Nonprofit compliance in New Hampshire

New Hampshire has no law requiring every nonprofit to screen volunteers, but checks are mandatory in specific settings: licensed child care (volunteers who might be alone with children or count in staff-to-child ratios, every 5 years; He-C 4002.40), residential child care and child-placing agencies (RSA 170-E:29-a), youth recreation camps and youth skill camps, including sports camps (RSA 170-E:56, II; He-C 4003.17; He-C 4004), health facilities licensed under RSA 151 (volunteers with direct client contact; RSA 151:2-d, II), DHHS-licensed, certified or funded adult programs (BEAS registry; RSA 161-F:49, VII), and public-school volunteers the school board designates (RSA 189:13-a, VII). Towns and counties may require checks for their own volunteer positions (RSA 41:9-b; RSA 28:10-c). It is a felony for a person with certain sexual-assault, child-abuse-image or felony child-assault convictions to volunteer in roles serving mainly minors, supervising them or working one on one with them (RSA 632-A:10).

• School Employee and Designated School Volunteer Criminal History Records Check (RSA 189:13-a) — Requires a fingerprint-based State Police and FBI criminal history records check before a final offer of school employment and on designated volunteers, meaning the volunteer categories the school board designates by policy; other volunteers need not be checked. The applicant or designated volunteer submits the State Police release form and fingerprints to the school, which may charge the actual cost, and records must be destroyed within 60 days. Nonpublic schools may opt in. Since 2023, suspended or revoked educators may not volunteer.
• Child Care Personnel Background Check (RSA 170-E:7; RSA 170-E:29-a) — Requires an FBI fingerprint check and registry searches for licensed child care owners, household members, directors and everyone DHHS rules list, including volunteers who might be alone with children or are counted in staff-to-child ratios (He-C 4002.40), before they work with children and every 5 years. DHHS checks the NH sex offender and abuse/neglect registries, the sex offender registries of every state lived in during the past 5 years, and the National Sex Offender Registry, and must decide eligibility within 45 days; since 2025 a pending charge for a listed offense also disqualifies. RSA 170-E:29-a applies the same system to residential child care institutions and agencies.
• Municipal Volunteer Background Check Authority (RSA 41:9-b) — Lets a town require a background investigation and a State Police criminal history check (state only, or state and FBI with fingerprints) before a final offer for its own positions that work with or around children or elderly persons, enter homes, or handle money; candidates for volunteer positions in the municipality are included. The town may charge the candidate the actual cost.
• County Volunteer Background Check Authority (RSA 28:10-c) — Authorizes county commissioners to require background checks on candidates for volunteer county positions; the definition of 'candidate for employment' explicitly includes volunteers.
• Who it reaches: Licensed child care volunteers who might be alone with children or are counted in staff-to-child ratios — before working with children and every 5 years (He-C 4002.40; RSA 170-E:7); Youth recreation camp staff, including volunteers, and youth skill camp volunteers who may be left alone with a child — including sports, arts and science camps of 8+ hours a year over 3 or more consecutive days (RSA 170-E:56, II; He-C 4003.17; He-C 4004.03(c)); Volunteers with direct client contact at health facilities licensed under RSA 151, such as nursing homes, assisted living and home health (RSA 151:2-d, II); Volunteers in DHHS-licensed, certified or funded programs who may have contact with vulnerable adults — BEAS registry check before starting and every year (RSA 161-F:49, VII); Residential child care program volunteers 18 and older, and child-placing agency volunteers with regular contact with children (He-C 4001.31; He-C 6448.07; RSA 170-E:29-a); Public school volunteers in categories the school board designates by policy — fingerprint-based state and FBI check (RSA 189:13-a, VII); Foster and kinship care parents and every other adult in the home — fingerprint-based national check and central registry check (RSA 170-E:29, II-a); Optional, not required: volunteers for town or city positions, if the municipality requires it (RSA 41:9-b); Optional, not required: volunteers for county positions, if the county commissioners require it (RSA 28:10-c); Optional, not required: nonpublic school volunteers, if the school elects to check (RSA 189:13-a, I(b)).
• Check types in use: NH State Police public criminal history record check with the volunteer’s signed release — rule fee $25, or $10 for volunteers of nonprofits serving children, the elderly or the disabled (Saf-C 5703.06, 5703.07); confirm the current fee with the Criminal Records Unit; FBI fingerprint-based national check — only through statutory programs (schools, towns and counties, DHHS child care and residential licensing); results go to the government agency, not the nonprofit; DCYF central registry of founded child abuse and neglect reports — only for employers the statute lists (RSA 169-C:35, II); camps use the DCYF Form 2501 self-request; BEAS state registry of founded adult abuse, neglect and exploitation — required for DHHS-licensed, certified or funded adult programs (RSA 161-F:49, VII); NH Sex Offender Registry and National Sex Offender Registry checks; Criminal background check in every state the person has lived in (camps and youth skill camps; He-C 4003.17, He-C 4004.05) and sex offender registries of every state lived in during the past 5 years (child care; RSA 170-E:7, II(a)).
• Administered by: NH Department of Safety, Division of State Police, Criminal Records Unit (state records and FBI fingerprint checks); NH DHHS Child Care Licensing Unit (child care, residential child care, youth recreation camps and youth skill camp certifications); NH DHHS Health Facilities Administration (RSA 151 facilities); NH DHHS Bureau of Elderly and Adult Services (BEAS state registry); NH Department of Justice, Charitable Trusts Unit (charity registration).
• Typical processing: DHHS must decide child care and residential child care eligibility within 45 days of receiving all required information (RSA 170-E:7, III; RSA 170-E:29-a, V); we found no published State Police turnaround standard, so confirm current processing times with the Criminal Records Unit.

