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How to Better Manage your Foundation

Foundation Source offers modern foundation management services, integrating cutting-edge technology with time-tested, expert advice and client services. We understand the unique challenges and needs of managing a private or family foundation because we’ve been focused on exactly that since 2001.

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We can provide you with:

•  The capacity and bandwidth of a professional staff—without the expense of hiring them yourself or adding to existing headcount.

•  The ability to consolidate multiple functions (administration, tax preparation, etc.) into a single-source provider.

•  A scalable solution to support your foundation as it grows in size, sophistication, and number of participants.

•  Stability, so that as your foundation evolves and changes, you won’t lose key data, momentum, or endure growing pains.

•  An online system for your philanthropic activity, providing transparency and facilitating collaboration, no matter where foundation members are located.

Services for Corporate Foundations and Giving Programs

Administration
What's Included

We serve as your virtual staff, providing outsourced support for your corporate philanthropy.

Initial Setup

  • Customization of Foundation Source Online®, our proprietary technology platform
  • Uploading of historical giving activity (from a standardized electronic file)
  • Configuration of viewing rights and permissions for each online user

Transaction Processing

  • Preparation of donation checks and transmittal letters

Compliance Oversight

  • Confirmation of IRS status for 501(c)(3) organizations
  • USA PATRIOT Act due diligence to screen out terrorist organizations

Additional Services for Corporate Foundations

  • Funding and expense processing
  • Compliance monitoring for self-dealing and jeopardizing investments
  • Tax preparation and filings: annual 990-PF, esti­mated taxes, year-end 1099s/1042s, and state filings as required

Technology
What's Included

Foundation Source Online is a secure, web-based platform for managing your corporate philanthropy, including charity research, donation processing, activity tracking, and reporting. Viewing rights and permissions are customized for each staff member given access to the platform, enabling managers to control what staff can see and do online. This award-winning tech­nology provides oversight and control over corporate giving and facilitates online communication and collaboration.

Charity Research

  • Database of IRS-approved public charities and other exempt organizations
  • Supplemental data on all U.S. schools from the National Center for Educational Statistics
  • Access to research from GuideStar® and Charity Navigator®
  • Research of charities not found in the database 

Online Donations

  • Streamlined systems to initiate and review donations
  • Management of multi-year commitments
  • Creation of “favorite charities” list for expedited giving

Customized Review and Approval Workflows

  • Manage donations by individuals, committees, satellite facilities, and geographic areas
  • Manage donations with programmatic and/or budget restrictions
  • Ability to filter out charitable organizations by category using the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities

Activity and Financial Reporting

  • Receipt of donation acknowledgments from nonprofits
  • Library of standardized reports with filters for user-defined reporting
  • Custom reports available 

Streamlined Grants Management

Foundation Source Requests® makes it easy for your company to accept online applications from grant-seekers, then organize and review those requests. It includes:

  • Eligibility quizzes to pre-screen applicants against program criteria
  • Customized applications with “required fields” that ensure complete submissions
  • Review and collaboration tools for evaluators and stakeholders
  • Letter and email templates for notifying applicants of funding decisions or the need for additional information

Foundation Source Results® helps you track the impact of your company’s charitable donations. It automates the process of collecting key performance metrics from nonprofits and other recipients:

  • How donations were spent
  • Recipient’s progress towards goals
  • Unexpected challenges
  • Lessons learned.

Expertise
What's Included

Private Client Advisors

Each client is supported by a Private Client Advisor, a dedicated relationship manager for your company who is available to assist company representatives with our services on a daily basis. He/she gets to know you and your philanthropy program inside and out. Private Client Advisors are backed by specialists with expertise in tax and legal issues, compliance, and philan­thropy. They will help you to:

  • Configure customized granting permissions and grant approval processes for your corporate giving
  • Provide orientation and technology support for Foundation Source Online users
  • Review donations and transmittal letters for accuracy
  • Receive and post correspondence on your behalf 

Philanthropic Directors

You also get telephone access to a Philanthropic Director who can help you advance your company’s philanthropy:

  • Develop a corporate social responsibility strategy that aligns with company business goals
  • Research, prioritize, and develop funding areas
  • Identify nonprofit partners
  • Create giving criteria and application materials
  • Provide compliance guidance for fundraising activities
  • Help develop key performance metrics

Your Philanthropic Director is also available to work with your company’s legal counsel to develop customized gift agreements, if needed. 

Employee Engagement
What's Included

For companies that engage in workplace giving, these optional services are available through our network of preferred partners.

  • Employee matching
  • Volunteering
  • International programs
  • Fundraising

Adding A Corporate Foundation To Your Company’s Philanthropy

Nearly all companies engage in philanthropy as a means of giving back to the communities in which they operate. This includes financial contributions, product donations, in-kind services, and employee matching and volunteering.

However, only a fraction of these companies take advantage of the additional benefits that come from adding a corporate foundation to their philanthropic efforts. These unique and powerful advantages include:

Tax Benefits

The company gets a charitable tax deduction when it makes a contribution to its own foundation, plus it maintains control over those charitable assets into the future.

Asset “Catch Basin”

The company can avoid capital gains taxes when real estate, stock, and other appreciated assets are donated to the foundation.

Expanded Philanthropic Options

Corporate foundations can engage in a wide range of charitable activities that would not be tax deductible if handled directly by the company:

• International grants directly to organizations outside of the U.S.
• Employer-related scholarship programs
• Grants to individuals for disaster relief and economic hardship
• Loans for a charitable purpose that are paid back to the foundation
• Grants to for-profit entities for a charitable purpose

Consistent Giving

In years when company profits are high, the foundation can build a reserve that can be tapped in leaner years.

Reduced Company Overhead

Staffing and overhead can be paid by the foundation and counted toward its 5% minimum distribution requirement, resulting in a reduced cost to the company.

Simplified Recordkeeping

Corporate foundations are not required to collect substantiation receipts for gifts of $250 or more, a big plus for employee matching programs. 

Foundation Creation

If your company is interested in establishing a corporate foundation, we can provide a new corporate foundation, ready for funding, in about a week. We’ll provide the nonprofit corporate entity, bylaws, and recom­mended governance policies; and we’ll file IRS Form 1023 for recognition of exempt status.

Ready to get started?

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Or, call us at 800-839-0054