Ronald D. Kerridge & Robert E. Davis (both of K&L Gates, Dallas) have published Tax-Exempt Credit Counseling Organizations and the Future of Debt-Settlement Services, 14 Tex. Rev. L. & Pol’y 343 (2010). Here is the Conclusion:

[T]he provision of substantial debt-settlement services by credit counseling agencies that are currently exempt under § 501(c)(3) would likely place such organizations outside the exemption provided by § 501(c)(3). Few credit counseling agencies would be likely to risk their exempt status, and the freedom from FTC oversight that accompanies it, in order to begin providing significant amounts of debt-settlement services. If the FTC expands the Telemarketing Sales Rule in the ways set out in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, and if the advance fee ban then puts a large number of for-profit debt-settlement providers out of business, it appears likely that the significant demand for debt-settlement services among consumer debtors will go largely unmet.