2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE FOURTEEN - Private Corporations (§§ 1 — 4084) › Subtitle 5 - General Corporations Act (2009) › Chapter 235 - Annual Reports and Obligation to Keep Books and Other Documents in Puerto Rico (§§ 3851 — 3858) › § 3858 - Annual reports, nonprofit corporations, special requirements

In order for the Department of State to keep a register, active nonprofit corporations, whether domestic and foreign, shall specify in their annual reports to which of the following categories and organization forms they belong:
(a) Categories. —
(1) Social services. — It includes the distribution of clothing, food and other basic commodities; social services work, care centers, lectures and orientations on personal and family improvement, services related to child abuse, the elderly and homeless persons, as well as domestic and family abuse; family planning, social rehabilitation services; assistance services in disaster situations; and others of similar nature.
(2) Legal and defense of rights services. — It includes orientation on legal problems and legal aid in courts and other forums, as well as services directed to protecting civil and ethnic groups rights.
(3) Educational and research services. — It includes any kind of academic, technical, vocational or artistic training activity; intellectual development, special or remedial education and tutoring; and complementary services such as information system, library and audiovisual services. Likewise, the research and practice in the fields of education, science, technology, socioeconomic and community development and others are also included.
(4) Health services. — It includes any kind of activity directed to preventing, diagnosing, or tending physical or mental health problems.
(5) Art and culture. — Includes any kind of efforts directed to developing activities in the musical, artistic, theatrical, folkloric, artisanal, literary, dancing or reciting, poetry, and museology fields, as well as research and publishing activities regarding any of such fields. The foregoing includes the development of forums, lectures, exhibitions, festivals, concerts, presentations, workshops, and short informal education courses.
(6) Sports and recreation services. — It includes any kind of effort directed to promoting activities to spend leisure time, other than cultural activities, such as scouting, ecotourism, internal tourism, and all kinds of sports. It includes the organization of marathons, camps, clinics, tournaments, and informal physical education courses and other related subjects.
(7) Housing services. — It includes programs or activities to sponsor, develop and administer housing projects, including the rehabilitation and construction of housing units, providing orientation, and financial assistance for housing, location and relocation services and other related services.
(8) Environmental services. — It includes any kind of activity directed to protecting and improving the environment such as educational programs, defense groups, recycling campaigns, clean-up campaigns, as well as research and publications on the subject and other similar activities. It also includes the wildlife defenders, and animal health and protection services.
(9) Economic, social, and community development. — It includes any kind of activity directed to promoting the development and rehabilitation of every kind of industry or commerce and the improvement of the infrastructure. It also includes self-management in the development of financial services, microenterprises and small and medium-size businesses; and the revitalization of commercial sectors. Likewise, the promotion of the quality of life in neighborhoods and communities through local development organizations, cooperatives, and others similar; and the improvement of the institutional infrastructure to alleviate social problems and address public wellbeing are also included.
(10) Donations. — It includes any financial support activity or of other kind mainly directed to financing the operations and development of an organization’s projects or programs or financing the operation and development of other nonprofit organizations.
(11) International activities. — It includes programs, projects and bodies directed to developing international humanitarian activities, promoting peace and civil rights internationally, developing international relations, and promoting foreign social or economic development.
(12) Religious services. — It includes any organization, institution or congregation that promotes religious beliefs and performs religious services.
(13) Institutional services. — Open category which seeks to include the different activities and services offered to their members by professional organizations, social clubs, and civic organizations, and in the case of the last two (2) categories, those that also offer services to community individuals and groups that do not have a common denominator.
(14) Other services.
(b) Kinds of organization[s]. —
(1) Professional organization. — It has the main purpose of furthering the interests of its members and is regularly created by means of a special law to group members of one (1) or more professions.
(2) Social club. — It integrates individuals who have any kind of common interest, other than professional, which main purpose is to further the interests of its members or partners.
(3) Civic organization. — It integrates individuals who have any kind of common interest, other than professional, which, in addition to furthering the interests of its members or partners, are mainly directed to offering civil services.
(4) Religious organization. — It includes churches, synagogues, mosques, and other congregations or institutions similar in nature, as well as any body which depends directly on them.
(5) Foundation. — It includes any organization incorporated as nonprofit organization which makes donations or services to individuals or makes donations to other nonprofit organizations to enable them to render the services. Its funds may originate mainly from an individual, a family or corporation, or revenues obtained from different sources.
(6) Community-based organizations. — It includes any organization incorporated as nonprofit organization to provide community services, or any nongovernmental organization internationally designated with the acronym NGO which constitution is based on a solidarity development effort of a particular social community with the participation of the members of such community, for example, a ward, a sector with own identity and personality, a community identify as “special community”.
(7) Philanthropic organization. — It includes organizations other than those set forth in clauses (1) through (6) of this subsection that are incorporated as nonprofit organizations in order to render services mainly designed to help the general community or populations with special needs that are part thereof. The term “philanthropy” is used herein in the broadest sense of different kinds of services such as educational, cultural, housing, environmental, health, and other services, that are offered to the community as a token of social and civil solidarity.
(8) Institutional services. — Open category that seeks to include the various activities and services offered to their members by professional organizations, social clubs, and civic organizations, and in the case of the last two (2) categories, those that offer to community individuals and groups services that do not necessarily have a common denominator.
Since the objective of these categories is to record the sector, the definitions set forth in this section have no implication or application with respect to other laws.
[The State Department may approve a regulation to add to, or modify, the categories and forms of organization of the nonprofit corporations.]
History —Dec. 16, 2009, No. 164, § 15.08.