Posted in May 2012 …

May 31 2012
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Tax & Legal, Thomas F. Blaney

IRS Announces 2012 Exempt Organizations Work Plan

By Thomas F. Blaney, CPA, CFE

Recently, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announced the areas within an exempt organization that they will be “deploying resources” (auditing) for 2012. The IRS is focusing their efforts on any international transactions. They will continue to examine exempt organizations that have offices or activities overseas.

Private foundations that perform international grantmaking, invest “off shore,” or maintain ownership of a foreign bank account may be subject to these examinations.

The IRS will review a private foundation’s operations to ascertain:

  • Whether the foundation maintains adequate books and records to ensure assets are used for charitable purposes,
  • Whether the foundation has maintained proper discretion and control over funds that have left the United States,
  • Whether the foundation has met all filing requirements, and
  • How foreign operations or grantmaking furthers the foundation’s exempt purpose.

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May 30 2012
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Administration

Giving Anonymously: A Personal Struggle

By an ASF member

Historically we have given anonymously in the communities where we live. We have done so because it is a value of ours, because we do not want people to know we have money, because we do not want to make some of our friends uncomfortable, because we feel vulnerable in a world where people with money can be taken advantage of, because we believe that one of the higher forms of giving is to give without being recognized, and because we are private and humble.

In this day and age, it is becoming harder to give anonymously. You can look up anyone’s 990 or 990-PF on the Internet. You can Google anyone and find out a bit of information. We give the organizations we work with a grant agreement and in it is a confidentiality clause. Try as we might, sometimes they slip up and our name winds up in their annual report or some other document and then out to the Internet and community it goes.

I know it doesn’t help that our family’s name is in the name of the foundation. We could change the name of the foundation, and in fact we are in discussions about that. One of the founders and board members is ambivalent about it. In one sentence he will say, ‘no I don’t care who knows and I like being known as a funder’ and then go ahead and agree to a name change.

I do feel an obligation to take his feelings into consideration. It was his money, after all, that started the foundation. How do I honor both wishes? Is it possible?

As for me, I am ambivalent. It is hard to lead us when I am of mixed feelings. I value giving anonymously, but I do know that the way we are currently operating is not allowing me to make the kind of difference I would like to in the community.

What are your thoughts? How do you handle these issues? Talk to me, please.

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May 29 2012
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Andy Carroll, Leadership

Foundation Leadership: Mobilizing Support to Protect Public Health

By Andy Carroll, ASF

One of ASF’s goals in developing a portrait of leadership in small foundations is to identify funders that provide leadership. The Sunflower Foundation in Kansas is one such leader in our field.

According to ASF’s research:

Small foundation leaders have passion and use their foundation’s freedom and access to become knowledgeable about issues they want to influence.

    Led by President and CEO Billie Hall, the Sunflower Foundation is dedicated to serving as a catalyst for improving the health of Kansans. The foundation regularly monitors relevant health legislation in the state capitol.

Small foundation leaders take time to analyze the knowledge they gather to identify solutions and strategies.

    The Sunflower Foundation was aware that proposed legislation to ban smoking in public places enjoyed public support, but had long been blocked by powerful interest groups. The law’s passage would have huge positive impacts on health and could save millions of dollars in care. Sunflower commissioned a poll revealing that 71 percent of Kansas voters favored a state ban.

    The foundation considered its options and concluded that to break the impasse, it was necessary to organize a grassroots campaign to bring citizen support for a ban to lawmakers’ attention. With its ear to the ground, the foundation knew conditions were right for action.

Small foundation leaders develop a vision of the future and a roadmap for how to get there.

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May 24 2012
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Administration, Kathryn Petrillo-Smith

Foundation Salary and Benefits Data Prompts Conversation

By Kathryn Petrillo-Smith, ASF

Today ASF releases its 2012 Foundation Salary and Benefits Report. Every year, this is one of our most popular reports. Why? For a couple reasons: some obvious and some, perhaps, not so obvious.

First, the obvious. For foundations with few or no staff and/or $200 million or less in assets, it is the best source of readily available benchmarking data. With comparisons by asset size of <$1 million, $1-4.9 million, 5-9.9 million, 10-24.9 million, 25-49.4 million, and 50 million and up, the data is tailored for smaller foundations. Add in geographic breakouts and data at a range of percentiles, and a foundation leader can develop a compensation benchmark that is powerful and relevant.

