This post is a second on my series on Charity this Ramadan Let’s face it, we live in a society where most Americans do not trust Muslims. While this was certainly not the case in 2001, a general consensus appears to be emerging in the United States, particularly in American media, that all American Muslims [...]
Many things that we regard as charitable come with no sacrifice. For example, a smile. Some provide no sacrifice but do provide a tax deduction. Others provide no sacrifice or tax deduction. Fire departments like to burn down homes for training purposes. People donate their homes to provide real world training experience to firefighters. The case [...]
Any family considering a “private foundation” should do so only after significant thought has been given to the charitable goals the foundation is supposed to undertake as well as a the level of commitment the family willing to bring to the table. It’s a lot of Money Many well-informed practitioners have recommended to their clients [...]
A Tax Court case (PDF) tells the story of a woman who was a young girl in her home country saw atrocities committed against Catholics and saw a Catholic Church destroyed. After living in the United States she started making donations to her home country's Catholic Church. The donations were not made directly, but through a relative [...]
The Financial Times notes a new book out by Ray D. Madoff called “Immortality and the Law” which is about the ever-increasing rates of dead people to control the rights of the living. Of course, people cannot take their property with them. However, it does seem nonsensical that individuals have a wide range of obligations to [...]
A recent report from Barclay's Wealth (PDF) addresses the concerns of wealthy philanthropists, and why they may be less so. There is a study on why it is those that donate do so. The top reason, "I can afford to." Religious beliefs came in at number 10 (though it came in on top as an "internal motivator." The [...]
I recently spoke in Chicago on building endowments for Islamic Schools. Its not an easy subject and in fact, many schools would not be able to set up an endowment as they are too new or too small or do not have enough of a donor base. Before delving into the issue, you want to [...]