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Can My Foundation Fund Legal Aid for Individuals?
Legal Compliance Guidance
Legal aid provides assistance to people who would otherwise not be able to afford legal representation or access to the court system. While it is an integral part of the American justice system, especially to the most vulnerable in our society, many legal aid programs are unsustainable or have seen…
Career Pathways: The First Three Years (A Summary Evaluation Report)
Publication
The Career Pathways program focuses on increasing the number of philanthropic professionals from diverse backgrounds ready to ascend to leadership positions within foundations. Diverse leadership fosters inclusion, innovation and excellence in philanthropy. The Career Pathways program evaluation…
What is Expenditure Responsibility?
Legal Compliance Guidance
Expenditure responsibility is a five step procedure that is designed to ensure that foundation funds are used for exclusively charitable purposes.
The five basic steps that are required for completing expenditure responsibility include:
Conducting a pre-grant inquiry including a reasonable…
Expenditure Responsibility Chart for Private Foundations
Legal Compliance Guidance
This document is a tool to help you as a private foundation determine when to use expenditure responsibility for grants to public charities.
Impact Investing Flow Chart - Community Foundation of Louisville
External Resource
This flow chart was designed by the Community Foundation of Louisville to describe the procedures for evaluating, processing, and making impact investments in their community. It follows a similar model developed by the Greater Cincinnati Community Foundation, which is discussed in the Community…
Investing In The Future: Mission-Related and Program-Related Investments For Private Foundations
External Resource
Article published by Adler & Colvin summarizing the key differences between Mission-Related and Program-Related Investments for Private Foundations. The article also lays out many of the necessary legal and regulatory questions when determining if an impact investing strategy is appropriate for…
Webinar Recording: Cross-Border Philanthropy Regulations and Current Challenges
Recording
Download a copy of the slides from this webinar.
Disaster Relief: 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,…
Record Retention for Foundations
Legal Compliance Guidance
Foundation recordkeeping is an inherently dull topic—unless it’s done wrong. The foundation manager who has not kept adequate documentation regarding expenditure responsibility grants risks an IRS audit. Similarly, a foundation manager confronted with a trustee succession battle will find the…
Administrative Fees
Fundamentals
Community foundations have one thing in common: When it comes to administrative fee structures, no two are alike. While there's no one right answer, it's important to review and compare your foundation’s fee structure to other foundations of comparable size. Many community foundations are doing…
FAQ: Global Grantmaking
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What are the legal requirements for private foundations wishing to make cross-border grants?
What is equivalency determination?
What is expenditure responsibility?
How do I decide whether to use equivalency determination or expenditure responsibility?
What are the legal requirements…
Charitable IRA Portfolio
Toolkit
The Charitable IRA Portfolio is a collection of tools designed to help communicate the exciting giving opportunities available to donors.
Revised to reflect recent legislative changes, the portfolio includes:
Talking points, a fact sheet, and Web content
An event presentation
Tools that…
FAQ: Scholarships
Legal Compliance Guidance, Fundamentals
What are the advantages, disadvantages, and likely costs of scholarship programs?
What do the private foundation rules require, and how should community foundations apply the rules?
What rules or procedures govern community foundation scholarship programs?
Does a community foundation need to…
Conflicts of Interest - Key Issues for Foundations
Legal Compliance Guidance
With Congress and the media focusing on corporate governance and foundation administration, now is the time to make sure that all grantmakers have a strong conflict of interest policy in place. Both private foundations and public charities (such as community foundations) should have clear…
Foundation Basics
Fundamentals
What is a charitable organization?
What is a foundation?
What is a private foundation?
What is a public charity?
Do charities pay taxes?
What are some key differences between a public charity and a private foundation?
What are some different kinds of private foundations?
What are the…
Recommended Best Practices in Managing Foundation Investments
Fundamentals
The Council's Board of Directors released this guidance memorandum in March 2010 and strongly recommends that when reviewing and approving foundation investment policies and procedures practices, all foundations—private and public—consider these best practices in foundation investment management.
About Council Resources
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. Council members may e-mail legal@cof.org with inquiries and for more information.
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