Second, the not so obvious. The real power behind the data is the conversations the data can prompt between trustees and staff. Use this as an opportunity to discuss not just what benchmarks you have selected but how you came to select them. For example:

  • What are your foundation’s executive director’s responsibilities and priorities over the coming year?
  • Are they changing or continuing on a steady course?
  • Is he or she being asked to take on a new project or initiative?
  • Is your foundation’s grantmaking more complicated than the average foundation? 

Using the data as a starting point can be an effective way to begin what can be difficult and often very personal conversations. But, these conversations can also be incredibly powerful – helping everyone to align their expectations for the coming year and creating a shared understanding of desired outcomes. 

How does your foundation use salary and benefits data? What conversations has data helped you to start?

ASF’s Foundation Salary and Benefits Report is released each year in late spring. ASF members can download the report for free. Non-members can purchase the report as a supplement to the 2011 Foundation Operations and Management Report. The 2012 Foundation Salary and Benefits report was made possible, in part, by the support of U.S. Trust, Bank of America Private Wealth Management.

Kathryn Petrillo-Smith

Kathryn Petrillo-Smith is ASF’s Managing Director. In this role, Kathryn is a member of ASF’s senior leadership team and works to align ASF’s operations with its strategy. Kathryn oversees ASF’s Member Services, Membership, Marketing & Communications, and Operations teams and its financial management.

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May 23 2012
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Family, Mally Cox-Chapman

3 Siblings Share Motivations for Giving

By Mally Cox-Chapman, Elizabeth Mitchell Family Foundation

What motivates your giving? As you review your grants list are you proud of your choices? If your children saw the list, would they be proud of you?

I recently asked three siblings in their 50’s and 60’s what motivated their work together. Givers for all of their adult lives, they have come together every year for the past five to give away money out of their family’s foundation. I asked them if their motivation or goals in giving had changed over the years we have worked together. They have given me permission to share their responses.

The first one spoke of connecting with his brother and sister—and the deepening of their relationships that has evolved because of actually working together. They visit grantees, talk through reactions to requests, and get together twice a year to make decisions.

The second brother spoke of connection to their parents, now deceased. He reflected on the honor of acting on their parents’ values, and his hope that his children would do the same.

Their sister talked about connection to community. “The discipline of giving away money,” she said, “takes listening and respect for the non-profits. But,” she added with a smile, “we infuse our giving with hope and promise.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all donors felt that our giving connected us with family and community to create hope and promise? Spring is the time of new beginnings. I encourage you to wonder why you give what you give and if there are ways it could feel more meaningful to you and your family.

To see the new website of the three siblings, please visit www.freshsoundfoundation.org

Mally Cox-Chapman is a family trustee of the Elizabeth Mitchell Family Foundation and principal of Benefactory Philanthropic Advisors LLC.

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May 21 2012
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Henry Berman, Leadership

Using Data to Inform Donor Decisions: Reflections from GuideStar President

By Henry Berman, ASF

How does your foundation decide which organizations to fund?

“I think increasingly our decisions are going to focus on capabilities,” said Bob Ottenhoff, president of GuideStar, in ASF’s newest podcast Reflections: 10 Years in the Nonprofit Sector.

Do you agree? Disagree?

Bob went on to comment on how donors might inquire about nonprofit capabilities:

“Are you really capable, nonprofit organization, of doing what you say you want to do? Because I, as a donor, have certain expectations and…  I really want to make an impact on this cause, and so I’m looking for partners, nonprofit partners, who can help me make a difference in this area. And so I want to make sure that if you’re going to be my partner, nonprofit organization, you can really deliver.”

So that means learning a little bit more about the board, learning a little bit more about the management expertise, learning about the programs of the organization, learning about how they’re doing. How are they doing in achieving those goals?

Download the free podcast from the ASF Store. You’ll also find a two-part conversation with Tom Tierney, co-author with Joel Fleishman of Give Smart: Philanthropy That Gets Results.

Take a listen. Let us hear what you think.

Henry Berman

Henry Berman became ASF’s CEO in 2011, previously serving as acting CEO, board member, and committee member. Through his experience as a foundation co-trustee and ASF member since 2003, he brings a firsthand understanding of the needs of ASF members to his role. Berman’s early career included positions as an independent communications consultant and director, writer, and producer of film, video, and multimedia programs for education, motivation, and fundraising.