Yes. New Hampshire names certain professionals AND requires any person to report, regardless of profession — so your volunteers are covered by the universal provision whatever role they hold. Confirm New Hampshire's current statute before writing your policy — these are amended often.

• In every state, territory and the District of Columbia, ANY person is permitted to report suspected abuse even when not required to. A volunteer who is not a mandated reporter can still call, and should.
• The safest operating posture, whatever the statute says, is to train every volunteer on what to report and to whom — a policy that only trains "mandated" staff leaves the person most likely to witness something untrained.
• Reporting duties are personal. A volunteer who is a mandated reporter cannot discharge the duty by telling a supervisor and stopping there in most states.
• Screening and reporting are different obligations. Clearing a background check does not satisfy a reporting duty, and no reporting policy substitutes for screening.

New Hampshire requires every charitable trust — including any 501(c)(3) — that is based in the state, or has reasonable minimum contacts with it, to register with the Attorney General’s Charitable Trusts Unit within 6 months after any income or principal is authorized to be spent for charitable purposes, and a late registrant may not operate or solicit New Hampshire residents until registered (RSA 7:28, I; Jus 402.01, 402.03). Registration costs $25 and each annual report $75, due 4 months and 15 days after the fiscal year ends; charities that must file a Form 990 with the Unit add a GAAP financial statement at $500,000 in revenue and an audited statement at $2,000,000 (RSA 7:28-a; RSA 7:28, III-a, III-b; Jus 404.04). Fund raising counsel register for $150 a year and file each contract (RSA 7:28-b). Raffles need a permit from the town or city where the drawing is held unless tickets are sold at an event lasting 12 hours or less (RSA 287-A:7); bingo and games of chance are licensed by the Lottery Commission (RSA 287-D, 287-E).

• Religious organizations holding property for charitable or religious purposes, their integrated auxiliaries, and conventions or associations of churches are exempt (RSA 7:19, I; Jus 402.01(c)(2)); we found no revenue threshold below which other New Hampshire charities skip registration, though one with under $10,000 in investments and revenues and a clean filing record may apply to suspend annual reports for up to 5 years (Jus 404.03).
• Soliciting residents of other states can trigger registration in those states regardless of where you are based — an online donate button reaches all fifty.
• Exemptions exist in most registering states (small organizations, religious organizations, membership appeals) but they are specific and usually must be claimed rather than assumed.
• Confirm current requirements with your state charity office before relying on this — thresholds and exemptions are amended frequently.

These apply regardless of which state you operate in, and they are the ones most commonly missed by small organizations that assume state registration is the whole picture.

• Annual Form 990, 990-EZ, or 990-N. Three consecutive years of non-filing revokes exempt status automatically — this is the single most common way small nonprofits lose their status.
• If you run background checks on volunteers, the Fair Credit Reporting Act applies to you as a user of consumer reports: a standalone written disclosure, separate written authorization, and the pre-adverse and adverse action sequence before acting on a result.
• Public disclosure: your exemption application and recent 990s must be made available on request.
• Employment obligations attach to paid staff regardless of exempt status — payroll tax, worker classification, and wage and hour law all apply.