of Truckee Meadows Tomorrow, offered his organization as a data partner and said his group is starting an inventory of area nonprofits. Marie Krueger of Reno Sparks Gospel Mission noted that many faith-based nonprofits do not file IRS Form 990, so a single federal data source would be incomplete. "We currently don't have a position on this yet," Krueger said, adding that some nonprofits operate multiple commercial locations and asked how a registry would treat multiple sites.

Several speakers emphasized that registration could be useful for planning and service coordination if it did not impose new fees. "If that's the main driver here, that it would be registration with no fees," said Sean Hill, chief executive officer of Sierra Nevada Journeys, noting many nonprofits serve vulnerable populations and could be harmed by new costs. Building owners and operators also raised implementation concerns: Cheyenne Slaughter, who said she owns a building in Reno, argued that safety and permitting responsibilities should rest primarily with property owners and landlords rather than nonprofits.

Ferrado told the group the city would use the survey and public comments to prepare a staff report and that the topic would likely return to Council in January. He said the special events code — which covers fundraising events and similar activities — is a separate chapter under a different revision effort and would not be part of this registration policy. Ferrado also noted staff will coordinate with the Reno Chamber of Commerce and other local lists as they assemble data but cautioned that all lists have limitations.

The outreach session did not include any motion, ordinance language, vote, or formal decision. Staff requested survey responses and stakeholder contact information to inform a future staff report and Council discussion.