I worked for a nonprofit organization for several years and remember taking boxes of letters and envelopes home to fold, stuff, and seal because we couldn’t afford to pay a service to do it. When I started working at a foundation, I overlooked funding needs such as those, I’m ashamed to admit. We as funders... Read More
As we enter the new year and decade, I want to call your attention to an important piece of legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by the President in the closing days of 2019 that has significant implications for those of us in the world of private foundations. The “Further Consolidated Appropriations Act,... Read More
This year’s Foundations on the Hill (FOTH) was hosted by the Forum of Regional Associations of Grantmakers in partnership with the Council on Foundations and Alliance for Charitable Reform. FOTH is a multiday event that brings foundation leaders from across the country to Washington, DC for meetings with Congress about key issues of importance to foundations... 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
Your foundation can be extremely imaginative while still keeping its grantmaking straightforward. Or it can take full advantage of the tax code’s flexibility to make grants that are more complicated—and still perfectly legal. Our goal is neither to encourage you to stay simple or to get complicated with your giving, but to help you be aware... Read More
Some years ago, when Jacques Chirac was still president of France, the U.S. State Department asked me to meet with Chirac’s advisor on domestic affairs. She had completed a national tour of institutions of American voluntarism. I was the last stop on her tour, her opportunity to debrief. Her leading question to me was, “How... Read More