NGOsource, described as a project of the Council on Foundations and TechSoup, celebrates its 10th year this year. NGOsource helps U.S. grantmakers streamline their international giving through easier equivalency determinations. Private foundations that make a grant to a foreign organization without an IRS determination letter providing that it is...
PRIVATE FOUNDATIONS / PHILANTHROPY
Private foundations face particular legal issues and challenges that must be managed by their executives and boards. Informed leaders can maximize the impact of their foundations in advancing their charitable missions. But they must carefully manage those issues and challenges that can expose the foundation and its leaders to penalties and damage to their public reputation, especially if the foundation is engaged in arrangements and transactions that involve potential or actual conflicts of interests. Careful planning is critical to building a strong and sound infrastructure to ensure the foundation’s ongoing effectiveness and legal compliance.
How to Make Grants to Fiscally Sponsored Projects
Many private foundations and government agencies have become comfortable making grants to support fiscally sponsored projects (FSPs). Over the past decade, fiscal sponsorship has become an increasingly familiar structure and more widely recognized as a legitimate option for supporting charitable projects. But there are still many misconceptions about how...
Northern California Grantmakers 2023 Conference
Northern California Grantmakers (NCG) held its 2023 Annual Conference: Mapping Our Collective Future on May 2nd in San Francisco. The Conference website posed the following questions: Are we making progress on building an equitable future for the region? How will we know we have reached this future? What direction are...
ABA 2023 BLS Meeting: Creative Philanthropy
The American Bar Association 2023 Business Law Section Spring Meeting featured a session on Creative Philanthropy: Impact (ESG) Investing, Donor Advised Funds, Program Related Investments and More moderated by JJ Harwayne Leitner and presented by Jinna Kwak (Adler & Colvin) and Matt Topham (Gates Foundation). Here are some highlights...
Highlights from the ABA Exempt Organizations Subcommittee Meetings 2/10/23
Here are some of the highlights from 2 of the subcommittee meetings at the ABA Exempt Organizations Committee meeting held in San Diego on February 10, 2023 as part of the ABA 2023 Midyear Tax Meeting. Private Foundations & Unrelated Business Income Taxes & International Philanthropy Political and Lobbying;...
Affirmative Action Plans—A Potentially Important Safeguard for Race-Based Grantmaking
Anti-discrimination laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 preclude organizations from making decisions on the basis of race or other protected characteristics in a variety of situations such as funding, programming and employment. See our previous posts...
Webinar: 2021 Private Foundation Basics
Certified Pubic Accounting Firm Clark Nuber will be hosting a webinar on 2021 Private Foundation Basics on Tuesday, July 27, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT. You can register on Eventbrite (cost: $100; CPE: 4 technical credits). This seminar is a great opportunity to learn about the fundamentals...
Traditional Grantmaking Procedures: Are They Really All That Necessary?
I attended a seminar hosted by Exponent Philanthropy where the presenters discussed a unique approach to grantmaking that they referred to as “Catalytic Grantmaking.” The presenters suggested that many of the steps in what they identified as the “traditional grantmaking” process could be ignored to produce a quicker and...
Catalytic Philanthropy
“Catalytic Philanthropy” was coined by Mark Kramer in an article he wrote for the Stanford Social Innovation Review in 2009. The article states that a grantor’s role in traditional philanthropy is typically limited to writing a check to a nonprofit and otherwise having a pretty much hands-off approach (besides its performance of the...
PLR 202119002: Private Foundation Grants to Intermediary Foreign Organizations
Earlier this year, the IRS released a private letter ruling (PLR 202119002) on a private foundation’s contemplated grants to three foreign organizations that will each regrant the applicable funds to secondary grantees in furtherance of the private foundation’s 501(c)(3) exempt purposes. While a PLR may not be relied on...