By NEO Law Group
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.
There were two big changes to tax laws affecting nonprofits sure to spread some cheer. They were part of a year-end appropriations act signed into law on December 20, 2019. Repeal of the “Parking Tax” The first change is a repeal of the nonsensical and unpopular tax on qualified...
Thanks to our friends at Perlman+Perlman for providing us with permission to re-publish this important post on the “Newman’s Own Exception” to the Excess Business Holdings Rule by one of its partners, Allen Bromberger, whose bio we include at the end of the post. On February 9, 2018, President...
Yesterday, Erin, Michele, and I attended Investor2Invest: An Afternoon of Connecting to Impact organized by ImpactAssets, SV2 – Silicon Valley Social Venture Fund, and Toniic. While listening to the different panels, I considered my own thoughts about impact investing. Impact Investing Impact investing used to be seen as investing...
Private foundations in the United States are often interested in funding promising organizations and projects that are based outside of the country. When doing so, these foundations are required to follow certain rules and procedures promulgated by the IRS to help ensure that the foreign grantees are properly using...
In June 2017, Guidestar released A Guide to Good Practices in Foundation Operations. The practices outlined cover the following areas: transparency; due diligence; responsive communications; and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Transparency Although not a guarantee of effectiveness, we believe transparency in general correlates with excellence in foundations. Which makes sense—the...
The Council on Foundations 2017 Annual Conference (Leading Together) was held in Dallas on April 23-26. The Opening Plenary, Philanthropy’s Role in Vibrant Communities, kicked off with President George W. Bush discussing his recently published book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, and the work of the George...
Philanthropy consultant, scholar, and thought-leader Lucy Bernholz‘s annual industry forecast, Philanthropy and the Social Economy: Blueprint 2017, was published last week on GrantCraft. The Blueprint provides an overview of the current landscape, points to major trends, and directs your attention to horizons where you can expect some important breakthroughs in the coming...
Inspired by recent news stories Fred D’Up inherited a sizable amount of money, which he used to grow a business empire filled with plenty of successes and failures (including multiple business bankruptcies). Regardless of whether his businesses were doing well or not, Fred felt compelled to develop his image as a...
The American Bar Association (ABA) Business Law Section is holding its 2016 Annual Meeting in Boston on September 8-10. I’m looking forward to meeting with my colleagues in the Nonprofit Organizations Committee, attending the various programs, and expressing my appreciation as one of the recipients of the Committee’s Outstanding Nonprofit Lawyer...
Program-related investments (PRIs) are investments (different from strictly donative grants) made by private foundations in which: The primary purpose is to accomplish one or more of the foundation’s 501(c)(3) exempt purposes (other than testing for public safety), Production of income or appreciation of property is not a significant purpose,...
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