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IRS: Disaster Relief Resources for Charities and Contributors
External Resource
In the aftermath of a disaster or in other emergency hardship situations, individuals, employers, and corporations are often interested in providing assistance to victims through a charitable organization. The IRS provides a number of resources to help those involved in providing disaster relief…
Providing Relief in Times of Disaster - Private Foundation Giving
Legal Compliance Guidance
Grants to Public Charities from Private Foundations
For a private foundation, disaster relief grants to Section 501(c)(3) public charities based at home or abroad can be relatively straightforward, provided the grantee is not legally classified as a supporting organization.
If the grantee is…
Sample Matching Gift Policy
Sample Document
This sample matching gift policy can be easily customized for your foundation's use.
Matching Gifts and Donor Benefits
Legal Compliance Guidance
Question: A public television station provides thank-you gifts of varying values based upon the amount of a donor’s contribution. An employee of a corporation makes a gift to a local public television station. Can the corporate foundation match the gift as part of its matching gift program, even…
Sharing Office Equipment & Supplies
Legal Compliance Guidance
Office equipment and supplies may always be shared if the parent company provides the foundation with the equipment or supplies free of charge. It is also possible for the parent company and the foundation to share the cost of equipment and supplies, but great care needs to be taken to structure…
Legal Question: Sharing Employees
Legal Compliance Guidance
Question:
May a company and its private foundation share employees?
Answer:
Yes, so long as any arrangement between the private foundation and the sponsoring company is structured in a way that does not violate the prohibition against self-dealing.
Corporate foundations and their sponsoring…
990 Filing for Corporate Grantmakers
Legal Compliance Guidance
Electronic Filing: While the requirements regarding electronic filing of Forms 990 and 990-PF have not changed, the electronic filing requirement for some organizations is still relatively new. For that reason, you may want to revisit the mandatory electronic filing rules to determine whether your…
Tickets to Fundraisers
Legal Compliance Guidance
Question:
What should corporate foundations and their parent companies consider when purchasing tickets to fundraisers?
Response:
Whether they are tickets to a dinner, to a performance, or simply for general admission to a facility, tickets have an economic value. When a company or foundation…
Leadership Insights: What Foundation Executives and Trustees are Saying About Diversity and Inclusion
Recording
A video series featuring leaders sharing their insights about their organizational journey to become more diverse and inclusive and lessons learned along the way. All videos are close captioned.
Dr. Robert K. Ross
The California Endowment
Watch video
Dr. Risa…
The Sustainability Formula: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Thrive in the Emerging Economy
External Resource
From TCC Group, which developed the Core Capacity Assessment tool, this resource investigates how organizations can put these core capacities to work in achieving organizational sustainability in difficult economic times.
Building Community Capacity for Participation in Evaluation
External Resource
From Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO), what does it mean to truly and authentically engage a community in evaluation? Grantmakers working on place-based grantmaking already have the incentive and drive to support in-depth evaluation, to understand the impact of the initiative, and to…
Working Better Together: Building Nonprofit Collaborative Capacity
External Resource
Collective action is an effective way for nonprofits to increase their impact, but they often lack the key capacities that enable these types of partnerships to thrive. This publication from Grantmakers for Effective Organizations (GEO) offers insights on the core capacities nonprofits need to…
Sample Decline Letter
Sample Document
This sample declination letter can help you inform grant applicants that their grant proposal was not accepted.
Sample Grant Completion Report
Sample Document
This sample grant completion report may be customized and provided to your grantee partners.
Family Foundation Staffing Models
Fundamentals
The following are some of the models that are used for staffing family foundations. Many families use variations on these models or a combination of them. Any of them can be effective, depending on what is important to the family. The two major considerations, and they are linked, are: how much…
Seeking Shared Success: Business Model Innovation through Mergers, Affiliations, and Alliances
Publication
The challenges of the recent financial downturn have inspired many community foundations to find new paths to business model innovation. Alliances, affiliations, and mergers offer one path to “shared success.” Seeking shared success with other community foundations is one intriguing way to innovate…
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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