 There are many routes to take when you are a philanthropist running your own private foundation. When it comes to registering your organization, different factors may come into play when deciding if you are going to register it as a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC) or a 501c3. Some well-known philanthropists like McKenzie Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have chosen not to register as a 501c3 but instead set up their organizations as an LLC foundation.
There are a number of reasons why one may choose to to use one method of setup over the other. Before deciding which type of foundation you would like to use for your philanthropic endeavors, look into the benefits and considerations of both. 501c3 Foundation Organizations that register for the 501c3 are commonly known as charitable organizations which are used to help the general public. These organizations strictly serve the interests of the public which means no private shareholders or individual’s can benefit from the organization’s earnings. If you are open to the idea of others making charitable contributions to your foundation, you will need to setup a 501c3 foundation, otherwise their gifts will not be considered tax-deductible. The 501c3 is what many nonprofit organizations strive to adhere to in order to be tax-exempt. This is one of the major benefits of registering as a foundation rather than a LLC Benefits related to tax-exemption include:
Those that choose to register as a private foundation should also keep in mind that there are strict guidelines in order to keep their tax-exempt status. Organizations that are registered as a 501c3 tax-exempt organization need to do the following to maintain their status:
For more requirements that 501c3 organizations must follow, reference the IRS website on exemption requirements. Contact us if you would like more information on filing for 501C3 status. Limited Liability Company A limited liability company operates more within a business structure. This means that there are roles like managers or directors within the organization, flexibility due to less rigid requirements, and limited liability meaning members are not held liable for a company’s debts. This vehicle of charitable giving comes with a number of advantages. Many philanthropists have begun seeing this as an ideal opportunity for gift giving because it offers them much more control and freedom than the traditional route. Benefits of a charitable LLC include:
Overall, the LLC model avoids many of the restrictions that would be in place for a foundation on both state and federal levels making it flexible for philanthropists to engage in activities related to giving and investing that would otherwise be prohibited. However, unlike traditional nonprofit organizations, an LLC does not give you a large tax deduction until the money is donated. In addition, any money the LLC makes is taxable. Contact us if you would like more information on filing to start a LLC Foundation. Alternative Options There are alternatives to those who are looking for a blend of both or just looking for another way to give to charitable causes.
Please be advised: Blackbird Philanthropy Advisors is not a law group. We do not offer legal advice. We provide general information to help lead you on a course of action. Blackbird Philanthropy Advisors will provide a referral to you if you wish to have additional assistance on legal matters related to your nonprofit application, entity formation, and bylaws.
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  Written by Alina Dizik for Chicago Booth. Published June 11, 2018. A company, if it clearly conveys during the recruiting process its intent to benefit society, can see lasting benefits, research finds. University of Chicago’s Daniel Hedblom, Queen’s University’s Brent R. Hickman, and List used data to track how advertising a company’s support of a nonprofit impacted recruiting and work quality. To do this, they performed an experiment that doubled as a business venture, which involved launching a data-collection consulting company and hiring 170 part-time workers in 12 US cities. The initial job descriptions they posted were identical, but the researchers tweaked the job details in later emails. When people inquired about positions, they received an email saying the work would consist of either data entry or data entry to benefit underprivileged children. The researchers also varied pay rates, offering some applicants $15 an hour and others $11. When hired, employees were assigned data-entry tasks that involved looking at Google Street View. Some were asked to tally the number of broken windows or potholes in each image, which produced data that was used in some cases to help identify safe areas near schools where administrators were trying to help students avoid gang violence, and in other cases to benefit Uber. (List is a consultant for Uber.) Workers who expressed interest in a data-collection company, created as part of a study, were more likely to apply when the position’s social impact was advertised. 1  Helping schoolkids involved a social impact—and had a big effect on recruiting. When that social mission was mentioned in emails, the company saw 26 percent more people interested in the job, comparable to the 33 percent bump the company saw when it offered $15 an hour. Advertising jobs that had a social mission improved the pool of applicants, with no additional, and potentially expensive, recruiting tactics required. “This generation of young workers is more compelled than previous generations to do social good,” List says.
