Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

I do not see why that can not be done. It is legal to create any type of organization to do acts that are not illegal. What dues are established are irrelevant. Whether it is a charitable, tax exempt organization depends on what it does and not how it funds itself.

I could not find anything relating to this issue in the California laws relating to nonprofit or religious organizations. There are restrictions on what the organization may do with donated funds, but nothing on coerced minimum amounts. However, somewhat contrary to Mr. Shers' opinion that it makes no difference, there may be an issue along these lines:

When a "donation" must be a specific amount, "donated" at a specific time interval, it may cease to be a donation for charitable deduction purposes, and instead become a fee for services or the price of admission or something that causes the overall transaction to become more like a sale.

I know that some charitable organizations that provide inducements such as member dinners or magazines have been required in the past to figure the value of these freebies and separate that value from the amount donated, on the basis that the organization was selling the meal, or the magazine, or whatever.

Under much the same theory, the IRS or FTB could decide that the organization wasn't accepting charitable donations, but was charging a set price to hear a lecture, or whatever members receive for their "donations."