Three quarters of all non-profit organizations are not in order with the new administrative law

Small non-profit organizations such as youth movements and sports clubs must also do this. If they don’t, the consequences could be dire.

De Chiro, your cycling tourist club or the local brass band. They are all non-profit organizations that were once founded with statutes. Ground rules that describe the actions of the members and the board of directors. Important, therefore, but due to new legislation, those statutes must be amended by next year. The Kortrijk Swimming Circle also has to do that. Bart Dewulf, Koninklijke Kortrijkse Zwemkring vzw: “On the one hand that is a lot of work, on the other hand it is very technical. We are not all lawyers, we all have our own job, we know something about it, but the legislation is such a complex, constantly changing. It is sometimes also about terms that you have to change, where you have to look for the right description and so on.”

Missed deadline

Since 2019, all non-profit organizations in our country have received the message to amend their statutes by 2024. But at the Flemish Study and Documentation Center for non-profit organizations they notice that many associations are not yet in order. Isabel Demeyere, Flemish Study and Documentation Centre: “The law came into effect on 1 May 2019. We have been informing our members since then that they must put themselves in order. But in the meantime corona has been there, the energy crisis and non-profit organizations had something otherwise on their mind, which is why the deadline has been somewhat lost sight of.”

Barely a quarter of all non-profit organizations are said to be in order now. Anyone who does not do so by next year risks being held personally liable as a director of a non-profit organization in the event of problems.