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May 17 2012
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Administration, Victoria Wasserman

What I Learned Interning At A Small Foundation

By Victoria Wasserman, Rita J. & Stanley H. Kaplan Family Foundation

This is the third in a three-part series chronicling one foundation’s experience with having an intern. The first post was written by the foundation’s Executive Director and the second by its Program Officer. This third post is by the foundation’s current Intern. We hope the series will inspire other foundations to follow suit.

For many college students and recent graduates, internships are no more than a resume filler or course requirement that usually leads to a dead end. My internship experience, however, was something much more fulfilling. The skills developed and lessons learned from the months I have spent interning at a small foundation are worth much more than three college credits or a weekly stipend; they are lessons that I will remember and skills that I will utilize throughout my professional career. Some of these lessons include:

The role and power of philanthropy:  Before I graduated, I thought I needed to look for jobs at big-name nonprofits or a government agency in order to have a hand in changing the world. I have come to understand and appreciate the oft-overlooked, behind-the-scenes power of philanthropy, particularly of the small foundation variety, and the domino effect of impact that even a small grant can have on an organization or community. More than that, I have developed a deeper knowledge of a somewhat opaque field in which few people get a behind-the-scenes look.

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May 16 2012
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Lauren Kotkin, Leadership

Empty Building + Creativity: Transforming Neighborhoods through Arts

By Lauren Kotkin, ASF

To some, they are sweet, gooey marshmallows. To others, they are cause for artistic inspiration. No matter how you slice it, Peeps candies are the featured subjects of the hugely popular annual diorama contest held by The Washington Post, as evidenced by the hundreds of entries each year and thousands of fans across the country.

A few years ago, I served as the Peeps Curator—or Peeps Wrangler, as others like to jest. That is, I contacted the forty-odd contest semi-finalists and finalists and invited them to display their clever, sticky creations at Artomatic, a five-week arts event in the DC-metro area.

Artomatic is the Wild West of arts events. If you can imagine—and organize—it, it can happen at Artomatic. The recipe is simple: take 1,000 visual artists and give them each a 10’ foot space to hang their artwork in an empty office building. Add performers in the evenings, workshops for kids and adults on weekends, invite the public and poof! You’ve got an arts happening. This year, Artomatic is expecting more than 75,000 people to stream in from across the region to take in a diversity of artwork, music, dance, fashion, poetry, and, of course, the Peeps dioramas.

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May 11 2012
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Grantmaking, Sheila Leddy

Storytelling through Film: A Powerful Tool for Social Change

By Sheila Leddy, The Fledgling Fund

I am sitting here this morning thinking about the proposals I will review over the next few weeks, most of which include a documentary film. Once again, I am struck by the power of film to inform, inspire, and hopefully ignite social change.

Many of us in philanthropy are focused on trying to solve entrenched and complex problems within our local communities and beyond – from education reform to environmental justice from health care to homelessness. We are faced with complex issues that require multifaceted solutions that range from changes in individual behavior to changes to national or even international policy and everything in between. We spend time thinking about the issues and analyzing data and then try our best to identify a strategy that will lead to solutions. We want to change in some way the status quo. Often the road to change involves engaging others in action. But, how can we move people to action and inspire a commitment to work for change?

At The Fledgling Fund, we believe that storytelling through film can be a powerful tool to engage audiences. A film, and the story it tells, can create a greater awareness of complex problems, and just as importantly it can highlight possible solutions. It connects viewers to its characters and can inspire those viewers to become involved in, or reconnected with, social change efforts. We begin to understand how an issue plays out in the lives of individuals, families and communities. When these films and stories are coupled with a strategy or campaign that provides clear opportunities for audiences to get involved, we see results.

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May 09 2012
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Garrison Kurtz, Grantmaking

Early Childhood Development: A Smart Investment for Funders

By Garrison Kurtz, President, Dovetailing

In the past several years, funders of education, health, and community development have begun to take notice of early childhood development as a smart investment opportunity. In fact, there is a boom in interest in “social impact bonds” that allow investment in high-quality preschools as a way to reduce the need for (and monetize the cost-savings of) special education services.

The federal government is also increasing investment in smart strategies to fund home visiting programs, replicate the success of the Harlem Children’s Zone through the creation of “Promise Neighborhoods,” and link early childhood development Race to the Top efforts to K-12 improvement initiatives. All of this new opportunity is creating great possibilities for private funders to leverage their own investments and take things to scale.

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