The Office of the Attorney General (OAG) represents the public interest in charity and acts to protect that interest. Texas has more than 80,000 active charitable organizations and countless trust entities over which the OAG has oversight authority. Some examples of the ways in which the Attorney General (AG) exercises this authority include:
- Investigating and initiating legal action against charitable organizations and their managerial officials to ensure that charitable donations are lawfully solicited and that assets held by the charitable organization are properly managed, invested, and expended;
- Reviewing legal proceedings involving charitable trusts pursuant to Chapter 123 of the Texas Property Code which requires notice to the AG of such proceedings, recognizes the AG’s standing to intervene, and prescribes strict consequences for failure to comply;
- Initiating proceedings to distribute charitable assets left unattended or obtained through legal action;
- Reviewing transactions involving the conversion of nonprofit, charitable entities to for-profit entities, including sales, transfers, or mergers of healthcare organizations.