Not all that much good comes with getting older, but one exception is time spent with the best teacher of all: experience. After 27 years in foundation philanthropy, I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to learn firsthand some important lessons, and today I share a key one: Publishing your guidelines, and generally being transparent about... Read More
For funders, especially private foundations, the federal tax rules governing supporting organizations can be important. Grants by private foundations to certain types of supporting organizations are subject to expenditure responsibility and may not be counted toward the private foundation’s annual 5% minimum distribution requirement. The complexity of the rules governing supporting organizations, updated on February... Read More
Producing audit-ready financial records for a private foundation can be an intimidating task—even for financial professionals. With fiscal year-ends that may differ from a calendar year (they do at roughly 50% of private foundations according to Thomas F. Blaney, CPA, CFE and partner, director of foundation services at PKF O’Connor Davies)—there often is no simple 12-month... Read More
For more than two decades, Foellinger Foundation has provided capacity building grants to nonprofits in Allen County, Indiana. We are proud to support the external work those organizations do in our community, and we are equally proud to support the important work they do internally to improve their effectiveness. In 2018, we reflected on the... Read More
I once sat on the board of a nonprofit organization that had undertaken what eventually became an award-winning planning process for its property holdings. This effort engaged all staff and board and generated lots of creative energy from the surrounding community. Within a couple months after completing the plan, staff recommended a capital improvement inconsistent... Read More
We’ve had the great pleasure of serving as the grantmaking and foundation management partner for Kathleen deLaski and the deLaski Family Foundation for the past three years. The foundation brought us on to help it adapt its mission, vision, and goals in a way that makes the most of the current board’s knowledge, networks, and... Read More
