NLNAC Board of Commissioners - Biographical Sketch

NLNAC BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS

David E. Ormstedt, JD
Biographical Sketch

David Ormstedt is counsel to the law firm Wiggin and Dana LLP, with offices in New Haven, Hartford and Stamford, Connecticut, New York City and Philadelphia. His practice concentrates on the law of tax-exempt organizations, including hospitals, colleges and universities, and private secondary schools. Mr. Ormstedt is also a consultant to the Charities Law Project of the State Attorneys General Program at Columbia University Law School in New York City. The Project brings together State Attorneys General, scholars, charity executives, and legal and accounting practitioners to help states create and implement programs to effectively represent the public interest in the protection of assets raised and held for charitable purposes.

Before joining Wiggin and Dana, Mr. Ormstedt was the Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Public Charities Unit of the Office of the Connecticut Attorney General. In his 30 years with the State of Connecticut, Mr. Ormstedt oversaw the state’s program to ensure that charities, their directors and trustees operated consistent with their donors’ expectations and in the public interest.

Mr. Ormstedt was a founding member of the National Association of State Charity Officials, a nationwide association of state government regulatory officials, and served three terms as its President. He served on numerous advisory committees for national rule makers, including the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Division, the Financial Accounting Standards Board and the national Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance. Mr. Ormstedt was one of the first recipients of the Marvin Award, given by the National Association of Attorneys General in recognition of his leadership, expertise and achievement in advancing the goals of that organization. He recently served on two work groups for the Panel on the Nonprofit Sector, which was convened by Independent Sector at the invitation of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee to recommend ways to improve transparency and accountability in the nonprofit sector. Mr. Ormstedt was cited three times by The NonProfit Times as one of the fifty most influential people in the country on nonprofit matters.

Mr. Ormstedt is a member of the Board of Directors of the Better Business Bureau Wise Giving Alliance in Arlington, Virginia. He served as a member of the Policy Advisory Committee of The Patrick and Catherine Weldon Donaghue Medical Research Foundation in West Hartford, Connecticut and the Community Advisory Council of the Connecticut Health Foundation in New Britain, Connecticut.

Mr. Ormstedt received a B.A. from the University of Connecticut in 1969 and a J.D. from the University of Connecticut in 1973. He resides in Bloomington, Indiana.