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Displaying 465 - 480 of 507 results
Compensate Your Board? Legal and Ethical Considerations
Legal Compliance Guidance
Can we pay our board members? Should we?
The issue of whether to pay foundation board members is always a controversial topic. Expect the media, regulators, general public, and even your grantees to scrutinize the decisions you make.
What is legal?
Though the rules may vary slightly by type of…
Executive Compensation Best Practices
Legal Compliance Guidance
The Internal Revenue Code provides excise tax penalties that can be imposed by the Internal Revenue Service whenever unreasonable or excessive compensation is paid to high-level employees of charitable organizations.
Over and above any legal requirements or public scrutiny, good stewards of…
Reporting and Classification of Assets Under UPMIFA
Legal Compliance Guidance
This memorandum considers whether adoption of the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) requires changes to existing guidance regarding the reporting and classification of assets held by community foundations. Current guidance is incorporated in a 1997 memorandum, Report on…
Legal and Accounting Challenges of Underwater Endowment Funds
Legal Compliance Guidance
By Susan E. Budak and Susan N. Gary
The widespread adoption of the Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act (UPMIFA) across the country has already been of great help to charities, in part because the financial markets collapsed just months after the uniform act was approved. Most, if…
Investment Management Practice Tips and Resources
Legal Compliance Guidance
Practice 1. The board (and investment committee and staff, if any) of a foundation should understand and fulfill their respective fiduciary responsibilities and duties under applicable law and the governing documents of the foundation and stay informed regarding any relevant changes in law, duties…
Working with a Donor's Investment Manager
Legal Compliance Guidance
“If I create a fund at the community foundation, can my investment manager still manage the funds?” You may have already come across a donor that asked this question. Such a donor is essentially requesting that the fund they create be invested outside of the foundation’s investment pool(s). While…
IRS Audit Survival Tips
Legal Compliance Guidance
Things to do NOW – “An Ounce of Prevention...”
Review your organization’s activities – seems simple and basic, but the IRS will be certainly asking about them and the audit context is not the time to learn about someone’s pet project for the first time. Do you have documentation to establish the…
IRS Search Tool: Select Check
External Resource
Grantmakers searching for more detailed information about the charitable status of their potential grantees may find the answers they need in the IRS Select Check tool.
This IRS online search tool allows the user to:
(1) search the IRS public charity list, known as IRS Publication 78, for…
Explanation of Proposed Treasury Regulations: Reliance Standards for Making Good Faith Determinations of Equivalency Determinations
Legal Compliance Guidance
September 24, 2012
The Department of Treasury and the IRS issued proposed regulations applicable to private foundations seeking to make grants to foreign organizations using equivalency determinations. The guidance broadens the range of professionals on whose written advice a private foundation…
Analysis of Type III Supporting Organization Regulations Issued December 28, 2012
Legal Compliance Guidance
On December 28, 2012, the Treasury Department and IRS issued final and temporary regulations on Type III supporting organizations. Simultaneously, proposed regulations were issued regarding payout for Type III non-functionally integrated supporting organizations. This analysis focuses on the areas…
2009 Survey on Donor Advised Funds: Donor Advised Funds Provide the Majority of Grant Funds Awarded by Community Foundations
Research
Donor-advised funds are increasing in number and importance in the U.S. as more individuals, families, and organizations adopt this vehicle of philanthropic giving. A donor-advised fund enables a third party, usually a community foundation or other institution, to manage and distribute funds to…
Align, Adapt, Aspire: Ten Years of Community Foundation Business Model Evolution
Publication
Community foundations understand how the traditional community foundation business model falls short of new aspirations. Sustainability is an ongoing challenge and many community foundations work towards continually adapting their business model to support a changing context and achieve enough…
2013 Columbus Survey of Community Foundations: List of Top 100 Community Foundations by Asset Size
Publication
Includes results of the FY 2013 Columbus Survey of Community Foundations that pertain to the top 100 community foundations by asset size as of April 14, 2014. The table includes the community foundation name, amount of assets at the time of the survey, and fiscal year-end (FYE). Stats are based on…
2013 Columbus Survey Results: Guideposts for Growth and Aspirations
Publication
With this report, CF Insights' aim is to share a snapshot of community foundation asset growth and activity during 2013. The findings are based on 285 community foundation responses to the Columbus Survey as of April 2014.
Benchmarking Beyond Asset Size Top 100 Lists - FY 2013
Publication
In this publication, CF Insights highlights attributes that characterize community foundations in ways beyond asset values.
2013 Columbus Survey participants are ranked based on:
Most Active Grantmakers—distribution rates, with percent of donor-advised assets
Most Gifts per Capita—gifts per…
Disaster Grantmaking: A Practical Guide for Foundations and Corporations
Publication
Moved by widely publicized human suffering and increased disaster aid requests, foundations and corporations are becoming more active in the disaster relief field. Grantmakers have a distinct role to play in disasters because of their ongoing relations with grantees, long-term perspective,…