As a benefit of membership, the Council on Foundations attorneys and legal staff provide information and education to Council members regarding a variety of topics related to foundation operations and legal compliance. All information on this website, and all publications, articles, e-mail correspondence and telephone consultations provided by Council attorneys and legal staff are intended for informational purposes only and not as part of an attorney-client relationship. Council attorneys are not licensed in every state and cannot provide legal representation. The information is not a substitute for expert legal, tax or other professional advice tailored to your specific circumstances, and may not be relied upon for the purposes of avoiding any penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code.
Accepting Non-Cash Gifts as Charitable Contributions
Legal Compliance Guidance
Accepting gifts of real estate, subchapter S corporations, and business interests (including general partnerships, limited partnerships, limited liability partnerships, and limited liability companies), as well as determining when or if they trigger unrelated business tax (UBIT).
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
Public charities that hold donor-advised funds must comply with special rules regarding payments from such funds. Provisions under the Pension Protection Act of 2006 require certain payments from donor-advised funds to be made using expenditure responsibility, while certain other payments are…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Use this flowchart to determine if grants from donor-advised funds require expenditure responsibility.
Providing Large Grants to Small Grantees
Legal Compliance Guidance
Lawyers rarely tell foundation managers, "Relax, don’t worry so much!" But in the case of "tipping," that’s been our advice for more than 10 years. What is the so-called "tipping problem" and why are so many foundations (still) so worried about it?
Tipping occurs when a private…
Legal Compliance Guidance
After September 11, 2001, many grantmakers and other charitable organizations that were not previously familiar with the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), learned of its existence. As one of the key U.S. government agencies seeking to shut down terrorism funding…
Legal Compliance Guidance
In an effort to ensure that charitable resources are used exclusively for charitable purposes and not used to support terrorist activity, organizations may choose to adopt practices in addition to those explicitly required by law. Among the practices that some charities choose to adopt is including…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Aligning private foundation grantmaking procedures with PPA requirements
The Pension Protection Act of 2006 (PPA) brought many changes to the charitable sector. The most significant changes for private foundations are the rules for making grants to certain kinds of supporting organizations. While…
Multi-Year Grants: To Commit or Not to Commit
Legal Compliance Guidance
Can we back out of a multiyear commitment we made in a prior year because our foundation’s assets have declined?
The answer in many cases is “no.” That is, unless your grantee is willing to release your foundation from its obligation.
Generally, an unconditional, multiyear grant is considered a…
Community Foundations and Grants to Non-Charities
Legal Compliance Guidance
With a little caution, community foundations can support the charitable activities of non-charities.
A chamber of commerce requests a grant to start a computer-training program.
A gardening club asks for money to cover a local beautification project.
A cemetery association seeks support for…
Grants to New Charities
Legal Compliance Guidance
Question: May a private corporate foundation or corporate giving program make a grant to a newly-established charity that has not yet received its IRS tax exemption letter?
Answer: Yes, but when making a grant to a charity whose application for exempt status is pending before the IRS, a private…
Faith-based Grantmaking: A Basic Guide for the Perplexed
Legal Compliance Guidance
Generally, there is no legal restriction against making grants to churches, synagogues, mosques or other religious institutions. But there are some things foundations interested in such grantmaking should know.
For years, private foundations and public charities have recognized religious…
Discretionary Grants
Legal Compliance Guidance
Family foundations use discretionary grantmaking to achieve a variety of purposes. Discretionary grantmaking allows some foundations to avoid strife by giving each branch of the extended family a sum of money that it can think of as its own to control. For others, a discretionary fund provides…
Understanding Fiscal Sponsorship
Legal Compliance Guidance
Everything you need to know to stay out of trouble with third-party representatives.
Does hearing the sentence "Just make that grant check payable to my fiscal agent" stop you in your tracks? It should. If your potential grantees are washing your grant funds through an accommodating charity that…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Can a 501(c)(3) organization with a donor-advised fund at a community foundation make a distribution to itself?
Unfortunately, when the law changed under the Pension Protection Act of 2006, this was left unclear. Intermediate sanctions rules prohibit grants and similar payments to donors from a…
Legal Compliance Guidance
Gifts from private foundations to field of interest funds, designated funds, and other funds that are not donor-advised, are entirely permissible and do not raise special concerns. Gifts to a donor-advised fund can raise red flags as a potential donor control issue. The law does not prohibit gifts…
Legal Compliance Guidance
When donors to scholarship funds see the impact that their money can have on the life of a student, they are often inspired to contribute more. Sometimes they will add more to the principal of the fund so that future awardees can receive bigger scholarships or more scholarships can be awarded.…