Tag Archives: expenditure responsibility

Oct 24 2012
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Grantmaking, Mary Beth Gallagher

Highlights on Global Grantmaking at the ASF National Conference

ASF-2012-National-Conference-Speaker

Speaker at ASF 2012 National Conference

By Mary Beth Gallagher, The William Hinman Foundation 

As a global grant maker at the recent ASF 2012 National Conference, it was exciting to meet other foundations engaged in international work. It was valuable to get into detail at key panel discussions on global networking and to explore how to leverage opportunities in global philanthropy. 

Below are a few takeaways that will help guide my work at The William Hinman Foundation, which supports community-based development through grantmaking inspired by Buddhist principles. I would also love to keep the conversation going, so feel free to contact me at Gallagher@hinmanfoundation.org. 

  1. Grant dollars go a lot further when given overseas. Small grants can have a proportionately larger impact when given overseas rather than at home. This is due to the resourcefulness of grantee partners as well as the lower cost of goods and services overseas.

    I heard many great stories about programs that creatively used limited resources to increase access to healthcare, address land tenure issues, or increase social entrepreneurship. If it fits within your foundation’s mission, adding an international small grants portfolio could significantly increase the impact of your work. Continue reading →

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Sep 28 2012
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Sara Beggs, Tax & Legal

IRS Reduces International Giving Regulations

By Sara Beggs, ASF

Sara BeggsWouldn’t it be great if your foundation could respond to the latest international crisis without loads of regulatory burdens? While expenditure responsibility rules are potentially less burdensome than some may think, it is still a process that is a significant barrier to international giving – especially for foundations with few or no staff.

But what if the government made it easier for your foundation to evaluate whether a non-U.S. NGO is equivalent to a U.S. public charity and you didn’t have to do expenditure responsibility at all? Impossible, you say? Well, as impossible as it may seem, that’s exactly what is happening. And, just to increase the shock value, it’s also not years or months down the road; it has already started. Continue reading →

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Apr 25 2012
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Ruth Masterson, Tax & Legal

A Caution About the IRS Auto-Revocation List

By Ruth Masterson, ASF

The Auto-Revocation List is an official IRS record of organizations that have lost their exempt status for failing to file required annual tax returns for three consecutive years.

It’s important for private foundations to check this list to make sure grant applicants don’t appear on it. If a prospective grantee is on the list, grants to that organization cannot be counted as a qualifying distribution without exercising expenditure responsibility.

We offer an additional caution: Organizations will not be automatically deleted from the list, even if they successfully reapply for exemption and are reinstated as tax exempt. The IRS has stated that the list is an historical record of organizations whose tax-exempt status has been revoked for non-filing. The IRS will only remove an organization’s name from the list if they are provided with documentation that the organization was added to the list in error.

Continue reading →

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