People who accepted a job originally advertised as CSR-driven were also more effective at work. Employees in the CSR group were more productive, analyzing images in a shorter amount of time than other workers. And while all employees could work any number of hours over a 10-day period, those in the CSR group worked longer hours. Both women and men were affected by corporate responsibility, but in different ways. Women were 40 percent more productive in accurately analyzing Google Street View images as a result of CSR and worked an hour more per day. Men produced higher-quality results but did not increase the number of images that they analyzed. “Together, these insights suggest that CSR draws out higher output from women and higher quality from men,” the researchers write. “CSR should not be viewed as a necessary distraction from a profit motive, but rather as an important part of profit maximization similar to other non-pecuniary incentives.” Customers and employees, List assures, will still view CSR as authentic, even if it is recognized to boost profits. While the results suggest that CSR can have strong, positive effects, List recommends companies keep the findings on moral licensing in mind and monitor employee behavior. He notes that because so much behavior is driven subconsciously, simply making employees aware of the tendency to couple good actions with bad could counteract the bias. WORKS CITED
 Motivations matter. They are what drives a company’s Corporate Community Investment. The LBG Framework enables community activities to be classified according to three categories of motivation.
This analysis provides an indication of the strategic nature of the community program, shows the degree to which it is aligned with wider business goals and helps companies understand the extent to which they are driving their contributions OR are being driven by external demands and circumstances. The three categories of motivation identified in the LBG Framework are:
CHARITABLE GIFTS A general response to a charity request for funds Charitable gifts tend to be reactive in that they respond to appeals for help either directly from charities or through requests from employees (including matched funding or payroll giving) or in response to short-term or one-off events. They tend to be ad hoc or one-off contributions, made because it’s ‘the right thing to do’, not because of any strategic aim or anticipated return to the company. Some might refer to this as traditional philanthropy or grantmaking. COMMUNITY INVESTMENT Targeted investment, long term partnership, major commitment of resources Community investments tend to be more proactive and strategic than charitable gifts. They can center on a smaller number of larger-scale, longer-term projects and are often run as a partnership with, rather than a donation to, a community organization. These projects address the social issue(s) that the company has identified as being relevant to both the company and the community in which it operates. They will often be: linked to a wider community strategy; be measured; and be expected to help protect the long-term corporate interests and reputation of the business. COMMERCIAL INTIATIVES Primary purpose PR/ marketing, business development, or promotion for competitive advantage Commercial initiatives in the community are business related activities, usually undertaken by departments outside the community function (e.g. marketing, R&D), to support the success of the company and promote its brand and other policies, that also deliver community benefit. The most common example of this is cause-related marketing. These are primarily marketing campaigns but involve a contribution from the company to a charitable cause.   Written by Julia M. Profeta Johansson for the Twenty Thirty Blog: 7 Ways to Rethink Your Business through an impact lens. There are three big questions that you can ask yourself to kick-start the process to become an Impact Business:
If your operation somehow already relates to one of the topics, the first step is to identify a specific target within that topic that you can intentionally improve through your business. The next step is to create a strategy with defined indicators, so you can measure your progress towards that target. Please note – simply working in an industry related to these topics does not guarantee that you are generating positive social/environmental impact. Unfortunately, this is something that we see happening more and more: people claiming to be impact businesses just because the business is in education or healthcare, for instance. We saw a lot of “green washing” back in the 2000s, when the topic of environmental sustainability became trendy. Now, we are at risk of seeing more “social washing.” That’s why in my previous article I recommend starting slowly and not getting attached to labels. It can be a long way to really become an impact business, especially if you are not a start-up, but it can be done. And you have to start somewhere.  Going back to our process then, the following workflow may help to guide you through this thinking process of understanding where you are now and what are the first steps you can take.
 After thinking about all these questions, there is a tool that can be helpful in framing the impact vision of the business and figuring out which KPIs, on an operational and impact level, will help move the business towards that vision. This tool is the Theory of Change. Theory of Change is a framework to define the impact vision of a business. It considers 3 different layers: inputs, outputs, and outcomes. Analyzing its inputs (products, services, etc.), it is possible to understand the outputs and design the desirable outcomes of the operation. Simply put, determine operational indicators in relation to what’s core in your operation (outputs) that in turn will lead to more in depth indicators, the outcomes, which should be the true impact generated, reflecting the impact vision of the business. The questions to ask when rethinking and repositioning a business, through the impact lens, are practically endless, but I hope this article has provided a starting point if you are interested in the topic. Written byJulia M. Profeta Johansson is an impact investing and venture capital specialist based in Berlin, Germany. Julia was previously a partner at Vox Capital, the first impact investing fund manager in Brazil. Before that she also worked with Yunus Social Business, Rocket Internet, Itaú BBA, and Mundo InNova. She is more than happy to continue this conversation and help your business start this journey of more intentional impact. |
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