Karen Donnelly is a partner at Holtzman Vogel with a practice focused on nonprofit and tax-exempt organizations, First Amendment litigation, and the defense of charitable and advocacy organizations in government investigations.

Karen counsels nonprofit and exempt organization clients across the full life of an organization, from formation, structuring, and qualification for exemption under Section 501 of the Internal Revenue Code through mergers, acquisitions, and dissolution. Her counseling work covers fundraising law, corporate governance, contracts, tax compliance, corporate sponsorships, charitable bequests, donor advised funds, unusual gifts, lobbying elections, and the reinstatement of revoked exemptions.

She has litigated First Amendment cases in federal and state courts nationwide and has argued appeals before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits and the Supreme Court of Missouri. Much of her appellate work concerns the constitutionally protected right to solicit charitable contributions, including successive challenges to municipal bans on charitable donation receptacles and to state restrictions on fundraising. In 2018 and 2025 she filed petitions for writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court in appeals involving restrictions on charitable fundraising activities, including a municipal ban on donation bins.

Karen defends nonprofit and commercial clients in state attorney general investigations, congressional investigations, Federal Trade Commission investigations, multistate actions, and Internal Revenue Service audits. In 2025 she reached a multi-million dollar settlement between a professional fundraiser and the Federal Trade Commission and 22 states. In 2026 she resolved a U.S. Senate committee investigation involving a federal grant awarded to a nonprofit organization with children’s hospital and higher education subgrantees.

Donor privacy runs through much of her work. Karen coordinated, drafted, and filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta on behalf of The Nonprofit Alliance Foundation, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and 123 nonprofit organizations across the ideological spectrum. In 2025 she filed a related brief before the Sixth Circuit for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, PETA, The Nonprofit Alliance Foundation, and 50 charitable organizations challenging the IRS requirement that charities disclose major donors’ names and home addresses on Schedule B of Form 990.

Before joining Holtzman Vogel, Karen was a partner at a notable law firm focused on non-profits in Kansas City. 

**Admitted in Missouri and Kansas only. Not admitted in the District of Columbia. Practicing under the supervision of other partners who are members of the District of Columbia Bar.

  • Obtained summary judgment and a permanent injunction against a North Texas municipality on behalf of a faith-based nonprofit in a federal freedom of speech and religious liberty case (2026)
  • Obtained summary judgment and a damages award exceeding $280,000 for a charitable organization against its former executive director (2026)
  • Completed an internal investigation for a nonprofit client and prepared a criminal referral in a white collar matter involving a former executive director (2026)
  • Defeated a motion to dismiss in a federal regulatory and breach of contract case in Virginia (2026)
  • Resolved a U.S. Senate committee investigation involving a grant awarded to a nonprofit organization with children’s hospital and higher education subgrantees (2026)
  • Reached a multi-million dollar settlement between a professional fundraiser and the Federal Trade Commission and 22 states (2025)
  • Argued a First Amendment appeal before the Supreme Court of Missouri (2025)
  • Filed a petition for writ of certiorari before the U.S. Supreme Court in a First Amendment appeal involving a municipal ban on charitable donation bins (2025)
  • Argued two First Amendment appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit involving restrictions on charitable donation receptacles on private property (2024)
  • Obtained a win before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit vacating a district court ruling in a First Amendment appeal involving the right to solicit charitable contributions (2024)
  • Defended a local charity in five separate pro se lawsuits through dismissal with prejudice and obtained sanctions in one case (2024)
  • Obtained a preliminary injunction barring a Texas city from enforcing an ordinance banning donation receptacles in the Dallas metro area (2023)
  • Argued a First Amendment challenge to a Colorado statutory ban on charitable fundraising before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (2023)
  • Obtained a permanent injunction and declaratory judgment facially invalidating a municipal ban on donation bins in Texas (2022)
  • Obtained summary judgment for a nonprofit organization defending its intellectual property rights before the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (2021)
  • Argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in a case involving administrative law and a First Amendment claim in the charitable speech context (2018)
  • Advisor, Government Affairs Committee, The Nonprofit Alliance, 2019 to present
  • President Emeritus and Board Member, The Federalist Society, Kansas City Lawyers Chapter; President, 2023 to 2025
  • Board Member and Academic Affairs Committee, Donnelly College, 2024 to present
  • Board Member and Education Committee, The Regnier Family Wonderscope Children’s Museum
  • Board Member, Nonprofit Connect, 2020 to 2025
  • Member, Catholic Lawyer’s Guild of Kansas City
  • Chair, Pastoral Council, St. Anthony Parish, Kansas City, 2018 to present
  • Moderator, "Ethics and Academic Admissions after SFFA v. Harvard," The Federalist Society Missouri Chapters Conference (2025)
  • Moderator, "Ethics and the Law of War," The Federalist Society Missouri Chapters Conference (2024)
  • Moderator, "Do Words Matter?," The Federalist Society Missouri Chapters Conference (2023)
  • "Town Hall for Donor Privacy," The Nonprofit Alliance, Washington, D.C. (2021)
  • "Nonprofit Fundraising, Registration, and Avoiding Regulatory Pitfalls," BKD Not-for-Profit and Governmental Seminar (2020)
  • "Free Speech, Free Press," Free Society, KCPA Law Day (2019)
  • "Tax-Exempt Organizations from Start to Finish," National Business Institute (2018)
  • "Donor Privacy under Attack by California Attorney General," Best Lawyers (2017)
  • "Good Governance: Has the IRS Usurped the Business Judgment of Tax Exempt Organizations in the Name of Transparency and Accountability?," 79 UMKC L. Rev. 163 (2010)

Related Practice Areas
  • University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Law, J.D.
    • UMKC Law Review, Staff
    • The Urban Lawyer, Articles Editor
    • Marvin and Patricia Rich Corporate Law Prize for Scholarly Writing
    • International Law Society, Vice President
  • University of Kansas, B.S. Journalism and B.A. English Literature
  • Missouri Bar
  • Kansas Bar
  • Supreme Court of the United States
  • U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Fifth, Sixth, Tenth, and D.C. Circuits
  • U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas
  • U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
Karen Donnelly, Holtzman Vogel